Douglaston is a station on the Long Island Rail Road's Port Washington Branch in the Douglaston neighborhood of Queens, New York City. The station is at 235th Street and 41st Avenue, off Douglaston Parkway and Wainscott Avenue, and is 13.9 miles (22.4 km) from Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan. The station is part of CityTicket, and has an underground walkway between the two platforms.

Douglaston
The Douglaston station, as seen in 2022
General information
Location235th Street and 41st Avenue
Douglaston, Queens, New York
Coordinates40°46′05″N 73°44′59″W / 40.768°N 73.7496°W / 40.768; -73.7496
Owned byLong Island Rail Road
Line(s)Port Washington Branch
Distance12.1 mi (19.5 km) from Long Island City[1]
Platforms2 side platforms
Tracks2
ConnectionsLocal Transit NYCT Bus: Q12
Local Transit MTA Bus: QM3
Local Transit Nassau Inter-County Express: n20G, n20X
Construction
ParkingYes (private)
Bicycle facilitiesYes
AccessibleYes
Other information
Station codeDGL
Fare zone3
History
OpenedOctober 27, 1866 (NY&F)[2]
Rebuilt1887, 1962
ElectrifiedOctober 21, 1913
750 V (DC) third rail
Previous namesLittle Neck (1866–June 1870)[2]
Passengers
2012—20142,478[3]
Rank44 of 126
Services
Preceding station Long Island Rail Road Following station
Bayside Port Washington Branch Little Neck
Location
Map

History

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Douglaston station was originally built on October 27, 1866 by the North Shore Railroad of Long Island, a subsidiary of the New York and Flushing Railroad that named it Little Neck Station. A depot at the station was built in April–May 1867 at the expense of William P. Douglas, owner of most of the land in the area, and was named Douglaston in his honor, though the station was listed on timetables as "Little Neck" from 1866 to June 1870.[4] The depot was repaired and furnished with a freight platform in June 1870, and it was made into a two-story building in the summer of 1871.[4]

In 1870, a new Little Neck Station was built east of this one at its present location by the Flushing and North Side Railroad, and the existing station was renamed for land-owner and developer William P. Douglas.[4] In 1887, Douglas himself replaced the original station and built a Queen Anne-style building for $6,000.[4] The original depot was moved to a private site on Little Neck Parkway, where it was still in use as a storehouse in 1914.[4]

Long after the F&NS was acquired by the LIRR, the Douglas-built depot was torn down and replaced with a one-story Mid-Century modern station house in 1962, as was the case with many LIRR stations during the 1950s and 1960s.[5] In this case, the previous station was genuinely in poor condition, and the newer station was designed by a local resident Allan Gordon Lorimer, and accepted both by the LIRR and Douglaston residents. The wooden shelters were replaced with matching tunnel entrances.[6] Aside from the high-level platforms and the addition of MTA Ticket Vending Machines, the station has remained in the same condition ever since.

Station layout

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The station has two at-grade high-level side platforms, each 10 cars long.

Platform A, side platform  
Track 1      Port Washington Branch toward Penn Station or Grand Central Madison (Bayside)
Track 2      Port Washington Branch toward Great Neck or Port Washington (Little Neck)
Platform B, side platform  

References

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  1. ^ Long Island Rail Road (May 14, 2012). "TIMETABLE No. 4" (PDF). p. VI. Retrieved August 6, 2022.
  2. ^ a b Vincent F. Seyfried, The Long Island Rail Road: A Comprehensive History, Part Two: The Flushing, North Shore & Central Railroad, 1963
  3. ^ "2012-2014 LIRR Origin and Destination Report : Volume I: Travel Behavior Among All LIRR Passengers" (PDF). Metropolitan Transportation Authority. August 23, 2016. PDF pp. 15, 198. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 17, 2019. Retrieved March 29, 2020. Data collection took place after the pretest determinations, starting in September 2012 and concluding in May 2014. .... 2012-2014 LIRR O[rigin and ]D[estination] COUNTS: WEEKDAY East/West Total By Station in Numerical Order ... Douglaston
  4. ^ a b c d e The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History by Vincent F. Seyfried Part Two The Flushing, North Shore & Central Railroad Archived April 19, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Pride in Port: The Jekyll & Hyde Branch of the Long Island Railroad; Part Two (Forgotten NY.com)
  6. ^ Douglaston Train Station (The Douglaston/Little Neck Historical Society) Archived December 16, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
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  Media related to Douglaston (LIRR station) at Wikimedia Commons