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Long Island is getting a new train station.
Despite rainy and windy conditions, members of the MTA and Brookhaven Town gathered Thursday to break ground on a new LIRR station in an industrial park near William Floyd Parkway and the Long Island Expressway.
This marks the realization of a long-term plan to move the little-used Yaphank train station to a more accessible location.
[Scroll down for renderings.]
“We’re saying goodbye to the old Yaphank station… where trains have been running, believe it or not, since 1844,” said Janno Lieber, Chair and CEO of the MTA, who noted that the station is one of the least used in the entire LIRR network.
The old station, currently located under an overpass on Yaphank Avenue, is being relocated about three miles east.
“This relocation will not only unlock the potential of this bustling industrial park, but coupled with … one of our nine national research laboratories, which is Brookhaven National Lab, will be so much better served by this relocation,” said Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico.
The proposed site is about four miles south of Brookhaven National Laboratory, which employs more than 2,500 people and hosts approximately 5,075 visiting facility users and guest researchers annually, according to a 2019 document from the lab.
The new station, just a stone’s throw from the Shirley Amazon warehouse, will be about a seven-minute shuttle ride from the lab — roughly half the time of the current trip from Yaphank.
It is also just a few miles from The Boulevard, a massive new residential and mixed-use complex.
In 2021, then-Brookhaven Supervisor Ed Romaine and then-Suffolk County Executive Steven Bellone made a joint push for the project, sending a letter to LIRR President Philip Eng stating their preferred location for a new Yaphank station on the Ronkonkoma line. (Eng has since retired.)
Now, it’s officially happening.
The new commuter station will feature a modern design, with about 50 parking spaces, ADA accessibility and a two-car platform. The MTA recently completed renovations to modernize the Mastic-Shirley station, just south of this location, with similar amenities.
“It’s going to be a great modern station for passengers,” said Jamie Torres-Springer, President of MTA Construction & Development. “All the modern features that we’re installing now in our stations.”
While the new station will not be part of an electrified track, MTA officials say it could be a step in the right direction.
“It’s part of a larger picture as we look down the road to expand and electrify a double track out here,” said Rob Free, President of MTA Long Island Rail Road.
MTA officials expect the new station to open in mid-2026.
Currently, no name has been chosen for the new station, though there will be a naming competition. One name appears to be a frontrunner, according to Panico.
“The favorite seems to be Camp Upton/BNL, which pays homage to the history of this area and recognizes Brookhaven National Laboratory for the powerhouse that they are,” he said.
Camp Upton was a military training camp established in 1917 to prepare New York-area soldiers for World War I, later serving as a World War II rehabilitation center before being repurposed as Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1947.
Until the new station is completed, the Yaphank station will continue operating on its usual schedule, Lieber told Greater Long Island.
Renderings
Old station
