$121M in Renovations to Hicksville LIRR Station Begins This Month

Story published on September 21, 2016

A $121 million construction initiative to rebuild and modernize the Hicksville Long Island Rail Road Station is set to begin this month, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday.

The aging 55-year-old station will be transformed to accommodate its daily commuting demands.

"Hicksville is the busiest station on Long Island, so it is in need of a 21st century upgrade,” Assemblyman Michael Montesano said in a press release. “The improvements to the Hicksville station will streamline the daily lives of thousands of commuters and provide for a better travel experience for everyone.”

The new Hicksville station, just 16 miles east of Jamaica, will feature:

• Wi-Fi and USB charging stations throughout
• An enhanced interior waiting room
• New platforms with glass-enclosed, heated waiting rooms
• Improved lighting
• A translucent canopy roof
• Improved stairways
• Escalators
• Plaza elevators
• A video security system
• Audio and digital communications systems
• Better signage
• Laminated art glass installations by New York-based artist Roy Nicholson, who designed the mosaic tile artwork in the station ticket office in 2011

Preparation is already underway to build a new, adjacent site that would connect to the existing siding west of the station.

Construction is expected to be completed by spring of 2018, Cuomo said.

New York State shared renderings of what the finished project will look like:

Cuomo also announced a $64.9 million contract to create a new platform and tracks at the Jamaica Station, which is the LIRR’s central hub and main transfer point.

"Revamping these two heavily trafficked transportation hubs will provide better, faster and more reliable train service for Long Island Rail Road riders," Cuomo said.

These improvements to the Hicksville and Jamaica LIRR stations are among the many projects underway.

Other projects include infrastructure renewal, the purchase of new trains, the expansion of the train storage yard in Ronkonkoma, the addition of pocket tracks along the Port Washington and Babylon branches, the addition of a second track in Suffolk County and a proposed third rail in Nassau County.

Images via NYS