If you are reading this on Saturday and planning to take a train, read the next four paragraphs before you leave the house.

The Long Island Rail Road is installing new switches and signals near Elmont-UBS Arena on most weekends this month. The work runs from roughly 12:15 a.m. Saturday until 3:30 a.m. Monday, and it is scheduled for August 8-10, August 15-17 and August 22-24. The August 1-3 weekend is already done.

This is the next phase of an infrastructure upgrade around the arena. The stated payoff is real: more reliable service and higher speeds for eastbound Huntington and Ronkonkoma trains that stop at Elmont-UBS Arena once it is finished. Switches are the pieces of track that let a train change from one line to another, and old ones impose speed restrictions on everything crossing them, which is why replacing them requires taking whole tracks out of service at once.

The cost of doing it properly is that a lot of people's weekend gets rearranged.

Bellerose is closed

Not reduced. Closed, on all three weekends. The railroad's own advice is to use Floral Park instead. NICE Bus is accepting LIRR tickets on the n24 route to and from the Jamaica Bus Terminal.

Stewart Manor through Hempstead loses the one-seat ride

This is the biggest single impact. There is no direct service between those stations and Manhattan on any of the three weekends. Hourly shuttle trains run between Floral Park and Hempstead, and you transfer at Floral Park to a Main Line train.

Hourly is the word to sit with. If you miss the shuttle at Hempstead, the next one is sixty minutes out, and it still has to connect to a Main Line train on the far end. For anyone with an evening in the city, that is a materially different journey home than the one you are used to.

The railroad's alternative suggestion is worth taking seriously: New Hyde Park, Merillon Avenue and Mineola are all nearby, all on the Main Line, and all running. If somebody can drop you at Mineola, that is very likely the better plan than a shuttle and a transfer in both directions.

Hollis, Queens Village and Elmont-UBS Arena go one-way

Three stations lose service in one direction, and the direction flips for the last weekend.

On August 8-10 and August 15-17 there is no eastbound service at those stations. On August 22-24 there is no westbound service. Service in the other direction still runs but is reduced.

MTA and NICE buses are accepting LIRR tickets on nearby routes to and from Jamaica. The Q2 and Q3 connect the Jamaica Bus Terminal with Hollis Avenue at the west end of Hollis station. The Q110 runs along Jamaica Avenue and serves Parsons Boulevard, where you can transfer toward Jamaica station. The Q1 and Q36 connect the bus terminal with Queens Village. The NICE n24 connects it with Elmont-UBS Arena.

If you are going to an event at UBS Arena, you may travel via Mineola or Jamaica to reach Elmont-UBS Arena at no additional charge.

Floral Park is open, but check the board

Trains are running at Floral Park on all three weekends, and it is the designated alternative for Bellerose riders. The catch is that trains may leave from different tracks than usual. Check the TrainTime app or the station screens before you go up to the platform, because the platform you always use may not be the one your train is on.

The rest of the system

There are minor schedule adjustments across the entire railroad on these weekends, not only on the branches named above. Overnight and early-morning Huntington and Ronkonkoma riders see significant changes, because the crews need short windows with every track out at once.

Daytime Huntington and Ronkonkoma service runs as usual on the first three weekends with only minor adjustments. The exception is the last one: on the weekend of August 22-23, Ronkonkoma Branch service is reduced to hourly.

The one thing to do

Check TrainTime for your specific train, not the branch. The railroad's language is that there are many minor schedule adjustments across the LIRR, and a minor adjustment to the 6:42 is not minor if you are standing on a platform at 6:42.

Planned Service Changes and Service Status on the MTA's site carry the latest, and they are the version that is right on the morning rather than the version posted in July.