Ozone Park (LIRR station)

Ozone Park
Site of the former Ozone Park Station; April 2010.
Location	99th Street and 101st Avenue Ozone Park, Queens
Coordinates	40°41′04″N 73°50′30.75″W / 40.68444°N 73.8418750°W / 40.68444; -73.8418750Coordinates: 40°41′04″N 73°50′30.75″W / 40.68444°N 73.8418750°W / 40.68444; -73.8418750
Owned by	MTA
Line(s)	Rockaway Beach Branch
Platforms	2 side platforms
Tracks	4
Connections	Atlantic Branch
Other information
Station code	None
Fare zone	1
History
Opened	1884
Closed	June 8, 1962; station abandoned
Rebuilt	1930–1931
Electrified	1905
Services
None Preceding station   LIRR   Following station Woodhaven Junction toward Grand Street Rockaway Beach Branch Aqueduct toward Rockaway Park

Ozone Park is a former Long Island Rail Road station in New York City. Located at 99th Street and 101st Avenue in Ozone Park, Queens, it was a major station along the Rockaway Beach Branch until the line's closure in 1962.

Ozone Park was the northernmost four-track station on the line, with two concrete side platforms. North of the station, a two-track connection diverged west towards the Atlantic Branch and the line contracted to two tracks at Woodhaven Junction. The station was set up to enable passengers from Penn Station on the Main Line and Flatbush Avenue on the Atlantic Branch to reach the Rockaway Park area or Far Rockaway section simply by changing trains ("Change At Ozone Park!"). The trains had stacked end-to-end, and passengers had transferred back and forth on the platform. Operation in the reverse direction also occurred. Due to street restrictions below, which limited the right-of-way width above, platforms were on the outside of the four track right-of-way, making a cross-platform interchange impossible. To accommodate this, the platforms were made exceptionally long so that non-rush hour length multiple unit (MU) trains could stack end-to-end and allow passengers to transfer. A set of crossovers from the outside tracks to the inner tracks were at the east end of the station, to permit trains stopping at Ozone Park to run express after the station stop, or to perform the reverse move.

Ozone Park station was opened by the New York, Woodhaven and Rockaway Railroad in 1884.

In the early expansion plans of the city's Independent Subway System (IND) in the 1930s, the Rockaway Beach Branch was planned to be absorbed into the new subway, which would have turned Ozone Park into a stop on the IND Queens Boulevard Line or a new Queens crosstown line. In 1950, the Rockaway Beach Branch south of Ozone Park closed after the trestle on Jamaica Bay between The Raunt and Broad Channel Stations was destroyed by a fire. The city purchased the entire line in 1955 in preparation to convert the line for rapid transit service. The portion south of Ozone Park was connected to the former Fulton Street elevated running on Liberty Avenue to create the IND Rockaway Line, allowing A trains to travel to Rockaway Park and Wavecrest (and later Far Rockaway).