(rshsdepot) Hempstead, NY

["Bernie Wagenblast" <brwagenblast_@_home.com>]

From the December 2001 issue of "Along the Track," the employee newsletter
of the Long Island Rail Road.

Since the dedication ceremony in the Spring - and with the punch list
completed and the last few odds and ends wrapped up - our new station and
terminal facilities at Hempstead have quickly become welcome additions to
the local community.  The spanking new facility features modern yet
traditionally-inspired architecture, consisting of a brick-and-glass atrium
and skylights.  Within the two-level, 5,000-square-foot station building are
the ticket office, customer waiting area, rest rooms, a headquarters office
for M of E employees, a Passenger Services office for the Branch Line
Manager, and locker/rest room facilities for Transportation and M of E
employees.  The building also includes vendor space and houses a police
substation shared between our own MTA Police and Village of Hempstead Police
officers.  Outside, the complex includes a public plaza and attractive
landscaping.  The MTA Long Island Bus depot is immediately adjacent across
West Columbia Street for easy intermodal connections.

The facility is significantly larger than the station it replaced, and
includes two 10-car platforms with partial canopies and four platform
tracks, along with four additional lay-up tracks.  The platform tracks, laid
with new rail and concrete ties, include inspection pits for M of E
employees to perform brake and other inspections.  Fiberglass cleaning
platforms were installed in the yard, with lighting and hot water hydrants
to allow thorough car cleaning by CAM staff.

Concrete pavers were laid between the tacks to make walking easier during
inspections and cleaning.  A pedestrian overpass connects the platforms
directly with the rebuilt and expanded parking lot.

Another notable feature at Hempstead is the first installation of the new
Passenger Information Display System (PIDS), developed in house by the I.S.
department.  The PIDS system uses display monitors similar to those on the
platforms at Jamaica, and is tied in to a computer in the ticket office,
which is directly linked with TIMACS.  The monitors list the next scheduled
departing train, and public service announcements.  It also provides
automated announcements regarding on-time performance to the public address
system.  It's a completely automated, real-time, "hands off" system of
providing customer information, and it has operated error-free since its
installation four months ago.

There have been several Long Island Rail Road stations in Hempstead.  In
1875, Alexander Turney Stewart, the founder of Garden City, financed the
construction of a station at Fulton Avenue, east of Main Street.  That
station was damaged by fire and flooding in July 1903, and was eventually
replaced in 1913 with a new station built on the same site.  That station
was moved to the present station location on West Columbia Street in 1940.

PHOTOS:

http://www.nycsubway.org/us/commuter/lirr/lirr-hempstead01.jpg  (new
platform)
http://www.lirrhistory.com/jan99/hemp2.jpg  (old platform)
http://www.mrli.com/hempsteadlirr/  (Web page with photos of construction
work at new station)


http://www.lirrhistory.com/jan99/hemp1.jpg  (previous station)

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