Speonk
Westhampton is the first stop in Zone 16 (the easternmost zone on the LIRR) on the Montauk Branch and although it's only 2.7 railroad miles east of Speonk, fares are much higher ($5 peak, $4.75 off-peak) than those to Speonk and service is much worse with more leisure oriented service with only 6 eastbound trains and 5 westbound trains per day. Major gaps in service include no westbound, Jamaica-bound trains between 4:02pm and 11:51pm on weekdays, and no eastbound, Montauk-bound trains on weekends between 1:49pm and 11:17pm. During the Summer there is additional seasonal service that stops at Westhampton, on Summer Thursdays and Fridays, the station is the first stop on the Cannonball after it's non-stop dual-mode run from Penn Station, there are also 3 more extra trips eastbound trips on Fridays. Westbound there are 5 extra trips on Sunday afternoon-evenings plus an additional trip Monday morning.
The station is located near the corner of Station Road (just south of the stop, running parallel to the tracks) and Depot Road that ends at the tracks and station. The station's two-story brick station house is painted yellow and has attached porches held up by white columns over the original low-level platform in front of it. It is beneath this porch that the station's TVMs are found, inconvenient for passengers boarding trains at today's high-level platform. A fence keeps passengers off the tracks at the edge of the original low-level platform. Inside the station is a still open waiting room with wrap-around dark wooden benches. A ticket office is open on summer Sundays for the busy post-Hampton weekend crowds. The building also contains the District 1 precinct for the MTA police. The depot leads out to the station's original 43-space parking lot and stretches back to station Road.
Just east of the original depot, the station's high-level platform begins. This platform was built around 1998 for the new C3 bi-level cars. The line has two tracks in this area because of the Westhampton Siding opposite the main line track that stops at the station. The platform accommodates 8 cars and begins with a staircase, followed by a ramp before a small shelter with green and cream windscreens and a bench inside. There is then an additional staircase, before the platform continues east about 4 car lengths without a staircase (although a second parking lot is just below the platform) to a second staircase off the platform followed by a second canopy structure. The area beneath this new platform was originally an unimproved gravel lot after the high-level platform's construction but in the Fall of 2006 it was paved and made into a proper parking lot. A hedge still divides the two parking. It is now an approximately 80 space parking lot that dead-ends near the further canopy structure at a small arrowed, unnecessary car turnaround loop around a small planter. All parking at this station is free.
All Photos: 16 August, 2015
