Rosa Parks Hempstead Transit Center

The Rosa Parks Hempstead Transit Center is the Nassau Inter-County Express system's indoor customer facility between Jackson and West Columbia Streets in Hempstead, New York. It is also the terminus for the Hempstead Branch of the Long Island Rail Road. Serving 19 routes, the transit center is the major transfer point for customers using a second Nassau Inter-County Express route or the LIRR. It offers a waiting area, transit information, MetroCard vending machines, a newsstand and restrooms. As of 2015, the LIRR schedules 28 departures and 28 arrivals here on weekdays.HistoryRail terminalHempstead station was originally built as a Central Railroad of Long Island depot sometime between October and December 1872, on the corner of Main Street and Fulton Avenue. When the Long Island Rail Road acquired the CRRLI in 1878, this Hempstead Station and terminus came with it, replacing the former 1839-built Hempstead Station, which ran along the original Hempstead Branch.The station was remodeled in July 1881, and razed in 1913. A second brick station was built in February 1913, which was designed to have trains terminate behind the building rather than alongside of it. This was due to an accident from January 1912 involving a milk train that rear-ended a stationary passenger car, sending it across Fulton Avenue and crashing into a building across the street and resulting in two deaths. Between December 30, 1941 and 1943, service was suspended when the tracks were cut back and the station was moved to Columbia Street. A temporary station was installed 1,265 feet west of its former location until work on this project was finished. Upon the completion of this move and track work, the second station was opened again. However it was gutted in a fire on December 31, 1962 and remodeled in April 1963. This station was razed in 1998 and replaced with a much more elaborate third depot which was built between 1999 and 2002.