Kathy Hochul takes 8:27 Huntington LIRR train ride ahead of Long Island speech

Gov. Kathy Hochul rode the Long Island Rail Road to Syosset on Friday morning to promote public transportation days after congestion pricing went into effect in Manhattan.

Hochul rode from Grand Central Madison, transferring in Jamaica to a train bound for Syosset, ahead of her planned speech before the Long Island Association at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury.

The governor greeted commuters on the platform at Jamaica before boarding the reverse-commute train from the city to the suburbs, which was about half-full of passengers.

She spoke with an LIRR superintendent, noting that 94% of trains met on-time performance goals last year — as Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials announced Thursday.

"This is a world class experience and more people need to take it," Hochul said in an interview with Newsday later on the train. 

Asked about the affordability of the extra $9 toll into Manhattan, Hochul said about 75% of Long Island commuters who travel into the central business district take public transportation.

"People on this train know that this is the easiest way to get in from Long Island," Hochul said on the 8:27 a.m. train to Huntington. "So what this does is it generates the revenues necessary for us to make $1.5 billion more in investment in this railroad to make sure that the vast, vast majority of people choose this method coming into the city have a station world class experience."

Hochul vowed to make further vestments in the LIRR, citing performance improvements by the $2.5 billion, 10-mile-long Third Track through the Main Line in Nassau that opened in 2022, and a 76% overall approval rating from nearly 22,000 riders in a MTA survey from October.

She said further investment is needed, including improving accessibility for disabled riders. She said the $1.5 billion in revenue expected to be generated by congestion pricing will be invested in infrastructure for commuters. 

Newsday previously reported a majority of those surveyed last year, about 70% of Long Islanders, opposed congestion pricing, according to a Newsday/Sienna Poll when the suggested toll was $15. Hochul paused congestion pricing in June and announced a 40% reduction to a $9 rate in November for vehicle traffic going into Manhattan below 60th Street. 

"We have great plans for Long Island with that money we'll be generating," Hochul said. "I understand it's a hit for drivers. I truly do. I'm sensitive to that. This is something that was put in law years and years ago, and the implementation date happened to be this year."

The governor on Friday also talked about efforts to improve safety on the trains. That comes in the wake of some high-profile crimes in the transit system, including a Dec. 22 fatal attack on a subway in Coney Island in which prosecutors have alleged a 33-year-old suspect set a woman on fire and then watched her die.

Hochul noted increased National Guard and police at subway stations, cameras on subway trains and mental health treatment for the incapacitated.

"We're going to keep working harder to make it safer," Hochul said "When we have cameras on every single subway train, that means that you do something wrong, you're going to get caught."

Hochul was surrounded by her staff while on the LIRR train, but did pose for photos and meet with commuters in Jamaica, including William Stewart, 36, a robotics professor at Stony Brook University.

"I think this should mean less congestion as long as the trains are on time," Stewart said of congestion pricing. "I love the LIRR. I just wish it wasn't in such disrepair and in need of maintenance."

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.