A new express bus is running the length of the Long Island Expressway's HOV lane. Suffolk County Transit's Long Island Express made its first trips on Monday, October 26, connecting the Riverhead and Hicksville Long Island Rail Road stations with limited stops along Interstate 495 on weekdays during peak commuting hours.

The route is an expansion of the Suffolk Clipper, the county's previous express service, which ran between Farmingville, Islandia, the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge and the Route 110 corridor. Under its new name, the service has been extended east to Riverhead and west across the county line to Hicksville.

Nine stops, two counties

The Long Island Express makes nine stops: Riverhead LIRR, the Exit 63 park and ride in Farmingville, Medford at Exit 64, Ronkonkoma LIRR, the Express Drive corridor in Islandia and Hauppauge, the Route 110 park and ride in Melville, Broadway Mall and the Hicksville LIRR station. Between stops the bus rides the I-495 HOV lane, which is the feature that separates it from the local routes that work the service roads.

Service runs weekdays only, at peak times. The first westbound trip leaves Riverhead LIRR at 5:05 a.m., with additional morning departures roughly every half hour into the 7 o'clock hour, a midday round trip, and afternoon and evening runs back east. There is no weekend or holiday service. The full timetable, effective October 25, is posted on the route's page as a printable schedule.

Built around the train

Three of the nine stops are LIRR stations, and the schedule prints connecting train times at Ronkonkoma and Hicksville for riders continuing toward Jamaica, Grand Central or Penn Station. Suffolk County Transit notes that the train times are informational: LIRR and bus fares are paid separately, there are no combined tickets between the two systems, and neither waits for the other when one runs late.

For East End riders, the route connects Riverhead with the LIRR's electrified service at Ronkonkoma and Hicksville in a single bus ride. For commuters working along the Expressway itself, the Islandia, Hauppauge and Melville stops put the bus at the office corridors on Express Drive and Route 110.

Part of a wider fall shakeup

The launch is one of several changes Suffolk County Transit rolled out this fall after public hearings in September. A day earlier, on October 25, Routes 77 and 77Y were replaced by a South Country on-demand zone, which books point-to-point trips within its boundaries instead of running a fixed loop. Additional on-demand zones for Kings Park and Ronkonkoma are planned, with launch dates to be announced, and the Patchogue timed transfer point is moving from Division Street to Sephton Street and Unity Place.

Riding it

Fares on Suffolk County Transit buses can be paid through the county's Suffolk FastFare mobile ticketing app. Schedules, the route map and the stops list are at sctbus.org, and the transit helpdesk answers at 631-852-5200 weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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