By Joshua Needelman [email protected]Updated April 10, 2025 6:14 pm
The Long Island Rail Road began making repairs to its Roslyn station to upgrade aging infrastructure at the platform and main building.
The agency will close the station building and remove commuter access to 10 parking spots. The work is expected to finish by the summer of 2026, when the station building is expected to reopen and the parking spots will become available again.
The station in Roslyn Heights, to the south of Lincoln Avenue and east of St. Marks Place, was built in 1887, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It was restored to its original 19th-century design in the 1980s, according to the Roslyn Landmark Society’s website. The MTA did not disclose a cost for the new renovations that are underway.
North Hempstead Town operates the parking lot, which has 292 regular spots, three employee spots and nine accessible spots, councilman Ed Scott said. The town board recently approved a resolution granting the LIRR a license for the 10 spots.
On Tuesday afternoon, workers were inside the station house and the spots were blocked off by a fence. Paint on the building's window frames, siding and wooden beams were chipped off and peeling.
MTA spokeswoman Laura Cala-Rauch said in an email that the repair work will be a "a full interior and exterior renovation of the station." It will include roof repairs, new gutters and windows and modifications to columns and cross beams, Cala-Rauch said. There will also be new platform signs and LED lights, and the station's canopy will be renovated, she said.
“It’s about time,” said Scott, whose district includes Roslyn Heights. "We're going to have a beautiful station here for our community."
Supervisor Jennifer DeSena said in an interview there is “plenty of room” in the parking lot. She said the project will result in a “better experience for our commuters.”
“We want to make sure the stations are safe, and clean and accessible, so whatever the Long Island Rail Road is able to do to make these stations safe and accessible, we support that,” DeSena said.
The parking spots, which are immediately west of the station house, will be used to store equipment and materials for the station's restoration. Cala-Rauch said the MTA is funding the program using capital and operating funds.
Last month, Nassau Comptroller Elaine Phillips called on the MTA to accelerate the maintenance of LIRR stations and infrastructure throughout the county. Phillips' office calculated that county taxpayers contribute $36.5 million per year in taxes to the MTA for the "maintenance, use and operation" of the 58 stations the LIRR maintains in Nassau County.
0 Comments