State Legislature backs off plan to lower LIRR's on-time threshold

The State Legislature, responding to a request from the chairman of the MTA, has backed off a plan to force the Long Island Rail Road to lower its threshold for what it considers an “on-time” train.

In March, the legislature changed the state’s public authorities law to require the LIRR to consider late any train that arrives two minutes or more after its scheduled time—less than half the railroad’s longtime threshold of 5 minutes and 59 seconds. The LIRR had six months to adopt the new standard.

But, in the final days of its session last week, the legislature amended the law again to revert back to the LIRR’s original standard of considering a train late only if it arrives at its final destination 6 minutes or more after its scheduled time.

The legislature abandoned its original plan at the request of Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Patrick Foye, who in a June 21 letter to state lawmakers from Long Island, defended the LIRR’s current performance metrics.

“On time performance has for decades been defined as trains arriving at their destination terminal within 5 minutes and 59 seconds of scheduled arrival,” Foye wrote. “Any change to that metric to a 2 minute metric would make LIRR and MNR (Metro-North Railroad) out of alignment with what is industry standard for commuter rail, therefore making it impossible for MTA to compare on time performance against prior LIRR performance and against industry results.”

The legislature’s initial push to for a shorter on-time window came as part of a package of reforms in the state budget that sought more accountability from the MTA in exchange for the passage of a congestion pricing plan that is expected to generate about $1 billion in new revenue annually for the authority.

“I think it should be distressing to Long Island Rail Road riders that the tougher on-time performance metrics could not be met,” said Sen. Todd Kaminsky (D-Long Beach), adding that, regardless of its reported metrics, lawmakers and commuters will be holding the railroad to a high standard. “Riders are just aware of what it means to be late in their everyday lives, and they’re going to judge the MTA, not on the statistics, it puts out, but on their own experience.”

 LIRR officials said the 5 minute, 59 second arrival window has long been the industry standard because it reflects the flexibility needed by railroads to address several variables in a trip.

“Operating to a two-minute window would be impractical, out of line with all international standards, and would have hindered our successful drive to provide better service, for no tangible benefit for our customers," said LIRR spokesman Aaron Donovan. "It would reduce our ability to hold a train momentarily to make a connection at Jamaica, wait for a parent and kids who are running to make a train, or allow our crews to help those who may need extra time to board.” 

The push to tighten the LIRR’s standards came as the railroad, in both 2017 and 2018, reported its lowest annual on-time performance in nearly two decades. However, the LIRR’s punctuality has improved since late last year, according to LIRR, which, in April and May, had two of its best months in years.

Still, Mark Epstein, chairman of the LIRR Commuter Council, said he was “disappointed” that the changes didn’t stick. The council—a state-mandated commuter advocacy group—has long pushed for the railroad to adopt metrics that more accurately reflect riders’ experience.

“The reality is that late is late. And if you publish a scheduled time and you’re beyong that time, it’s just simple to us that that train is considered late,” Epstein said. “If you have a schedule, you have to keep it. If I show up 5 minutes and 59 second late to the train, I’ve missed it. I can’t say, ‘I came within 5 minutes and 59 seconds. Why didn’t you hold it for me?’”

But Ben Fried, spokesman for TransitCenter, another commuter advocacy group, decried the legislature’s attempt to “micromanage” the LIRR”s metric system, and said a 2-minute window would be “too tight to be meaningful.

“We should demand that the agency have good metrics and goals for itself . . . but that’s not something that should come down from the legislature,” Fried said. “That’s pretty heavy-handed.”

Even while rolling back the definition of a late train, the amended law did make some other changes to the way the LIRR will have to measure its on-time performance. Even though they will not be considered late, trains arriving between 4 and 5 minutes and 59 seconds after their scheduled arrival time will have to be reported. And the law now defines “major incidents” on the LIRR as those resulting in 10 or more delays—as compared to 20 or more delays in the previous version of the law.

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.