Atlantic Terminal

The station was originally named Brooklyn in 1852, twenty years after the line was established as the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad, and was not originally a terminus.{{cite web| url=http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirrphotos/lirrstationshistory.htm| title=Long Island Station History| access-date=April 21, 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170526225709/http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirrphotos/lirrstationshistory.htm| archive-date=May 26, 2017| url-status=dead| df=mdy-all}} The original terminus was South Ferry, via the now shuttered Cobble Hill Tunnel. When LIRR subsidiary New York and Jamaica Railroad built a new line between Hunter's Point and Jamaica in 1861, the main line was relocated there, and the line was abandoned west of East New York, in compliance with Brooklyn's ban on steam railroads. West of East New York, the tracks were taken over by horse car lines.

The Brooklyn station designation was replaced by the Flatbush Avenue station on July 2, 1877. That same summer local Atlantic Avenue rapid transit trains began to stop there on August 13.{{cite web | url=http://arrts-arrchives.com/RAPIDTRANSIT.html| title=rapid transit| access-date=April 21, 2016}} The old depot was renovated between July–August 1878, when it began serving the Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island Railroad. It was rebuilt again in June 1880. The headquarters for the Long Island Express Company was installed there in 1882, and gave the station a series of tracks that would later be known as the "EX Yard." In 1888, the Union Elevated Railway built an elevated railway line and station that connected to the LIRR station called the Atlantic Avenue station. The Union Elevated eventually became part of the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation. Further rebuilding took place again in 1893.

Between 1904 and 1906, the Carlton Avenue Freight Yards were replaced by the Vanderbilt Avenue Freight Yards. This was just a portion of a major improvement project that included the complete reconstruction of the station. The second depot opened on April 1, 1907, with the depot at street level and the tracks installed underground. The station had a lobby that was larger than most LIRR stations, and contained subway type entrances to the tracks.{{cite web | url=http://www.arrts-arrchives.com/FAT3int.html| title=FLATBUSH AVENUE TERMINAL 3 – INTERIOR| access-date=April 21, 2016}} It also served as a post office building until 1925,{{cite web | url=http://www.arrts-arrchives.com/photo6.html| title=Postal History| access-date=April 21, 2016}} and contained a baggage depot, express buildings, some meat houses which were inherited from the previous version of the station, and a merchandise terminal for "less than carload freight" added on in 1908. The Interborough Rapid Transit Company built a subway line called the Eastern Parkway Line and a station on Atlantic Avenue, that connected to the station on May 1, 1908. The BMT also built two more subway lines on Pacific Street along the Fourth Avenue Line on June 22, 1915, and Atlantic Avenue along the Brighton Line on August 1, 1920. The connection to the BMT Fifth Avenue Line was lost on May 31, 1940.[http://forgotten-ny.com/2010/02/brooklyn-lirr-terminal/ Ministry of Travel: The New LIRR Brooklyn Terminal]; Forgotten New York

File:Long Island Railroad Station interior, Flatbush Avenue ca. 1893.jpg

The station was refurbished and the exterior was sandblasted in the early 1940s. The decline of rail service after World War II led to the station's gradual demise, however. Track #1 was out of service on April 10, 1959. Former express tracks numbers 9–14 ("EX" Yard) were taken out of service on March 3, 1971. At some point, the express buildings became a parking garage. Local businesses were still allowed to utilize the station, such as a barber shop, restaurants, candy stores, a snack bar, a podiatrist's office, a dental office, a beauty school, and even a row of telephone booths. Those businesses were gone by 1978. The tracks that were originally numbered from south to north were renumbered from north to south on July 1, 1978. Despite efforts to repaint the lobby in the early-1980s, random vandalism plagued the station interior causing water damage that was so severe, the street level depot was closed in 1988,{{Cite news|last=Gray|first=Christopher|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/17/realestate/streetscapes-flatbush-avenue-terminal-final-weeks-for-neo-renaissance-grand-dame.html|title=STREETSCAPES: Flatbush Avenue Terminal; The Final Weeks for a Neo-Renaissance Grand Dame?|date=April 17, 1988|work=The New York Times|access-date=April 23, 2022|page=10:17}} and portions were razed during the 1990s.

The MTA approved plans in March 1998 to renovate the Atlantic Avenue–Pacific Street subway station and the adjoining LIRR terminal, as well as build the Atlantic Terminal shopping mall above the station.{{Cite news |last=Lueck |first=Thomas J. |date=March 27, 1998 |title=Plan Ratified for Mall at L.I.R.R. Terminal |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/27/nyregion/plan-ratified-for-mall-at-lirr-terminal.html |url-status=live |access-date=May 22, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522010937/https://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/27/nyregion/plan-ratified-for-mall-at-lirr-terminal.html |archive-date=May 22, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}} Work on the stations' renovation began in 2000, and work on the shopping mall commenced the next year.{{Cite news |last=Siwolop |first=Sana |date=April 4, 2001 |title=Commercial Real Estate; Work to Start Soon on Mall at Atlantic Terminal |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/04/nyregion/commercial-real-estate-work-to-start-soon-on-mall-at-atlantic-terminal.html |url-status=live |access-date=May 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125211526/https://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/04/nyregion/commercial-real-estate-work-to-start-soon-on-mall-at-atlantic-terminal.html |archive-date=January 25, 2021 |issn=0362-4331}} On January 5, 2010, a new entry pavilion, designed by di Domenico + Partners, opened, providing improved connections between the LIRR, subways, and buses.{{cite press release | publisher=Long Island Rail Road |date=January 5, 2010 |title=New LIRR Atlantic Terminal Pavilion Opens To The Public |url=http://www.mta.info/press-release/long-island-rail-road/new-lirr-atlantic-terminal-pavilion-opens-public|access-date=July 16, 2013}} In March 2010, the station was renamed Atlantic Terminal after a six-year reconstruction project,{{cite web | last=Brown | first=Stephen | date=December 29, 2009 | url=http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/33/1/33_01_ac_new_lirr_terminal.html| title=This new LIRR terminal is on a roll| work=The Brooklyn Paper| access-date=April 21, 2016}} during which trains continued to operate.

In 2014, the LIRR announced that service from Babylon and Hicksville would go directly to Atlantic Terminal during New York Islanders games at Barclays Center. Passengers previously had to transfer at Jamaica to go to Babylon or Hicksville.{{cite news | title=LIRR, Barclays Center work to get Islanders fans to come to Brooklyn |author=Castillo, Alfonso A. |url=http://www.newsday.com/long-island/lirr-barclays-center-work-to-get-islanders-fans-to-come-to-brooklyn-1.9364973 |newspaper=Newsday |date=September 20, 2014 |access-date=April 22, 2015}}

Since the opening of Grand Central Madison and the introduction of new schedules in February 2023, most service to Atlantic Terminal has been provided by a high-frequency shuttle service to and from Jamaica.{{Cite web|url=http://www.apta.com/mc/rail/previous/2014/papers/Papers/Beth%20Kulick%20Reconfiguration.pdf|title=Jamaica Interlocking Reconfiguration Operations Simulation|last=Kulick|first=Beth|date=2014|website=apta.com|publisher=TranSystems Corporation|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305225627/http://www.apta.com/mc/rail/previous/2014/papers/papers/beth%20kulick%20reconfiguration.pdf|archive-date=March 5, 2016|url-status=dead|access-date=February 5, 2018}}

During the morning rush hour of January 4, 2017, a train overran the bumper block at the end of track 6, injuring 103, none seriously.{{cite web | title=Officials: More than 100 hurt in LIRR train derailment | website=Newsday | date=January 4, 2017 | url=http://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/officials-lirr-train-derailment-at-atlantic-terminal-1.12860163 |access-date=January 4, 2017}}{{cite web |url=http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/LIRR-Train-Derails-in-Brooklyn-409638225.html |title=LIRR Train Derails in Brooklyn; 103 People Hurt |first1=Andrew |last1=Siff |first2=Marc |last2=Santia |date=January 4, 2017 |publisher=NBC New York |access-date=January 5, 2017}} There were 650 passengers on the train, which had originated from Far Rockaway. The accident occurred at about 8:20 a.m. Two cars of the six-car M7 electric multiple unit train involved were severely damaged when it collided with the bumper at a speed of {{convert|10|to|15|mph|km/h}}.{{cite web|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/lirr-train-derails-brooklyn-atlantic-terminal-article-1.2934105|title=LIRR train slams into Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, injuring 103 passengers|last1=Rivoli|first1=Dan|last2=Marcius|first2=Chelsia Rose|last3=Izaguirre|first3=Anthony|last4=McShane|first4=Larry|work=New York Daily News|access-date=January 4, 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170105173735/http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/lirr-train-derails-injuring-103-people-brooklyn-terminal-article-1.2934105|archive-date=January 5, 2017}} The incident was compared to a September 2016 train crash at Hoboken Terminal in Hoboken, New Jersey, wherein a train also overran a bumper block.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Federal Railway Administration opened investigations into the accident. On February 6, 2018, the NTSB released their Railroad Safety Brief on the accident. They determined the probable cause to be the engineer falling asleep due to chronic fatigue. The chronic fatigue was in part attributed to undiagnosed sleep apnea.{{Cite web |last=National Transportation Safety Board |date=February 6, 2018 |title=Railroad Accident Brief: Long Island Rail Road Passenger Train Strikes Platform in Atlantic Terminal |url=https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/accidentreports/reports/rab1802.pdf}}

The LIRR terminal, one floor below the ground level, has three high-level island platforms adjacent to six tracks. Platform A is ten cars long, but the two easternmost cars on Track 1 are not accessible due to a large gap between the train and the platform. Platform B is eight cars long. Platform C is six cars long, but Track 6 only has enough space for four cars to meet the platform as it is adjacent to the northbound local platform of the IRT Eastern Parkway Line.

{{NYCS Platform Layout Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center Station}}

Atlantic Terminal is connected to the New York City Subway's Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center complex, which is served by the {{NYCS trains|Atlantic-Pacific}}.{{NYCS const|map}} Buses serving outside the complex include B41, B45, B63, B65, B67, and B103.{{Cite NYC bus map|B}}

The rail terminal is adjacent to and below the Atlantic Terminal mall and near the Barclays Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower, as well as Brooklyn Technical High School.

The massive Pacific Park residential, commercial and sports complex, which includes Barclays Center, is being built near the station and above its yard tracks.{{cite news | title=Slow Economy Likely to Stall Atlantic Yards |first=Charles V. |last=Bagli |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/nyregion/21yards.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=March 21, 2008 |access-date=February 14, 2010}}

File:LIRR atlantic avenue station 1910.jpg|1910 photo of the former LIRR Flatbush Avenue station (demolished 1988)

File:Atlantic Terminal.jpg|Looking down Platform A. A train to Far Rockaway is on the right

File:Atlantic Terminal - March 2019.jpg|Looking down Platform C

File:LIRR Flatbush east stair jeh.jpg|Looking down to track level in the entry pavilion

• Lower Manhattan–Jamaica/JFK Transportation Project

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Commons category|Atlantic Terminal}}

{{LIRR links|Atlantic Terminal}}

{{external media

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}}

• [http://www.arrts-arrchives.com/irtconn.html LONG ISLAND RAIL ROAD – I. R. T. CONNECTION 1]
• [http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/showpix?nsta=287110 NYCSubway.org's page about the terminal]

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Category:Long Island Rail Road stations in New York City

Category:Railroad terminals in New York City

Category:Railway stations in the United States opened in 1877

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Category:Railway stations located underground in New York (state)

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