Hunterspoint Avenue station (LIRR)


Hunterspoint Avenue is a station on the Main Line of the Long Island Rail Road within the City Terminal Zone. It is located at 49th Avenue between 21st Street and Skillman Avenue in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, New York City. This ground-level station has an island platform between two tracks and is not wheelchair accessible from the entrance above the station.
The station is served only during weekday rush hours in the peak direction. Trains serving here usually run on the Oyster Bay, Montauk, or Port Jefferson Branches, with one Ronkonkoma-bound train also departing from Hunterspoint Avenue in the late afternoon. Some westbound trains continue to Long Island City, and some eastbound trains originate in Long Island City. All service is provided by diesel trains that cannot use the East River Tunnels, but the tracks are electrified.

History

Hunterspoint Avenue station opened in August 1860, three years before the New York and Flushing Railroad built their own Hunter's Point station. LIRR's Hunterspoint Avenue was renovated in April 1878, but burned in a fire in December 1902. The station was replaced on April 26, 1903, only to be rebuilt again nine years later. According to a New York Times article from May 1914, the third station was scheduled to open on July 1, 1914. Instead, the reopening date was delayed until October 18, 1914.
In June 1947, only two weekday trains were scheduled east from Hunterspoint Ave, one to Jamaica and one to Queens Village. Trains destined beyond electrified territory could leave Penn Station behind DD1 electric locomotives and change engines at Jamaica; thirteen weekday trains did so. That service ended in 1951, leading to Hunterspoint Avenue's present role.

Station layout

The station has one 10-car long high-level island platform between the two Main Line tracks, with stairways on both sides of 49th Avenue.

Gallery