Ronkonkoma (LIRR station)

Ronkonkoma
Ronkonkoma Station, Main Building
Coordinates	40°48′29″N 73°06′21″W / 40.808088°N 73.1059°W / 40.808088; -73.1059Coordinates: 40°48′29″N 73°06′21″W / 40.808088°N 73.1059°W / 40.808088; -73.1059
Owned by	MTA
Line(s)	Main Line (Ronkonkoma Branch)   Greenport Branch
Platforms	2 side platforms 1 island platform Spanish solution
Tracks	2
Connections	Suffolk County Transit: S57, S59, 6A, 7A Colonial Transportation to Long Island MacArthur Airport
Construction
Disabled access	Yes
Other information
Fare zone	10
History
Opened	1883
Rebuilt	1986-1997
Electrified	January 18, 1988 750 V (DC) third rail
Previous names	Lake Ronkonkoma
Traffic
Passengers (2006)	17,278
Services
Preceding station   LIRR   Following station Central Islip toward New York terminals Main Line (Ronkonkoma Branch) Medford toward Greenport

Ronkonkoma is a major railroad station and transportation hub along the Main Line of the Long Island Rail Road in Ronkonkoma, New York. The station is the eastern terminus of the Ronkonkoma Branch and the western terminus of the out Branch.

The station is located on Lakeland Street or Railroad Avenue North across from the intersection of Hawkins Avenue, and has parking facilities and other amenities that extend beyond the central location. Free parking is available in the lots adjacent to the tracks on the north and south side. One parking garage north of the station was built in 1996 on a former freight spur. The station has a total of about 6,100 parking spaces. As of May 2011, 63 trains connecting to New York City stop at this station every weekday, while an additional nine make connections with stations to the east.

Ronkonkoma Station was originally built as Lake Ronkonkoma station in 1883 as a replacement for the 1843-built Lakeland station designed to serve both Lakeland and Ronkonkoma, New York, as well as the 1853-built Hermanville station, designed for a former community along the south side of the tracks.

Lakeland was originally built in 1843 as Lake Road station. It was named for and located on Lake Road (now Pond Road), a street that once ran from Oakdale to the east side of Lake Ronkonkoma itself. By 1850 it was moved to the Dr. E. F. Peck General Store on the northwest corner of what is today Ocean Avenue and Lakeland Street. A freight house existed along the tracks close to Pine Avenue. Edgar Fenn Peck owned land as far south as Sayville, and in 1851 sold the store and the land to a developer named Charles Wood, who turned his land into a development named Lakeland Farms, which today includes land in Oakdale, Bohemia, and what is now Ronkonkoma. The original Lake Road station operated simultaneously with the one at the general store on Ocean Avenue, and at some point was renamed "Lake station," until eventually being phased out. No record of the original station's existence can be found after 1857.