The MTA has moved the Port Washington LIRR station renewal into design, a project that also extends two nearby yard tracks so the railroad can base more trains there.

Two LIRR M9 trains beside a covered platform at Port Washington station, with access steps in the foreground
Two LIRR M9 trains on tracks 4 and 5 at Port Washington station. Photo: ComplexRational / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0⁠

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said on September 28, 2026, that the station and yard project on the Port Washington Branch is now in design. It describes the work as a design-build project. The preliminary design award comes from the MTA’s 2020-2024 Capital Program. Later construction phases are expected to draw on the 2025-2029 Capital Program. The announcement gave no cost, construction schedule or contractor.

MTA Construction & Development President Jamie Torres-Springer said the upgrades are meant to put the station in a state of good repair and to make service on the branch more reliable.

Station works planned at Port Washington

Safety, passenger circulation and accessibility shape the station scope. Ramps, curb cuts, sidewalks and accessible parking will be rebuilt. Inside and out, the station building will get upgrades, including a reconfigured and larger restroom. Its roof and the plaza canopy will be replaced.

New platforms will come with new canopies and a new structure beneath them. An enclosed crossing with new elevators will take the place of the existing pedestrian overpass. Stairs and the ADA ramp will also be renewed. Communication systems and security cameras are due for upgrades, and the lighting will switch to LED.

Two yard tracks for longer trains

The second part of the project lengthens two tracks in the yard near the station. According to the MTA, this will let the LIRR keep longer trains at this end of the branch without getting in the way of maintenance, inspections and car cleaning.

Also in the yard package are rehabilitation of the trainmen’s building, updates to the employee facility and its parking, and improvements at three parking lots: LIRR Yard, South Bayles Avenue and Haven Avenue.

Port Washington Yard capacity since 2022

In September 2022 the LIRR released revised draft timetables for the branch ahead of the Grand Central Madison opening. Catherine Rinaldi, then the railroad’s interim president, named more track capacity at Port Washington Yard as the key to future service increases. She described the long-sought yard project as “the bottleneck to having more service on the branch.” Those drafts still added 10 weekday trains, for 103 a day, without any extra storage space at the yard. In November 2025, MTA Construction & Development told the MTA board’s Capital Program Committee that it was advancing procurement for the Port Washington Station Renewal design, following approval of the 2025-2029 program.

Port Washington Branch service in the LIRR’s revised draft timetables, September 2022
Service period Timetable in use, 2022 Revised draft, Sept. 2022
Morning peak, trains reaching Manhattan 11, all at Penn Station 15: 9 at Penn Station, 6 at Grand Central Madison
Evening peak, trains leaving Manhattan 14, all from Penn Station 20: 10 from Penn Station, 10 from Grand Central Madison
Weekday total 93* 103
Saturday or Sunday total 76 81

The draft schedules raised peak service in both directions and added trains on every day of the week, although no extra storage space had been built at Port Washington Yard. *Editorial calculation: 103 weekday trains minus the 10 that the MTA said the drafts added. Figures are from draft timetables published before Grand Central Madison opened, not from the schedules later put into service. Source: MTA, September 28, 2022.