Hicksville
Bethpage is the first stop on the Ronkonkoma Branch and although their not listed in the Ronkonkoma Branch timetable any Montauk Branch trains operating via Central Branch and then the Main Line up from Babylon also bypass the station (just one train eastbound and three westbound half to operate via the main line stopping at Mineola and/or Hicksville) while other trains that run non-stop from Babylon to Jamaica have the option to at the dispatchers discretion. The stop was electrified in 1987 and received new high-level platforms around this time although the station house and ticket office remained across the street in a small 1959 building that was built after a fire. This building is along what were the original low-level platforms between the grade crossings of Stewart Avenue and Broadway. The main station parking lots are still here on each side of the tracks. The building is along the New York-bound track at with a small stretch of sidewalk surrounding it with a fence between it and the tracks. The building made of cinderblocks with a flat overhanging roof that once provided shelter for the surrounding platform. The base is painted blue with white above. There is an old advertising panel clock above the door inside from the platform. Inside is a small waiting area with two old wooden benches, restrooms, a red indoor next train display and the sealed ticket window (that still has a blue counter coming out from it). The door out to the street leads out at 3-and-a-half concrete steps. The western side exterior has a garage door that is higher than ground-level and looks like a loading dock.
Across Steward Avenue from the original station house are the modern 12 car, high-level platforms. These have white fencing; not the normal two level squarish silver fencing that is common with the original generation of high-level platforms but only has the extremely tall lampposts that are found on most of the first generation platforms. The platforms begin with a staircase and ramp up from the grade crossing that provides the only way to get between them. The station has TVMs here with a separate green shelter of them for each platform. The other only platform amenities are two silver shelters along each platform. The New York-bound platform is along Railroad Avenue and three additional staircases (at regular intervals, including one at the northwestern end) lead up to the platform in gaps of the hedges that separate street from platform. The Ronkonkoma-bound platform has a small parking lot at its eastern end with another set of three steps to about midway up the platform. The northwestern end is along an alley with no further entrances.
All Photos: 11 November, 2013
