LIRR returning to regular service on Wednesday after disruptions
Commuters board a train in Mineola on Tuesday morning. Credit: Newsday/Howard Schnapp
The Long Island Rail Road is expected to be back at nearly full strength by the Wednesday morning rush hour, following a challenging Tuesday commute of packed trains and limited service that riders described as among the worst in years.
Still fighting back from the effects of the winter storm, which resulted in the first systemwide LIRR shutdown in four years, railroad officials said commuters could expect “regular weekday service” on Wednesday, except for schedule adjustments in some places “due to lingering effects of the historic blizzard.”
Although specific details on the Wednesday service plan were not available Tuesday evening, LIRR officials said it would include “robust service to all three New York City terminals.”
That would be a significant improvement from what commuters endured on Tuesday. The LIRR offered limited service on only six of its 11 branches, and “extremely limited” service to and from Grand Central Madison in the form of a shuttle bus between Jamaica and the Manhattan terminal.
With the Hempstead, Far Rockaway, Long Beach, West Hempstead and Greenport branches shut down, and other branches limited to one train per hour, commuters said they endured an especially miserable Tuesday morning rush hour.
With other South Shore branches suspended, and the few trains running on the Babylon branch making every local stop, Louis Lazzarini said by the time he boarded in Wantagh, there were no seats available. And it only got more crowded from there.
“It was just loaded,” said Lazzarini, describing the kind of crowding typically reserved for New York City subways, with passengers at some western Nassau stations unable to board because they couldn’t fit in trains. “It was painful. It was awful. … Everybody was just kind of shaking their head. It was ridiculous. People couldn’t believe it.”
The difficulty loading and unloading passengers at stations contributed to delays of 10 to 20 minutes on all branches throughout the Tuesday morning rush hour.
LIRR officials emphasized the historic nature of the storm, which took a major toll on the nation’s largest and busiest commuter railroad — trapping track switches under snow and ice, dropping trees onto tracks, burying equipment in rail yards and interrupting the connectivity between trains and the electrified third rail.
“LIRR crews continue to work around the clock to clear large snowdrifts from 700 miles of track and multiple train yards where equipment is stored,” Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said in a statement. “Personnel remain deployed throughout the operating region spreading salt and clearing surfaces of snow, keeping signals, switches, and third rails operating, and attending to any weather-related challenges.”
To dig out from 2-foot-high snowdrifts in its eastern Suffolk territory, the LIRR employed the services of “Darth Vader,” the 80-ton snowplow so named because of its resemblance to the "Star Wars" villain’s helmet.
Other transportation providers also worked to get back to normal after being temporarily crippled by the storm. Nassau’s NICE Bus resumed regular service after being shut down much of Sunday and Monday, but continued bypassing Nassau Community College “due to road conditions,” according to NICE’s website.
Suffolk County Transit also resumed bus service Tuesday morning after being suspended Sunday and Monday.
Weather-related disruptions also lingered at area airports. Shortly before 5 p.m., FlightAware.com, which tracks airline issues, reported 449 cancellations into or out of LaGuardia Airport Tuesday and 166 delays there. At Kennedy Airport, there were 516 cancellations and 285 delays. And at Long Island MacArthur Airport, there were nine canceled flights and five delays.
Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.
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