Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 30, 2018

Kew Gardens is a station on the Main Line of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) in Kew Gardens, Queens. The station is located in the City Terminal Zone, part of LIRR fare zone 1. It contains four tracks and two side platforms for the outermost tracks. The Kew Gardens station was built on the site of a station named Hopedale, which operated from 1875 to 1884 and served the Maple Grove Cemetery nearby. Another station named Maple Grove was built even closer to the cemetery in 1879. The station closed in 1909 as the LIRR was rerouted onto a more direct alignment with the construction of the Maple Grove Cut-Off. Maple Grove was replaced by the current Kew Gardens station. The Kew Gardens train crash took place nearby on November 22, 1950, which killed 78 people and injured 363 others in the worst crash in the LIRR's history. One of the Kew Gardens station's unique features is the Lefferts Boulevard Bridge, which has one story commercial buildings on both sides for local businesses. The stores were built over the tracks in 1930. The bridge been under threat of demolition multiple times. Since the bridge is deteriorating, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which operates the LIRR, has proposed demolishing the bridge. However, local residents and politicians strongly opposed the bridge's demolition.