Valley Stream (LIRR station)

Valley Stream is a station on the Long Island Rail Road's Atlantic Branch serving the residents of Valley Stream, and is the first station (travelling eastbound) in Nassau County. The station is located at Franklin Avenue and Sunrise Highway, west of Rockaway Avenue, and is 17.7 miles (28.5 km) from Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan. The station is fully wheelchair accessible with an elevator from street level. Parking facilities are also available.

History
Valley Stream station was originally built by the South Side Railroad of Long Island on October 28, 1867. The station house itself opened in July 1869 with the opening of the Far Rockaway Branch, and was built as a Swiss chalet style station house inside the legs of an old wye. It also served customers of the Southern Hempstead Branch which was built by the short-lived New York and Hempstead Plains Railroad between 1871 and 1900. Along with the rest of the SSRRLI, the station was acquired by the Long Island Rail Road in 1889. In 1893, the station began to serve trains along the West Hempstead Branch. When Nassau County separated from Queens in 1899, Valley Stream station became the first station in Nassau County along the Montauk Branch. The station was electrified with the rest of the Far Rockaway Branch on December 11, 1905, and the Long Beach Branch was extended from Lynbrook Station in 1910, and integrated into the Atlantic Branch.

In 1933, the original station was razed as part of a grade elimination project that was occurring along the Montauk, Atlantic, and Babylon Branches throughout the mid-20th Century. Prior to this, a temporary station was relocated on a shoo-fly north of the former station in August 10, 1932, then moved to another one south of the former station on August 31 of the same year. The third elevated center-island structure that exists today was opened north of the former location on February 7, 1933, and although the wye was removed as part of the reconstruction, it remained on many maps well into the late-20th Century, and continues to be shown on some in the present.

Platform and Track Configuration
This station has one eight-car-long high-level island platform adjacent to Tracks 1 and 2 of what is physically considered the Atlantic Branch, but is generally used by trains of the Far Rockaway and Long Beach branches, and as a terminal for off-peak trains of the West Hempstead Branch (and some Babylon Branch trains as well). The rail line has four tracks at this location. Two tracks to the north of the platform but not adjacent to it are used by through trains on the Babylon, Montauk and West Hempstead Branches that bypass this station.

East of the station, the Atlantic Branch splits into two branches. One continuing on as the Far Rockaway Branch in a southernly direction back to Far Rockaway in New York City, and the other continuing eastward to Lynbrook and Babylon alongside Sunrise Highway.

MTA Long Island Bus Connections

 * N1: Hewlett-Elmont or Jamaica
 * N2: Green Acres Mall-Floral Park or Jamaica
 * N3: Green Acres Mall or Malverne-Franklin Square or Jamaica