LIRR mess: Where was communication?

Susan Nesci of Wantagh's still steaming over the Sept. 29 meltdown of the Long Island Rail Road.

"Yeah, I'm still mad," she said in an interview. "What happened there, it was disgraceful."

Nesci, a commuter for 31 years, went to the Internet one day after the LIRR shutdown to find out about buses that run from Queens into Nassau County. She wanted to be armed, she said, for the next time.

But Nesci wants fellow commuters armed, too. Which is why she reached out to Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray last week to suggest that the town use fliers or other means to make information easily available during emergencies about buses traveling between Nassau and Queens.

"By the time I found out that there were buses running into Nassau County from two or three blocks away from where we were at Jamaica, it was too late," Nesci said. "I'd already arranged for a private car to take me and a friend home."

She ended up paying $100 for that car, which got her home at 10:50 p.m. -- more than four hours later than her usual 6:30 p.m. arrival time.

"What really bothers me is that nobody at the LIRR could tell us that there were buses, a few blocks away, that could have taken us into Nassau County," she said.

Had she known, Nesci said, "Me and a lot of other people could have arranged for relatives to pick us up in Nassau or we could have gotten cabs. Either way, we would have gotten home a lot faster."

On Sept. 29, Nesci's day started off just fine. She got on the 7:26 a.m. out of Wantagh and three stops later got off at Penn Station. She's on the LIRR's email service but had received no notices before she left work. Nesci didn't realize she'd have a problem with her usual 5:19 p.m. train home until she hit Penn Station, she said.

"It was crowded and people were angry," she said. It was 5:05 p.m. and Nesci and a friend decided to take a subway to the LIRR station at Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. "We thought we could get home from there," she said.

Later, after realizing that the shutdown impacted Long Island-bound trains there too, Nesci and her friend got on a train that took them to Jamaica.

It was after 9 p.m. when, out of frustration, she ordered the private car. But Nesci noticed that there were buses traveling down nearby streets. She said she asked a police officer, who told her there was a terminal nearby with buses that ran into Nassau County.

"Nobody at the MTA said a thing," she said. "When I asked a group of employees [that night], they said, 'Oh, is that right?' but they never made an announcement or anything."

Later, she would walk three blocks to where the private car, which was caught up in traffic, would be waiting.

Michael Deery, a Hempstead Town spokesman, said that town officials, as a result of Nesci's suggestion, "will reach out to the LIRR . . . and see if there is any way we can be helpful."

The LIRR issued a statement in response to a query about Nesci's quest. "We are examining ways to provide better information to our customers about bus route alternatives in the event of a service suspension east of Jamaica, including more effective use of the MTA website for this purpose," the statement said.

"There are bus routes from Jamaica that serve Long Island and we want to do everything possible to make sure our customers are aware of these alternatives during a disruption," the statement said.

All of which means that Nesci's common-sense suggestion could -- and should -- bear fruit.