Reduced LIRR service to Penn Station starts week 2 Monday
A Long Island Rail Road train is pictured in file photo. Credit: Newsday / J. Conrad Williams, Jr.
The second week of the Long Island Rail Road’s “summer of hell” continued Monday after a surprisingly smooth first week.
The LIRR began running reduced rush-hour service to Penn Station last week as part of the summerlong Amtrak infrastructure renewal project at Penn Station.
The project means that at least three of the Manhattan transportation hub’s 21 tracks are out of service until about Labor Day. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo dubbed the period a “summer of hell” for LIRR commuters.
Amtrak’s chief operating officer, Scot Naparstek, said last week that the agency’s repairs were running “a little bit ahead of schedule.”
Because of low ridership last week, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority trimmed bus service for LIRR riders.
The agency has reduced departures and discontinued service from three of its eight pickup locations on Long Island: the North Hempstead Beach Park, Roosevelt Field mall and Bethpage State Park locations. Buses serving the five remaining park-and-rides will run every half-hour into and out of Manhattan.
Naparstek said it was “too soon” to say whether the critical track repairs would be done ahead of the agency’s self-imposed deadline. Amtrak has said multiple times that the work will be finished ahead of Labor Day.
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