Lawmakers Urge MTA To Reopen Elmhurst LIRR Station

QUEENS — Elmhurst could see its Long Island Rail Road station functioning once again after several lawmakers urged the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to reopen the station decades after its closure.

Rep. Grace Meng, who represents the neighborhood, Borough President Donovan Richards, New York State Senator Joe Addabbo, and others signed a letter this month to urge the MTA’s interim president Catherine Rinaldi, to reopen the station after it was shut down in 1960.

“The Elmhurst stop on the LIRR has been closed for too long, and there is a reason the effort to get it reopened is reinvigorated so often,” said Congresswoman Meng. “It would provide those in Elmhurst and nearby neighborhoods with a closer, faster, and a more direct commute to help them go about their daily lives.

The facility first began providing railroad service in 1927, and was shut down and demolished in 1985 due to low ridership.

Lawmakers state in the letter that the population in Elmhurst has grown significantly since the station closed, and that reopening it would provide a faster commute to Manhattan for local residents, while also lessening the burden put on the subway and buses.

In 2013, the MTA and Long Island Rail Road commissioned a survey on the potential reopening the station. The survey found that the station would generate roughly 1,700 peak-period morning passengers and would average nearly 3,800 trips per day.