Westwood station (LIRR)

Westwood is a station on the Long Island Rail Road's West Hempstead Branch serving the villages of Malverne and Lynbrook, New York. The station platform is located on Foster Avenue in Malverne, with parking facilities on both the Malverne (Foster Avenue at Motley Street) and Lynbrook (Whitehall Street at Whittier Street) sides of the tracks. It has no station building other than a pair of open shelters, the larger one on the Malverne side of the tracks. It also features a gated at-grade pedestrian crossing,[2] one of only a few stations on the Long Island Rail Road to feature such crossings.

Westwood
View from the platform, facing north.
LocationFoster Avenue & Motley Street
Malverne, New York
Coordinates40°40′05.8″N 73°40′53.1″W
Owned byLong Island Rail Road
Platforms1 side platform
Tracks1
Construction
ParkingYes; Village of Malverne & Lynbrook permits required
Bicycle facilitiesYes; Bicycle Racks
Disabled accessYes
Other information
Fare zone4
History
OpenedSeptember 1929
Rebuilt1955
ElectrifiedOctober 19, 1926
750 V (DC) third rail
Traffic
Passengers (2006)711[1]
Services
Preceding station LIRR Following station
St. Albans
towards Jamaica, Atlantic Terminal or Penn Station
 West Hempstead Branch
weekdays
 Malverne
towards West Hempstead
Valley Stream
Terminus
 West Hempstead Branch
weekends

No buses connect to Westwood station, however local suburban taxi cabs do stop there. A basketball court can be found on the Malverne side of the station between the platform and parking lot.[3]

History

Before the establishment of Westwood station, the station itself was the site of a junction of two freight sidings in Lynbrook that existed only in 1924 both of which were abandoned in September of that year. The line was electrified on October 19, 1926 and the station itself was established in September 1929. The small station house had a single platform on the Malverne side, as well as an un-gated pedestrian crossing, and a pedestrian bridge over the tracks which existed only until 1938.[4] By 1955, the station house was gutted, leaving only the roof and the frame, thus transforming it into an open shelter.[5] At some point, an identical open shelter was built on the Lynbrook side of the tracks, which had a separate color scheme[6] from the Malverne shelter[7] until the 21st century.

Platform and track

This station has one four-car-long side platform on the west side of the single track, which was converted into a high-level platform in fall 1973.[8]

Side platform, doors will open on the left or right
Track 1 ←      West Hempstead Branch weekdays toward Valley Stream, Jamaica, Atlantic Terminal, or Penn Station (St. Albans)
←      West Hempstead Branch toward West Hempstead (Malverne) →
  • Westwood station
  • A train bound for West Hempstead as seen from the Lynbrook side of the tracks.
  • The station, as seen from an adjacent basketball court.
  • The pedestrian grade crossing at the station.
  • Westwood station's Malverne shelter. The Lynbrook shelter can be seen across the tracks.

References
  1. Average weekday, 2006 LIRR Origin and Destination Study
  2. Westwood's at-grade Pedestrian Crossing looking from Lynbrook into Malverne (Unofficial LIRR History Website)
  3. DanTD (June 10, 2010). Westwood Station from the Basketball Court (photograph). Retrieved July 15, 2013.
  4. February 23, 1946 view of Westwood Station House in Malverne from across the tracks in Lynbrook, by William Gilligan (TrainsAreFun)
  5. LIRR station History (TrainsAreFun.com)
  6. Westwood Station on the Lynbrook side in February 1999 (Unofficial LIRR History Website)
  7. Westwood Station on the Malverne side in June 2006 (Unofficial LIRR History Website)
  8. Westwood Shelter Track View High-level platforms under construction September 27, 1973 George Povall collection (TrainsAreFun)

Media related to Westwood (LIRR station) at Wikimedia Commons

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