Governor Announces Improvements to South Fork Train Infrastructure

Governor Kathy Hochul announced a series of service and infrastructure improvements on Tuesday for the Long Island Rail Road’s Montauk Branch.

The upgrades will come in two phases. In the first, the track siding at the Amagansett station will be extended, and in the second a permanent second platform will be constructed at the Hampton Bays station.

Pictured Above: Workers installed a temporary second platform in Hampton Bays this spring ahead of the U.S. Open.

The governor’s office says these projects will increase operational flexibility along the Montauk Branch, which will improve reliability, reduce delays, and enable future service increases at a time when ridership along the branch has reached historic highs.

“The LIRR is already the best and most convenient way to travel to and from the East End, but for years, aging infrastructure has stood in the way of improving service to keep up with surging demand,” said Governor Hochul in the announcement. “By making smart investments in our rail system, we can soon make jam-packed summer trains a thing of the past by increasing reliability and running more service on the Montauk Branch, making it easier than ever for New Yorkers to travel out east by train.”

There is currently a 27-mile stretch of single-track rail between Southampton and Montauk, which limits the number of Montauk Branch trains that can run, according to the governor’s office. This project will extend the train car siding at Amagansett by 14 LIRR train car lengths, which will also shorten the distance of single-track rail on the Montauk Branch to 11 miles between Amagansett and Montauk, and 16 miles between Southampton and Amagansett. These upgrades will improve scheduling flexibility and the railroad’s ability to recover from service disruptions, in addition to providing riders with improved overall service.

The project is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2028, with completion anticipated in the second quarter of 2029.

At the Hampton Bays Station, a temporary second platform was installed for the 2026 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills to accommodate increased ridership. The second phase of these improvement projects will make that temporary platform at the Hampton Bays station permanent.

The Hampton Bays station will also undergo track and signal upgrades, which will allow the track siding to accommodate trains with as many as eight cars, increased from the current six, and customers will be able to board and disembark trains on the entire length of the platform, improving passenger flow.

The scope, schedule, and implementation timeline will be developed as part of the planning and design process of this project.

Governor Hochul also announced that the 5:13 p.m. train from Penn Station to Montauk — which historically only ran during the peak summer season — will run year-round beginning September 2026. Previously, the 5:13 p.m. eastbound train from Penn Station only ran east of Speonk during the summer months.

This train is in addition to the South Fork Commuter Connection service, which began in 2019 and serves the local community by providing reverse-peak service operating between Speonk and Amagansett.

Ridership continues to grow on the Montauk Branch, with 1,212,229 passengers recorded so far this year, compared to the 1,138,921 passengers recorded at the same time last year — a 6.4 percent increase, according to the governor’s office.

Several stations on the Montauk Branch have seen significant ridership increases this year: Hampton Bays’ ridership or 62,961 is up 23 percent from last year with Southampton seeing an even larger 46 percent increase as 88,453 customers have traveled through the station thus far in 2026.

During peak summer season, many trains to and from Long Island’s East End travel at close to 100 percent capacity.

This follows historic systemwide LIRR ridership in June, which saw the top five highest ridership days since the start of the pandemic. June 18, 2026 — the day the Knicks championship parade was held in New York City — was the highest post-pandemic ridership day, with 369,482 customers.

“Today’s announcement by the MTA demonstrates a commitment to expanding transit options on Long Island’s underutilized East End railroads,” said State Assemblyman Tommy John Schiavoni.”As summers get more crowded, more options will be necessary to accommodate commuters and combat excessive traffic. That is why I am proud to share these planned upgrades, which will support the capacity for more trains out east. I will continue the fight to expand public transportation access that reduces congestion on our local roads and offers convenience and affordability for residents, commuters, and visitors alike.”

Earlier this year, Suffolk County Legislator Greg Doroski led an effort to urge the State Legislature to fund more train service on the North Fork, where there are currently just three weekday trains per day between Greenport and Ronkonkoma.

Mr. Doroski said at the time that expanding service on the Greenport Branch is a priority identified in the MTA’s 20-Year Needs Assessment, which was released in 2023. That document recommends extending electrification of the rail line eastward from Ronkonkoma to Yaphank or Riverhead, and adding a second track. The North Fork trains currently have diesel-electric locomotives.

There was no mention of the North Fork in the governor’s announcement, though numerous public officials quoted said they were proud to be increasing service to “The East End” before discussing projects on the Montauk line.

The $68 billion 2025-29 MTA Capital Plan allocates $6 billion for improvements on the LIRR, including infrastructure and rolling stock, a $300 million increase from the 2020-24 Capital Plan. The improvement projects at the Amagansett and Hampton Bays stations are estimated to cost a combined $78 million out of the 2025-29 Capital Plan.

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