LIRR riders prepare for possible strike Thursday

Long Island commuters are scrambling to figure out how to get around during a Long Island Rail Road strike that could begin Thursday, especially those without the option of working from home.

As the LIRR inches closer to what would be its first work stoppage in more than three decades, commuters have begun weighing a host of bad options, which include limited shuttle bus service between three railroad stations on Long Island and two subway stations in Queens, or driving into Manhattan.

“As it gets closer, it’s becoming a bigger issue on my mind . . . I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Eric Grandine, of Amityville, said while waiting for his train at Penn Station Thursday.

As an elevator repairman in Manhattan’s Financial District, Grandine said he can’t do his job remotely, and he said buses are too unpredictable to reliably get him to work each day.

“I guess I’d have to drive into the city,” Grandine, 23, said. “New York traffic is already terrible as it is. It’s terrible right now. If it were to be even worse by the Long Island Rail Road being on strike, God, it would be a nightmare.”

Commuters at the Stony Brook and Port Jefferson stations told Newsday the loss of train service would blow a hole in their work and family lives.

“I’ll probably have to drive to work,” said 35-year old accountant Sascha Shakoor, who works in New York City and takes the Port Jefferson train into work every day.

To beat the traffic, Shakoor said he’d probably have to get up around 3 a.m. “That would be very inconvenient for me.”

Lee Fennimore, a real estate marketing professional who takes the Stony Brook train into the city every day, said if the strike happens, “I will have to figure it out.”

“I have to get my kids out the door, so I won't be able to leave until 8:30,” Fennimore, 50 of Setauket, told Newsday. “You figure, a two-hour drive on a good day. So who knows how it’ll be with the strike with everyone driving in?”

The LIRR earlier this week began notifying riders and their employers of the potential for a strike, which could legally commence as early as 12:01 a.m. Thursday. Messages to riders over station loudspeakers, digital signs, emails, and the railroad’s mobile app all warned of the possibility of a “service shutdown.”

The railroad’s contingency plan includes shuttle buses during peak hours serving LIRR stations in Bellmore, Hicksville and Ronkonkoma. LIRR President Robert Free, in an interview Friday, said the locations were chosen based on proximity to major highways, parking availability, and their ability to handle bus traffic.

But Free acknowledged the buses, which will link to subway stations in Howard Beach and Willets Point, are no replacement for the 940 trains the LIRR operates each day, serving 270,000 riders.

“We couldn’t possibly have enough buses to move all these people,” Free said. “I don’t know if there are enough buses on Long Island to do so.”

The MTA is counting on many commuters staying home. On Friday, some employers and schools in the regions began communicating their plans for a strike. The Legal Aid Society of New York City told its employees, in an email, “to consider the potential citywide impact of a strike and take reasonable steps to prepare,” including by working from home if possible, or building extra time into their commute.

At Farmingdale State College, if students are unable to reach the campus by public or private transportation during the strike, the college said in a statement it will work with students to “accommodate their absence from class for the duration of the strike, including, but not limited to allowing remote instruction and/or submission of assignments electronically.”

Matthew Cohen, president of the Long Island Association, a business group, said he’s been in touch with MTA officials, who have urged him to get the word out about the potential strike to employers in Nassau and Suffolk.

As the LIRR’s busing plan aims to primarily serve workers commuting to jobs in Manhattan, it would do little to help those commuting to jobs on Long Island.

“It’s going to be a real body blow to employees who are so reliant to getting to their jobs by the railroad,” Cohen said, urging the sides to reach a resolution.

Five labor organizations representing just under half of LIRR union workers are pushing for raises high than the 9.5% over three years already accepted by most other MTA workers, including the LIRR’s largest union, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers. They say they're asking for enough to keep up with inflation, match other railroads' awards and account for the region's high cost of living.

At the Stony Brook LIRR station Friday, Sasha Kochetova, a 25-year-old graduate student at Stony Brook University who lives in Manorville, offered little sympathy for the workers in the event of a strike.

"If you’re getting paid a salary to do a job, the job has to get done. That includes running the trains even if you’re a little bummed out about the raise.”

On Friday, DeLane Adams, spokesman for the International Association of Machinists — one of the organizations involved in the contract dispute — said the unions’ demands are “fair, reasonable, and in line with surrounding contracts in the industry.”

Also Friday, the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen became the last of the five organizations to announce that its members had voted in favor of a strike. The union’s general chairman, Mike Sullivan, in a statement, said his members “will not stand for a contract that results in a loss of real wages” and that they are “prepared to use all means available to achieve a fair contract.”

Newsday's Maura McDermott contributed to this story.