Rockville Centre station


Rockville Centre is a station along the Babylon Branch of the Long Island Rail Road. It is officially at North Village Avenue and Front Street north of Sunrise Highway in Rockville Centre, New York, but the station property spreads west to North Center Avenue and east to North Park Avenue. Parking is available throughout the Village of Rockville Centre, near the station for those with residential and non-residential permits. The station is east of the former Rockville Centre Bus Depot. The station is from Penn Station.

History

Rockville Centre station was originally built by the South Side Railroad of Long Island on October 28, 1867 and remodeled in July 1881. The station was rebuilt on October 14, 1901, as the original station was moved to a private location that year and razed in 2004. The second station was razed in March 1949 as part of a grade elevation project that would dominate the Babylon Branch throughout the post-WW2 era. A temporary station was built southeast of the former location between April 19 and April 22, 1949.
Rockville Centre station was the site of a major railroad accident on February 17, 1950 that resulted in the deaths of 32 people, and serious injury of over 100 people. This occurred nine months before a similar accident in Kew Gardens, Queens that killed 79 people, and injured hundreds more. The current elevated structure was opened on July 17–18, 1950, and renovated toward the end of the 20th Century.
Though some scenes from the 2004 movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind took place at Rockville Centre station, they were actually shot at Mount Vernon East station on the Metro-North Railroad New Haven Line.

Platform and tracks

The station has one 12-car-long high-level island platform between the two tracks.