(The following story by Steve Ritea appeared on the Newsday website on June 6.)
NEW YORK — With a huge crowd expected at tomorrow’s Belmont Stakes, the Long Island Rail Road is preparing for record ridership of up to 30,000 people to historic Belmont Park in Elmont and is promising plenty of trains to carry them.
“As long as there are people, we’re going to keep running trains,” LIRR spokesman Joe Calderone said.
Tomorrow, the LIRR will run 18 trains to its Belmont Park Station – most of them direct from Penn Station with a stop in Jamaica – between 9:59 a.m. and 4:16 p.m. Travelers from Long Island must change in Jamaica.
Post time for the 1 1/2-mile “Test of the Champion,” featuring Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown, is 6:25 p.m.
The LIRR only began keeping ridership numbers on Stakes Day in recent years. The largest ridership the railroad has on record to the Belmont Stakes came in 2004, when 25,581 customers went to watch Smarty Jones, who fell short of the Triple Crown when he was upset by Birdstone.
Tomorrow, return trains depart Belmont starting at 3:59 p.m., with three more following until 6:30 p.m. Then, the railroad will run trains to Jamaica, Brooklyn and Penn Station about every 15 minutes until 9 p.m.
Only two eight-car trains at a time will be boarded, and entrance to boarding areas will be staggered by police. Riders will take their places in one of five pedestrian lanes leading to the station, passing through four color-coded zones that indicate the length of their wait. Wait times can range from 15 minutes to two hours, officials said.
In addition, Stakes-goers can get a free trip back to the Jamaica station via one of 70 courtesy buses provided by Belmont Park. The buses will board near the west end of the grandstand after the final race is run, Belmont Park officials said.
Long Island Bus will be ready to handle any overflow, a spokesman there said, with 15 extra buses on standby in Jamaica tomorrow morning and another 15 in waiting at the depot in Garden City at day’s end.
Regular LIRR commuters can use monthly or weekly passes as well as 10-trip or CityTickets to get to Jamaica, but all riders must purchase special Belmont Park tickets, available at vending machines by pressing the “Getaways/Packages” button on the first screen. Round-trip fare to Belmont from Penn is $11; from Jamaica, it is $8.
Getting to the race
If you’re driving to Belmont Park, here are parking and shuttle options:
Belmont Park’s 18,500-space parking lot will open at 8:15 a.m. tomorrow with rates of $10 for regular parking and $25 for preferred parking, officials said. No valet services will be offered.
Parking also will be available at the same prices at Aqueduct Race Track in Ozone Park. Free shuttle service will be provided to and from Belmont.
Belmont Park will run free shuttles through Floral Park and Elmont to and from the racetrack’s clubhouse entrance. The shuttles will run on the half-hour from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The Floral Park shuttle will go north from Belmont on Plainfield Avenue, then left on Woodbine Court, with a scheduled stop at the intersection of Atlantic Avenue Extension and Tulip Avenue adjacent to Lion’s Park. The shuttle will travel north on Tulip Avenue and turn east onto Jericho Turnpike, with stops in front of 90 Jericho Tpke. And at the intersection of Park Place. The bus then returns to Belmont Park.
The Elmont shuttle will head south from Belmont on Plainfield Avenue across Hempstead Turnpike and onto Elmont Road, head east at Dutch Broadway and north on Meacham Avenue, back across Hempstead Turnpike and on to Covert Avenue. The shuttle will travel west along Tulip Avenue and return to Belmont Park. It will stop at each of the Nassau County bus stops along the route. At the end of the race day, this shuttle will reverse its route.