Belmont Park
Belmont Park station after the addition of two high-level platforms
General information
LocationBelmont Park
Queens, New York
Coordinates40°42′49″N 73°43′42″W / 40.713655°N 73.728299°W / 40.713655; -73.728299
Owned byLong Island Rail Road
State of New York
Line(s)Belmont Park Branch
Distance0.1 mi (0.16 km) from Queens Village[1]
Platforms2 low-level and 2 high-level island platforms
Tracks8
Construction
ParkingNo
AccessibleYes
Other information
Fare zone4
History
OpenedMay 4, 1905
Rebuilt1957, 2015
ElectrifiedOctober 2, 1905
Services
Preceding station Long Island Rail Road Following station
Jamaica
 Belmont Park Branch
special events
 Terminus
Belmont Park Branch
Main Line
to Penn Station, Grand Central & Long Island City
Atlantic Branch
to Atlantic Terminal
9.3 mi
15 km
 Jamaica
"E" train​​"J" train​"Z" train
Atlantic Branch
to Valley Stream
Montauk Branch
to Montauk
Hillside Facility
Hollis
13.2 mi
21.2 km
Queens Village
Queens
Nassau
Zone 3
Zone 4
13.4 mi
21.6 km
 Belmont Park
Main Line
to Greenport

Distances shown from Long Island City via the Main Line.[1]

Belmont Park is a seasonal-use Long Island Rail Road station on the grounds of the Belmont Park racetrack in the New York City borough of Queens. The station is a terminus of a spur line that lies south of and between the Queens Village and Bellerose stations on the Main Line/Hempstead Branch. Consistent with the names of other lines and branches of the LIRR, the spur line is called the Belmont Park Branch.

Train service to the Belmont Park station is operated only for special events such as the Belmont Stakes. Starting in November 2021, the venue has also been served full-time by the Elmont station, located directly to the north and along the Main Line/Hempstead Branch.

Unlike the rest of the property on Belmont Park, the Belmont Park station is part of a small sliver of Belmont property (including some parking) that is located in Queens. The racing complex is located in Nassau County.

Station layout

The station has two high-level island platforms (B and D) level with train doors and two low-level at-grade island platforms (A and C). Platforms A and C can only be used when temporary wooden stairwells are installed, as LIRR coaches do not have steps fixed to them. Tracks 1 and 2 are also not electrified.

M Mezzanine Exit/entrance, crossover between platforms, walkway to Belmont Park
P
Platform level		 Track 1 ← No regular service
Platform A, low-level island platform
Track 2 ← No regular service
Track 3 ←      Belmont Park Branch special event service toward Penn Station or Grand Central Madison (Jamaica)
Platform B, high-level island platform Disabled access
Track 4 ←      Belmont Park Branch special event service toward Penn Station or Grand Central Madison (Jamaica)
Track 5 ← No regular service
Platform C, low-level island platform
Track 6 ← No regular service
Track 7 ←      Belmont Park Branch special event service toward Penn Station or Grand Central Madison (Jamaica)
Platform D, high-level island platform Disabled access
Track 8 ←      Belmont Park Branch special event service toward Penn Station or Grand Central Madison (Jamaica)
S Street level Accessible entrance/exit for Platforms B and D

Service

On the day of the Belmont Stakes, a total of 15 trains depart from Pennsylvania Station and six trains depart from Grand Central Madison, providing service to Belmont Park between 9:30 am and 5 pm. Returning trains to Manhattan begin departing Belmont Park at 4 pm and service is increased to departures at a frequency of every 15 minutes immediately following the Belmont Stakes race until the park closes. Trains serving Belmont Park operate express to and from Jamaica, where connections are available to City Terminal Zone trains as well as service to other LIRR stations.[2][3]

For the 2023 Belmont Stakes, the Long Island Rail Road carried a total of 22,902 riders to and from Belmont Park station, which amounted to approximately 25 percent of the total track attendance.[4] Trains did not stop at the Elmont station between 8 am and 10 pm on Belmont Stakes day.[5]

The New York & Atlantic Railway serves the park twice a week, delivering boxcars loaded with feed for the park's horses, usually BNSF cars.[6] The LIRR also stores its own gondolas, hoppers and flatcars used in work train service at the Belmont Park station.

History

The station, as seen from the Cross Island Parkway – Hempstead Turnpike Interchange in June of 2010. Note the BNSF boxcar on the easternmost track in the terminal.

When Belmont Park opened on May 4, 1905, about 19,000 passengers—nearly half of all racetrack attendees—took the railroad to the racetrack on opening day.[7][8] The first electric trains to Belmont Park ran on October 2, 1905, the opening day of the fall meet.[9] The original station was located south of Hempstead Turnpike; the present terminal north of Hempstead Turnpike was opened in 1957.[10][11]

When the spring 2009 meet began on April 29, 2009, the MTA halted daily service to Belmont Park station due to insufficient funding in the MTA's budget.[12] The New York Racing Association provided shuttle bus service from the Queens Village station to Belmont Park; the n6, Q2 and Q110 also offered alternate service.[12][13] On May 28, 2009, Belmont Park service resumed per the MTA board's approval as the New York State legislature passed a funding plan for the MTA.[14][15] This was the only service reduction enacted as part of the MTA's 2009 "doomsday" budget.[14]

However, regular service to Belmont Park was suspended again in 2010 due to MTA budget cuts and trains only operated on June 4 and 5 during the weekend of the Belmont Stakes. On other racing days, the New York Racing Association provided shuttle bus service between the racetrack and the Queens Village station.[16][17] On April 26, 2011 the NYRA announced that it would subsidize the cost of providing LIRR service to the racetrack for the entire spring/summer meet.[18]

The station, as seen prior to its 2010s renovation.

In 2014, the Belmont Park line became the subject of controversy when the LIRR found itself struggling to transport the larger-than-expected number of visitors to the Belmont Stakes.[19] Due to this overcrowding the NYRA funded a fast-tracked improvement program to partially upgrade the station in time for the 2015 Belmont Stakes.[20] Two of the four low-level platforms—which were the only ones in the LIRR system since the 1990s, when all other LIRR stations had full-height platforms installed—were replaced with newly built high-level platforms in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The other two platforms still have fixed steps attached to them, as all four platforms used to have. The renovated station opened on June 4, 2015, before the Belmont Stakes. As part of the new station changes, the LIRR was also planning to use the eastern wye track from the Hempstead Branch to speed up service leaving the station.[21]

In July 2019, the Belmont Park Arena (ultimately UBS Arena) redevelopment plan was adopted by the Empire State Development board. The plan included a new Elmont station on the LIRR Main Line, to the north of Belmont Park station.[22] The eastbound platform at Elmont initially opened on November 16, 2021,[23][24] while the westbound platform opened on October 6, 2022.[25]

On February 24, 2023, the LIRR eliminated shuttle services for special events at UBS Arena. This coincided with Elmont operating full time as part of the redevelopment of train schedules for East Side Access.[26][27]

Prior to the full time opening of the Elmont station, on racing days the Long Island Rail Road operated two trains to and from Belmont Park. One train originated and terminated at Pennsylvania Station with a stop at Woodside.[28] The average daily ridership for the station was 100.[29]

References

  1. 1 2 Long Island Rail Road (May 14, 2012). "TIMETABLE No. 4" (PDF). p. VIII. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
  2. ↑ "MTA Announces Service Options for Sports and Entertainment Events This Weekend" (Press release). Long Island Rail Road. June 9, 2023. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
  3. ↑ "Long Island Rail Road Belmont Stakes Train Service Effective June 10, 2023 Only". Long Island Rail Road. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
  4. ↑ "Long Island Rail Road Carries 22,902 Fans Attending 155th Running of the Belmont Stakes" (Press release). Long Island Rail Road. June 11, 2023. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
  5. ↑ "Getting to Belmont Park on public transit". Long Island Rail Road. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
  6. ↑ Kilgannon, Corey (January 31, 2007). "Mystery Freight Train Out of Queens?". The New York Times. Retrieved October 15, 2009.
  7. ↑ "Belmont Park Open". The New York Times. May 5, 1905. p. 1. Retrieved October 15, 2009.
  8. ↑ "Belmont Park's Crowds". The New York Times. May 7, 1905. p. 22. Retrieved October 15, 2009.
  9. ↑ "Electric to Belmont Park". The New York Times. September 26, 1905. p. 7. Retrieved October 15, 2009.
  10. ↑ Huenke, Athur J. "Belmont Park Race Track". Arrt's Arrchives. Retrieved October 15, 2009.
  11. ↑ Sisto, Ernest (May 26, 1957). "Belmont, at Halfway Point in $6,00,000 Rebuilding, Opens Meet Wednesday". The New York Times. Retrieved October 15, 2009.
  12. 1 2 Rivera, Ray (May 3, 2009). "At Belmont, a Link to the Past Is Severed". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 23, 2013. Retrieved May 12, 2009.
  13. ↑ Schwartz, Sam (April 29, 2009). "Traffic forecast for April 29, 2009". Daily News. Archived from the original on March 8, 2011. Retrieved June 3, 2009.
  14. 1 2 Castillo, Alfonso A. (May 27, 2009). "MTA Board officially rolls back service cuts". Newsday. Retrieved June 3, 2009.
  15. ↑ "All Aboard MTA LIRR Trains To Belmont Park Starting Today" (Press release). New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority. May 28, 2009. Archived from the original on June 28, 2009. Retrieved June 3, 2009.
  16. ↑ "Long Island Rail Road Service Reductions" (PDF). Long Island Rail Road. 2010. p. 15. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 6, 2011. Retrieved April 23, 2010.
  17. ↑ "Belmont Park Queens Village Shuttle Advisory". New York Racing Association. Archived from the original on May 24, 2010. Retrieved April 23, 2010.
  18. ↑ Ross, Barbara (April 26, 2011). "Long Island Railroad will take horse racing fans to Belmont Park for the spring and summer season". Daily News. New York. Retrieved May 1, 2011.
  19. ↑ Flegenheimer, Matt (June 10, 2014). "L.I.R.R. Popularity Led to Crush After the Belmont". The New York Times. Retrieved June 14, 2014.
  20. ↑ Castillo, Alfonso A. (April 26, 2015). "LIRR, NYRA fast-track $5M in improvements to better handle Belmont Stakes crowd". Newsday. Retrieved May 3, 2015.
  21. ↑ "Renovated LIRR Station Promising Better Ride For Belmont Stakes Fans". CBS News. June 4, 2015. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
  22. ↑ "Long Island's & NYC's News Source - Newsday". Newsday. Retrieved July 9, 2019.
  23. ↑ "Elmont LIRR station opening for partial service next month". www.liherald.com. October 8, 2021. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
  24. ↑ "LIRR Elmont station projected to be ready in 2022". Newsday. November 16, 2021. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
  25. ↑ "Long Island Rail Road's Elmont-UBS Arena Station is open for game day transportation". WSHU. October 7, 2022. Retrieved October 25, 2022.
  26. ↑ @LIRR (February 21, 2023). "Hi, we will no longer offer the Belmont trains when the new schedules start as Elmont-UBS Arena will become a full-time station" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  27. ↑ "Getting to UBS Arena on public transit". MTA. Archived from the original on February 26, 2023. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  28. ↑ "Belmont Park Timetable". Long Island Rail Road. Retrieved October 15, 2009.
  29. ↑ Castillo, Alfonso A. (May 19, 2009). "LIRR aims to please horse racing, golf fans". Newsday. Retrieved May 22, 2009.
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