Set your alarm clock with care, Long Island riders: brand-new LIRR weekday schedules take effect Monday, May 11, 2026. Most rush-hour trains are unchanged, but if you ride midday, early-morning, or evening Brooklyn service, your train could leave a few minutes earlier — or, in some cases, skip stops it used to make. Here’s the Sunday-night briefing for the entire Penn Station and Grand Central Madison universe before Monday’s commute.
LIRR: New Weekday Timetable Goes Live Monday
The new schedule is the result of customer feedback, ongoing track maintenance, and several station accessibility projects, according to the official LIRR announcement from April 26, 2026. The most important point for the bulk of riders: there are no changes to rush-hour service. If your train normally leaves between 6 and 9 a.m. or 4 and 7 p.m., it should leave at the same time tomorrow.
The midday and shoulder-period changes you should know about:
- New 4:32 a.m. Farmingdale departure. A new weekday early-morning train leaves Farmingdale at 4:32 a.m., stopping at Bethpage, Hicksville, Westbury, Mineola, New Hyde Park, Jamaica, and arriving at Penn Station at 5:26 a.m.
- 4:14 a.m. ex-Ronkonkoma replaces the 4:12. The 4:12 a.m. train from Ronkonkoma now departs at 4:14 a.m. and no longer stops at Farmingdale, Bethpage, Hicksville, or Mineola. If you used those four stops, the new 4:32 Farmingdale train picks up that coverage.
- Westbury midday service restored. Following the completion of track work, midday weekday service at Westbury is back to every 30 minutes.
- Greenport midday service resumes May 11. Midday weekday train service east of Ronkonkoma to Greenport returns Monday after months of track work.
- Brooklyn evening service tightens. Weekday evening service between Jamaica and Atlantic Terminal drops to every 30 minutes starting at 9:00 p.m. westbound and 10:00 p.m. eastbound.
Don’t Forget: Summer Service Begins May 18
One week after Monday’s general schedule change, the LIRR’s full summer schedule kicks in May 18. The headline addition is the 5:13 p.m. Penn-to-Speonk train, which will operate all the way to Montauk Monday through Friday throughout the summer. For the return trip, the 11:37 a.m. and 4:18 p.m. Sunday Montauk trains will run through to Penn Station, giving East End travelers more one-seat rides. On Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends, those Sunday trains shift to Mondays.
Metro-North: Check Your Branch Before You Leave
Metro-North does not have a system-wide schedule change tied to May 11. For weekend service notes that may carry into early Monday on the Hudson, Harlem, and New Haven lines, the MTA recommends signing up for the Metro-North Mileposts newsletter or checking the live alerts on the TrainTime app. If you usually catch a Grand Central-bound train Monday morning, give yourself an extra five minutes for crowded platforms now that the weather has turned and discretionary ridership is picking up.
NJ Transit: Penn Station Lines Running on Standard Weekday Schedule
NJ Transit hasn’t published a system-wide schedule change for May 11. The five lines that feed New York Penn Station — the Northeast Corridor, North Jersey Coast Line, Morristown Line, Gladstone Branch, and Montclair-Boonton Line — are scheduled to run the standard weekday timetable. A handful of bus reroutes are in effect (Bayonne Route 12 has a one-day detour Monday; Red Bank Route 834 is on a long-term detour through September 30), but if you’re catching a train at Penn, your Monday morning should look like any other.
Always confirm with NJ Transit’s MyTransit alerts or the NJ Transit Mobile App before leaving the house — Northeast Corridor track work tends to surface on short notice on Sunday nights.
Commuter Tip: If you ride one of the LIRR’s pre-5 a.m. trains out of Hicksville, Bethpage, Farmingdale, or Mineola, screenshot the new 4:32 a.m. Farmingdale schedule tonight. The 4:12 a.m. ex-Ronkonkoma is no longer your fallback — it skips you starting Monday.
Sunday Night Pre-Commute Checklist
- Open the MTA TrainTime or NJ Transit app and refresh — your saved trip may have a new departure time.
- If you have a UniTicket or City Ticket, check the new schedule for connection windows; tightened Brooklyn-evening service can ripple back through Jamaica.
- Build an extra 10 minutes into your Monday commute as a one-time buffer. A new schedule’s first weekday is when conductors and ticket machines tend to glitch.
- If you ride the Ronkonkoma branch and used to catch the 4:12, set your alarm for the 4:14 — and double-check that your stop is still served.
Sources: MTA / LIRR Press Release “LIRR Announces New Schedules Starting May 11” (mta.info/press-release/lirr-announces-new-schedules-starting-may-11), retrieved May 10, 2026; NJ Transit Travel Alerts (njtransit.com/travel-alerts-to), retrieved May 10, 2026.
