MTA, Gov. Kathy Hochul say LIRR schedule problems will be better next week
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. - Frustrated Long Island Rail Road commuters are furious over new schedules that went into effect on Monday.
Thursday, the LIRR and Gov. Kathy Hochul weighed in on what they're doing to fix the problems of overcrowded trains and chaotic transfers.
Hochul and the MTA are telling riders to give it time to work out the kinks, and that by next week things will be better.
But riders say more thought should have gone into the planning of these schedules and more research should have been done to see how much of a buy-in there would be to use the new Grand Central Terminal.
Riders have been documenting major headaches for days.
"I think it's terrible ... It destroyed everybody, convenient for only a few people, that's all. It disrupted everybody else," said Rene Brimicri, from Smithtown. "An additional hour for me."
"You didn't think it could get worse, but they showed it could be," said Jon Moskowitz, from Woodmere.
"I leave earlier, I get to work later," rider John Carroll said.
"I think the outreach could've been a little better," rider Liam Quigley said.
The all-new schedules to accommodate Grand Central service have left Penn Station trains shorter and so packed, riders have used bathrooms for space. Connections no longer sync up, creating a mad dash in Jamaica.
"I attempted to change trains at Jamaica for Penn Station and I couldn't get on the train since it was overcrowded, yet there were many trains heading to Grand Central that were completely empty," commuter John O'Hara said.
Catherine Rinaldi, the interim president of the LIRR, says they're following ridership patterns closely and making adjustments.
"We have the ability to go train by train, car by car, to see who's taking what trains and when, and based upon the data that we continue to see every single day, we're making some adjustments to be able to address some of the crowding conditions," Rinaldi said. "What we're seeing, this crowding, we already started to address by lightening. We'll do more next week. By next week, some problems will get better."
She reminded riders they can transfer at stations other than Jamaica to avoid the crunch.
"It's just different. I mean, it's a different kind of service plan, so there's no timed transfers anymore, but there is a lot more service. You know, you have service every few minutes, either to Grand Central or to Penn, so it's going to feel a little bit different," Rinaldi said.
The LIRR says next week, they're adding a train for more frequent service for the Brooklyn shuttle and they're already adding cars to their busiest trains, but some riders say more needs to be done.
"Just adding a Brooklyn shuttle and lengthening trains is not gonna do it," said Jack Nierenberg, with the rider advocacy group Passengers United.
The group is called on the United States Department of Transportation to probe the problem and help find solutions.
"We need direct trains to Brooklyn, and we need schedule fixes and incentives to go to Grand Central," Nierenberg said.
"This is a temporary situation. Any new dramatic change like this, the first train station open over 100 years, it's going to take a little bit, but it is very temporary," Hochul said.
"How temporary? What are you thinking -- days, weeks?" CBS2's Carolyn Gusoff asked.
"We are working very hard to get it right as soon as possible," Hochul said.
Gusoff asked Hochul what she's doing to get the MTA to make immediate adjustments.
"It will take a little time to get it right, but they are literally adjusting the number of cars on trains to accommodate customer demand. We don't quite know what people will want to do. Will they want to continue to go over to Penn Station, or will they take advantage of the ease of going to the East Side?" Hochul said.
"With respect to adding service here, taking away service there, that's gonna require a little bit more time to see how customers gravitate to the new service," Rinaldi said.
Watch Carolyn Gusoff's report
Commuter advocates say the MTA should have known before rolling out schedules that assumed almost half would use Grand Central. Seventy-one percent are still using Penn.
"The railroad right now is in a state of emergency," said Charlton D'Souza of Passengers United. "We warned them for months and weeks the schedule was gong to be a disaster. No one listened to us, or the passengers."
D'Souza says the LIRR should have offered cut fares to use Grand Central to incentivize the switch, or at least have surveyed riders. He says the new schedules were not ready for primetime.
The LIRR is putting together a plan to inform customers of transfer opportunities at other stations.
The governor says these problems are very temporary. The head of LIRR says it's already lengthening overcrowded trains and by next week, the experience should run much smoother.