The ferry from Greenport didn't go all the way to Boston! On the contrary, it went to Stonington, Connecticut, where people would then board another train, through Providence, to Boston! The LIRR bought the steamboat Cleopatra from Cornelius Vanderbilt, then known for his ferry empire, to cover the Long Island Sound crossing, and began operating to Stonington, Connecticut on August 10, 1844, while the line to Greenport had an opening excursion on July 27, and revenue service began over the full line on July 29. The LIRR began operating the Worcester and New Haven steamboats in 1845, and established a second route to Boston via steamboat to Allyn's Point (in Ledyard, Connecticut) and the Norwich and Worcester Railroad and Boston and Worcester Railroad. This route via Long Island was chosen because they thought southern Connecticut was impassible due to numerous hills and river valleys, but of course as mentioned, the New York and New Haven Railroad opened across southern CT in 1848, and they faced competition from steamboats like the early 1847 completion of the Fall River Line (which consisted of a train journey from Boston to Fall River, then a ferry from Fall River to Manhattan), it caused the LIRR to sell their Worcester and Cleopatra steamboats to the Norwich & Worcester in July 1846, and sold their last steamboat, the New Haven, to Jacob Vanderbilt.

The Lower Montauk Branch once had nine stations, four of which were closed by 1940. The remaining five stations (Richmond Hill, Glendale, Fresh Pond, Haberman, and Penny Bridge) were closed in March 1998 due to low ridership and incompatibility with the then-new C3 bi-levels since they needed high-level platforms. After these stations closed, the LIRR continued to use the Lower Montauk to operate non-stop trains between Jamaica and Long Island City rather than divert them to the Main Line, which only two trains used the Lower Montauk by the time the service was re-routed. These two trains were re-routed north to Hunterspoint Avenue in 2012, effectively ceasing passenger train service on the Lower Montauk. And worth mentioning that not every Montauk Branch train uses the Central Branch (fun fact: a guy named Charles Minthorn Murphy became the first man ever to ride a bicycle for one mile in less than a minute by drafting behind a LIRR car on the Central Branch in 1899) to reach Jamaica or beyond, some use the Babylon Branch! Not all trains on the Montauk Branch go to Montauk, many terminate at Speonk or Patchogue, with Patchogue being the busiest Montauk Branch station. The Montauk Branch is by no means perfect, as east of Babylon, it's only double-tracked up until Sayville, so it's a long stretch of non-electrified single-track between Sayville and Montauk with some sidings, Speonk yard is already at-capacity, they can't run more Penn-Montauk trains in particular because not all the locomotives are dual-mode to enter Penn (and they're too big to enter the tunnel to GCT), the EMD DE/DM30AC equipment breaking down, but having rush-hour service to Penn Station as well as Queens like Jamaica, Long Island City and Hunterspoint Ave is still superb! And besides serving the summer crowds heading to the Hamptons, it's also an important year-round corridor for those who live on the Montauk Branch's commuter portion between Speonk and Babylon, and a lifeline for those who live on Fire Island as the Montauk Branch has connections to the ferries for the nearly car-free Fire Island communities.

When you die, it doesn't matter if your soul is going to heaven or hell, it will have to change trains at Jamaica.

"This is the traiiinnn to Ronkonkoma. Stopping at Jamaica, Hicksville, Bethpage, Farmingdale, Pinelawn, Wyandanch, Deer Park, Brentwood, Central Islip, annnnndddd Ronkonkomaaaa!"

Retired LIRR engineer for 32 years. Enjoyed the video and history..good job.

You know, this place is so f**king close to having a world class heavy rail metro for its ENTIRE metro population that I’m surprised the MTA is moving so slowly on it.

The 3 commuter rail networks include LIRR,  Metro North and NJ Transit. PATH is a rapid transit line, like subways and SI Railway.

I think LI also needs some north south transit connections, making it easy to make trips within Nassau/Suffolk county.

I'm a Brit and  on visiting New York travelled on the LIRR from Penn to Montauk and return - it was a great day out and your video both educated me on the lines history and took me back. So Thank you.

Back in the late 60s, there was what came to be known as the Phantom Train - the 7:55 out of Babylon.  It was canceled almost every day.

LIRR used to go to Coney Island and Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn

the lirr is the oldest compant that o still operates on it origanal corporate charter

I live for a number of years in West Hempstead walking distance to the Lakeview Station. The West Hempstead train ran on the other side of my backyard fence and I used to tell people I have a 1:1 train set in my back yard. Thanks for a great explanation of the LIRR.  I did use the train to commute to my employment in NYC until I changed jobs and career with a company in Lake Success. I'm 77 and moved in the 80's to Texas for another job change.

As someone who is from Poughkeepsie and regularly uses the Hudson line to NYC and beyond (and to Newburgh in the fall), can't wait for y'all to cover Metro-North!

Weird choice to count PATH but not NJ Transit, particularly when NJ Transit operates two of Metro North’s lines, but this is still a great overview of the LIRR.

We need north to south spots of L.I.R.R.

wow i get recommended this immediately upon my first visit to long island and the train station there!

The West Hempstead tracks used to run north and join what's now the Hempstead Branch at the north end of Country Life Press station. It then had a curve to the east (now the Mitchell Secondary), to the west (now the Hempstead Branch) and another to the north. That line ran east of Franklin Ave and joined the mainline just east of Mineola. Look at Google Earth and you can see the right of way.

Great video! You missed the abandoned line that served College Point & Whitestone. I learned about it a few years ago and I think there are a couple of other spurs that would be interesting to have again.

Highly impressed with your work and presentation. Keep up the good work.

West Hempstead Branch here. Didn't realize we were such an anomaly. The station names are such fun way to see the history of the island. The communities really built up around the stations. For example, there was always two stations in what is now Malverne, Westwood, and Norwood. But when the village incorporated, there was already a village in St. Lawrence County called Norwood, so they went with the name Malverne. Both stations are still here, both servicing the village of only 8,000 people, but what is now Malverne station is in the middle of the village downtown, and Westwood is tucked deep into the residential streets at the opposite end of the village.