By Philip Newman
The Long Island Rail Road will perform track maintenance that will disrupt service in its Port Washington branch in the first two weekends of October.
Starting at 12:30 p.m. this Saturday service on the Port Washington branch will be reduced from half-hourly to hourly to allow workers to perform switch renewal work between Bayside and Great Neck. The track work and hourly service will continue into Sunday, when at 3 p.m. the LIRR will have to suspend train service and substitute bus service between Bayside and Port Washington stations through midnight..
In the same two-day period, Sperry Rail Testing will be performed between the Great Neck station and Port Washington station.The Sperry rail car, a bright yellow vehicle fitted with ultrasonic and induction test equipment, is designed to detect internal rail defects not readily visible to the eye.
Beginning on Saturday, Oct. 11, one of two tracks in the Woodside station area will be out of service for 27 hours to allow LIRR workers to resurface an important switch area at an interlocking in the area. During this time, Port Washington branch service will be reduced to hourly. On Sunday, Oct.12, from 3 p.m. until midnight both tracks will be taken out of service to complete the work and buses will be substituted for train service.
Passengers traveling between 3 p.m. and midnight from Port Washington through Flushing will take buses and transfers to trains at Woodside to complete their trip west. Riders traveling east will transfer to buses at Woodside
.
