LIRR runs with some delays; snowy roads give buses trouble

Those who took the Long Island Rail Road to work Friday despite the snowstorm had relatively little trouble, though service was reduced to a weekend schedule and there were scattered delays of 10 to 15 minutes.

Morning ridership was about 21 percent of that on a usual weekday, the railroad said. The LIRR reported seven canceled trains from Thursday night through Friday afternoon.

Use of the weekend schedule meant that about 60 percent of trains operated, but for many commuters it still was the best option.

"For me, it was a blessing. I didn't have to dig out my car," said Noreen Sheikh, of New Hyde Park, who took a 7:26 a.m. train to Mineola to get to her job as an ultrasound technician at Winthrop-University Hospital. "The roughest part was getting to the station."

Despite the storm's severity, LIRR officials said they never had to bring out the big guns to combat it, including the new $1.5 million plow and spreading machine nicknamed "Darth Vader." Much of the effort involved LIRR workers using shovels and salt to keep station stairways and platforms clear.

"This was the type of snow that would not stay in place," said LIRR spokesman Aaron Donovan, adding that many of the service issues were caused by snowdrifts and icing on tracks.

Donovan said there were no "systemic problems," and called the strategy to operate a weekend schedule a success.

"Running fewer trains allowed us to better manage the trains that we were running," he said.

West Hempstead LIRR commuters, however, were not pleased with the adoption of the weekend schedule. The LIRR doesn't operate any trains on the line on Saturdays or Sundays.

For Jonathan Ezor of West Hempstead, that meant driving in the storm to Mineola to catch a train, instead of walking to his usual station of Hempstead Gardens, just a few blocks from his home.

"The railroad decided on a whim that today is a weekend," said Ezor, a professor at the Touro Law Center on his way to a Manhattan conference. "It's frustrating."

With the storm behind them, LIRR officials said there is plenty of work to be done over the weekend, including clearing yards and tracks in eastern Suffolk, where there was no service Friday east of Ronkonkoma, and protecting track switches from subfreezing temperatures. To offer riders shelter from the cold, waiting rooms at stations will stay open through Monday afternoon.

Long Island's two main bus systems had difficulty navigating the snowy, slippery roads.

Suffolk County Transit didn't begin operating until 9 a.m. and experienced delays because of road conditions.

Similarly, Nassau Inter-County Express had widespread delays and some problems with buses getting stuck in snowdrifts, especially near Hicksville. NICE personnel were dispatched to help free the buses.

NICE warned that some delays could last through this morning because of icy roads. For riders, that could mean waits at bus stops in brutally cold temperatures.

Anthony Rosales said he waited an hour for a bus to arrive in Port Washington. It was the first leg of a bus trip to Far Rockaway to visit relatives that, in total, took about four hours.

"I thought there weren't going to be any buses running today at all," Rosales said while waiting for a connecting bus at Hempstead. "All the main streets were covered with snow."