Progress on new LIRR switching system 'right on schedule'

The Long Island Rail Road's president said "excellent" progress was made Saturday in testing the new switching-and-signal brains at the crucial Jamaica transit hub, and lower ridership numbers showed many passengers acted on calls to stay away from the LIRR on the first day of severely curtailed weekend service.

"We're right on schedule," LIRR president Helena Williams said in an interview.

More than 40 percent of the tests of the electronic system slated for this weekend had been accomplished by Saturday afternoon, railroad officials said.

In addition, with the dearth of trains through the normally busy station, employees on foot and at the controls of heavy machinery worked to remove years of accumulated debris from beneath overhanging platforms, on and around tracks, and along the right-of-way. By late afternoon, they had removed 122 old railroad ties and 25 cubic yards of trash - enough to fill a 22-foot-long, 8-foot-wide garbage bin.

If Saturday was any indication, Sunday's ridership will be far lower than a typical Sunday. Saturday, an estimated 45 percent fewer riders than usual took the trains, LIRR spokesman Joe Calderone said. On a usual Saturday, the system carries about 100,000 riders total into and out of Penn Station.

"I think a lot of people did heed our advice," Williams said. "They did choose other, alternative transportation modes."

On the Port Washington branch, the only one of the LIRR's 11 lines that doesn't go through Jamaica, ridership was up 9 percent through Saturday afternoon, Calderone said.

SEE PHOTOSLIRR trains and commuters through the years

Trains were added on that line between certain hours to account for extra ridership. Those additional trains also are scheduled to run Sunday.

Regular train service will be restored before Monday's rush hour.

The service disruptions are slated to occur again on Nov. 6-7, for the rest of the testing of the $56-million, microprocessor-based system that is replacing century-old, manually operated lever machines located in three towers at Jamaica.

Some savvy riders had anticipated - and prepared for - the limited train service.

Dave and Dianne Aragones, of Farmingville, and Ed and Sandra Buckmaster, of Shirley, learned about the service disruptions after they purchased tickets to see "West Side Story" in Manhattan this weekend.

On Oct. 16, Sandra Buckmaster did a partial dry run of their trip, driving to Port Washington to scope out the station and buy tickets for use Saturday.

The four - who take the train from Ronkonkoma to see plays every few months - waited for a 10:40 a.m. train to Penn.

"We're having a great time," Dianne Aragones said. "You know what? When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade."

At the Hicksville station, Marie Taylor, 34, said it took three hours Saturday morning to get from Brooklyn to Hicksville, where she works as an administrative aide. She took a subway, two shuttle buses and the LIRR from Mineola to Hicksville. Her trip from her home in Hollis, Queens, to Hicksville usually takes 25 minutes, she said.

To compensate for the reduced service, passengers were urged to take the E train between Jamaica and Penn. That option wasn't for everybody.

Downstairs at the Sutphin Boulevard-Archer Avenue stop, subway newbies meandered about and transportation personnel did their best to direct them.

Adelphi University art student Mary Rose, 19, of Mount Sinai, said she was scared at having to ride the subway alone. She dragged along her beau, James McGill - for protection, they said.

"If she has to go, I have to go," McGill, 22, said sheepishly, moments before a crowded Manhattan-bound E train whirred into the station.

Rose had to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see work from the Roman and Egyptian periods for a class assignment - an assignment she admitted to having put off.

The couple wandered about, unsure how to get to Penn Station without the LIRR and skeptical of a reporter who told them to hop aboard the E.

"This stuff is very confusing to me," she said, "and I'm very nervous about all this."

Tim Sullivan of Garden City traveled to Penn Station on his way to northern New Jersey. It usually takes him 50 minutes to get to Penn, but Saturday he said it took one hour and 40 minutes.

The travel disruptions were "well advertised ahead of time; I think they handled it pretty well," said Sullivan, 34. "It's aggravating, but they did a good job with it."

Sheryll Belsky, 23, a music teacher from Sheepshead Bay, was waiting in Penn Station for a train to Bellmore, where she visits her sister every weekend. Usually she would have been able to catch a train from Atlantic Terminal, but she had to go to Penn instead.

"They're doing it for a good reason," Belsky said. "They say it's only two weekends; it could have been a lot worse."With Will Van Sant

and Ted Phillips