Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Thomas Prendergast and Long Island Rail Road President Helene Williams supporting the programming of increasingly hard to come by dollars, which affords resumption of half-hour weekend service on the Port Washington Long Island Rail Road branch is great news.
The service started on Nov. 16 and it will now be easier on Saturdays and Sundays to attend Met games, other Citi Field, U.S. Open, Arthur Ashe stadium, Flushing Meadow Park, Queens Zoo and Madison Square Garden activities along with Broadway shows on a regular basis.
This proves once again why it pays to live in Great Neck, Manhasset, Plandome, Port Washington and Roslyn along with our Queens neighbors in Little Neck, Douglaston, Bayside, Auberndale and other northeast Queens neighborhoods. Those of us in the know already moved to communities adjacent to Long Island Rail Road Port Washington branch stations years or even decades ago.
My own Great Neck school district along with those in neighborhoods near the Port Washington LIRR branch are some of the best in the metropolitan New York area. We have great air quality along with a low crime rate, abundant parks, libraries, shopping, entertainment, movie theaters, hospitals and medical facilities.
Riders on the Port Washington branch have far more abundant seating and a quick 30-minute-or-less trip into Penn Station without having to change at Jamaica. Port Washington branch riders miss most service disruptions.
The return of half-hour weekend service on the Port Washington LIRR branch for riders is a nice gift to offset future planned fare increases in 2015 and 2017.
Larry Penner
Great Neck
