Commuters grade LIRR after 5 days of tough week

Long Island Rail Road commuters may be a "resilient" bunch, as LIRR president Helena Williams said Friday, but this was a week of daily treks to work that they'd just as soon forget.

As the LIRR struggled to repair and test its century-old switching system at Jamaica, some commuters sounded off about their own struggles - with little or no information, delayed trains, and out-of-the-way commutes that took hours.

Newsday reached out to 46 commuters in an admittedly unscientific poll Friday to assess the railroad this week in four categories, and more than half gave LIRR average or poor grades for communicating throughout the ordeal, but better grades on keeping them safe and comfortable even as they had to wait.

Many thought the LIRR was doing its best to get the trains up and running as quickly as possible - the railroad says it hopes to have normal service by Monday's morning commute.

"In all the categories, I'm going to let our customers be the judge," said Williams, who also was asked - along with commuter advocates and other MTA officials - to grade the railroad. "It's been a challenging week for our customers. It's been a challenging week for our organization. But the one thing we know is that Long Islanders are a resilient group."

COMMUNICATIONS

Commuter John Dillworth, 51, of Northport got e-mails informing him of canceled trains, but sometimes they came less than 10 minutes before the train's scheduled arrival. For keeping commuters informed, he gave LIRR an "F".

But Neal Stern of Deer Park said the railroad deserved an A in that and other areas as well. "We were informed from the very beginning of the problem. And what we might expect . . . I was on the website and expected delays. When I got to the train there was no problem. Each day my train was on time in the morning and in the evening."

Williams said the LIRR has done its best to keep riders informed of service disruptions through its e-mail and text messaging system, website updates, workers and announcements at stations, and through the media. "We worked very hard to get the message out," Williams said.

LIRR Commuter Council chairwoman Maureen Michaels said while giving the LIRR a B in communications, she said it fell short in not having digital information boards working at most stations. "People are trying to make decisions, and they need information to make those decisions," she said.

It wasn't until Friday that the information boards were able to be programmed to reflect the reduced schedule, and the agency made the decision to "go dark" rather than have inaccurate information.

SERVICE: DELAYS, DISRUPTIONS, ALTERNATIVES

John Cupolo, 29, of New Hyde Park, said he's had to kill a lot of time in Penn Station waiting for a train. "I am thinking about taking up smoking again, because I have nothing to do," said Cupolo, who pays about $200 for his monthly ticket. "This is not $200 worth of service, I can tell you that."

MTA board member Mitchell Pally of Stony Brook said he wouldn't give a specific grade, but said LIRR has been wise not to "over-promise and under-deliver. Whatever number you put out there in terms of delays . . . is an estimate. Unfortunately, circumstances get in the way," Pally said.

LIRR officials said they've done their best to keep train delays and cancellations to a minimum while they make repairs. "We've told customers that we might have delays of 15 or 20 minutes, and we were pretty much within that range," Williams said. "Even with the reduced service, we were able to get people where they wanted to go."

Michaels of the Commuter Council said the morning rush hours appeared to have more long and unexpected delays than the evening, when the trains operated pretty close to the LIRR's released schedule. "I'd give them a 'C' on the a.m. and a 'B' on the p.m." she said.

PROGRESS OF REPAIRS

Patrick Foye, a deputy Nassau County executive and MTA board member, said that while the problem may have been avoided if the LIRR had better invested in its infrastructure along the way, he agreed that the agency is doing all it can. "I don't have any doubts about their level of commitment toward restoring the system," said Foye, who gave the LIRR a "B" for its repair efforts.

Williams said her employees have made an "extraordinary effort" to fix the damage to the system, and will continue to do so until the LIRR's switching equipment is fully safe and operational. "It's going to take as long as it's going to take . . . that's not some place you'd ever want to take shortcuts," she said.

The railroad said it would be working on testing and repairs throughout the weekend.

"I have to trust they're working hard on it," said Michaels, who gave the LIRR a "B+" and said that, without the technical expertise of the LIRR's workers, customers have to give the agency the benefit of the doubt that it is doing its best.

Commuter Richard Rosengart gave the LIRR a "C" and said the agency "should maintain things we know are old and repair them before they break." Rosengart was interviewed as he waited at Jamaica Station for his train.

COMFORT and SAFETY

"The trains are more crowded than usual but it's not intolerable," said Krystal Samuels, 24, of Brooklyn, who said the railroad deserved a "B" in this area.

Richard Rosengart, 41, of West Babylon took train on Wednesday and Friday, and gave the LIRR a solid "A" in this area. The other days he took a carpool.

Williams acknowledged some crowding on trains this week, and said MTA police and LIRR workers have been out trying to ensure customers' safety. "We thought it was managed very well, and the customers themselves were very courteous," she said.

Pally said some crowding is "to be expected when you're trying to shoehorn people on one train that otherwise would be on two trains." He said the LIRR has benefitted from a large portion of its customer base being on vacation this week.

Michaels said she does not believe most people's commutes were any more uncomfortable than most weeks, but she criticized conductors for being lax in their collection of tickets, perhaps out of fear of getting grief from frustrated passengers. Williams said she had ordered a review of ticket collection efforts, although she said there was no indication they were below par.

Newsday asked riders at several LIRR stations on Friday how they would grade the railroad on how it dealt with this week’s fire in the areas of communication, service, comfort and safety and progress of repairs. Because riders did not give a grade in each category, totals are not equal. In addition, any grades were rounded off to the nearest whole letter grade.

Communication

A 5
B 14
C 10
D 7
F 10

Service*

A 5
B 12
C 11
D 8
F 10

Comfort and safety

A 12
B 16
C 8
D 7
F 2

Progress of repairs

A 2
B 4
C 13
D 11
F 11

*-Such as availability of transfers, length of delays, other commuting alternatives made available