LIRR passengers wait to hear if trains will be delayed

Long Island Rail Road passengers will know by late Sunday whether train service Monday - the start of another workweek - will return to normal, an LIRR spokesman said, after an electrical fire last Monday at the Jamaica station caused days of commuter angst with cancellation of trains, delays and other service disruptions.

"We're not making any decision about Monday until Sunday," spokesman Salvatore Arena said, later adding, "Our goal is full service."

He said LIRR workers were about halfway through testing procedures undertaken to make certain no wiring remains damaged by the electrical fire that knocked out the crucial station's switching system.

About half of 300 separate tests involving routes and switch operating had been completed as of Saturday evening.

Work on the wire testing was expected to continue around the clock, and LIRR customers should be prepared for a "modified" schedule for Monday's morning rush, Arena said.

"In terms of repair work, they're testing each and every switch to see that the [electrical] connection is made," Arena said.

Schedule updates are on the LIRR's website, mta.info/lirr.

Saturday at the Jamaica station, where the less-frequent weekend trains were running mostly on time, riders said they were girding for the worst if Monday's train service doesn't return to normal.

"The commute already is horrible. It's just going to be worse," said Matthew Washington, 34, of Bensonhurst as he waited to take a train to Ronkonkoma. "People are going to be upset and complaining."

Huntington's Michelle Cuthbertson, 43, who was returning from a trip to Ireland with her children Hunter, 11, Elizabeth, 9, Aidan, 7, and husband Mark, 44, a Huntington councilman, said the delays are coming at perhaps the worst time for parents who want to take the train with their kids the week before school starts.

"There's nothing worse than waiting with your children" because of train delays, she said.

"That's true!" Hunter added.

At the LIRR stop in Farmingdale, day-care provider Kimberly Decicco, 38, of Bay Shore, said she worries that continued delays could mean she loses her job.

"If I'm even five minutes late it's a problem," said Decicco, explaining that if she's late the mother of the children she cares for has to wait and be late to her own job. This domino effect, she said, made her stay home Thursday because she feared that the delays would cause another day of lateness.

Last week, repairs to the fire-damaged switching system forced cancellation of about 25 percent of trains during daily morning-rush periods and 32 to 34 percent of evening-rush trains daily.

With Yamiche Alcindor