The LIRR’s 5:14 Train Is Going Permanent, with No Stop in Jamaica

The evening train to Montauk, once a summer-only luxury, will now run year-round without a transfer in Jamaica.

The LIRR’s 5:14 is officially Montauk-bound all year, which means East Enders can finally retire their sad, sweaty Jamaica transfer routine. If you’ve ever spent a weekday evening clutching your phone, watching that train timer like your sanity depended on it, you know the feeling. But the game just changed: after Labor Day, the Long Island Rail Road says the 5:14 p.m. train from Penn Station will roll straight through to Montauk every single weekday, no annoying switch in Jamaica, no hoping you’ll pull a Friday summer miracle. Just one seat, one ride, all the way out.

Call it the end of the slow-motion tease. For ages, the 5:14 quit early in Speonk, only pressing on to Montauk on summer Fridays, as if only weekend warriors deserved a little mercy. Then two years ago, the LIRR tossed us a midweek bone with Wednesday service. This summer? They tested out five weekdays of direct trains—and now it’s for keeps. Consider it your one-seat golden ticket from the city to the sand, five days a week, all twelve months.

LIRR president Rob Free—whose title actually does sound strangely appropriate for good train news—made it clear: this is a quality-of-life bump for South Fork commuters. Another way home from work, straight from Penn to Montauk, with no platform shuffle. He even sounded pretty jazzed, promising the railroad’s always looking for ways to trim the pain of the East End ride, and now they’re sure this year-round Montauk run actually works.

Pulling this off wasn’t just a matter of scribbling a new schedule. Free reminded everyone that souping up South Fork service has always meant wrestling with a tiny fleet and a painfully long single track—60 miles of it—where trains have to play a game of chicken because they can’t pass each other without strategic spots to pull over.

This past spring, all those U.S. Open fans crowding into Southampton forced the LIRR to tack on extra siding tracks so trains could squeeze by each other, and throw up a second platform at Hampton Bays so two trains could load at once. Technically, all this was “temporary,” but as of now, the LIRR has no plans to rip it out. They’re actually considering whether to keep it for better regular service, and Free sounded like the door’s open for more tweaks. And those new signal systems up and down the line? Trains are running faster, and nobody’s mad about that.

All of this drops as the LIRR’s having a kind of uneven year. Sure, at the latest MTA board meeting, Free got to brag about a bonkers ridership milestone: June 2026 was the first month since COVID where the railroad beat its old peak from 2019. They hit 7.9 million riders, thanks in part to Knicks fever and that U.S. Open bump. Even off-peak, five million people piled on—that’s a record for non-commute hours, which Free called “truly remarkable.”

The downside? Trains aren’t exactly acing their arrival times. After a record-breaking 2025, the on-time numbers dipped every month so far this year. The punctuality rate is holding at 94.7 percent through June—still over their 94 percent goal, but not quite last year’s 96.6 percent (and just for the record, “on time” means pulling in within six minutes of schedule).

Still, for anyone spending their Fridays itching to get the hell out of the city, that guaranteed, year-round, direct shot to Montauk is a genuine win—even if you roll in a few minutes late. You’ll survive. There’s ocean at the end.

Ty Wenzel

Ty Wenzel is an award-winning writer, designer, and marketing professional with a career spanning fashion, publishing, media, and digital innovation. A recent breast cancer survivor, she began her career as a fashion coordinator for Bloomingdale’s before serving as fashion editor at Cosmopolitan Magazine. Her work has appeared in numerous national publications, including The New York Times, and she is the author of a memoir published by St. Martin’s Press. In 2020, Wenzel co-founded James Lane Post, where she covers lifestyle, real estate, architecture, and interiors. She previously served as a writer and marketing director for The Independent. Her work in journalism, social media, and design has been recognized with multiple PCLI and NYPA awards, including best website design and best magazine. Wenzel is also the founder of the Hamptons-based social media agency TWM Hamptons Social Media, where she develops high-level branding and digital strategy for luxury clients.