Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

Bethpage (LIRR station)

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Owned by
  
Long Island Rail Road

Bicycle facilities
  
Yes

Opened
  
1856

Rebuilt
  
1959

Tracks
  
2

Disabled access
  
Yes

Owner
  
Long Island Rail Road

Platforms in use
  
2

Bethpage (LIRR station)

Line(s)
  
Main Line (Ronkonkoma Branch)   Montauk Branch (Central Branch)

Parking
  
Yes; Free, and Town of Oyster Bay permits

Address
  
Bethpage, NY 11714, United States

Similar
  
Deer Park, Hicksville, Wyandanch, Pinelawn, Farmingdale

Bethpage Station is a station along the Main Line of the Long Island Rail Road. It is located at Stewart Avenue and Jackson Avenue, in Bethpage, New York, and serves Ronkonkoma Branch trains. Trains that travel along the Central Branch also use these tracks, but none stop here.

Contents

History

Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) tracks were completed on the present line in 1841. At first trains did not stop here, Bethpage appearing only as a notation ("late Bethpage") associated with the Farmingdale station to the east. By 1854, the LIRR stopped at a local station called Jerusalem Station. A local post office opened January 29, 1857, with the name Jerusalem Station. LIRR schedules also referred to the station as simply Jerusalem. In 1867, the residents voted to change the name of the local post office to Central Park, and both that and Jerusalem appeared on LIRR schedules until 1936. The station and the post office were renamed Bethpage on October 1, 1936. In 1959, the station burned down and was replaced. Service was electrified in 1987.

Two nearby stations also had Bethpage in their name:

  • Bethpage Junction was a connection to the east of the present station where the LIRR crossed with the Central Railroad of Long Island, which was built in 1873. A platform was built to enable passengers to transfer. This is the location where the present Central Branch splits from the Main Line at Beth Interlocking one mile southeast of the Bethpage station on the way to Babylon station and the Montauk Branch. The LIRR built the B-Tower at Beth Interlocking in 1925 to replace hand-operated switching between the tracks.
  • Bethpage was also the name of the northern terminus of the former Bethpage Branch from Bethpage Junction to the former Bethpage Brickworks in the community now called Old Bethpage, but which was called Bethpage until 1936.

    • From 1873 until 1876, the Central Railroad of Long Island had a regularly scheduled stop also named Central Park near Stewart Avenue and Motor Lane in Plainedge, approximately 0.75 miles south of the present station. Service was continued by the LIRR at that location until about 1924.

    Station layout

    There are 2 tracks at this station with two 12-car high-level side platforms.

    References

    Bethpage (LIRR station) Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA