'Sounds like a win-win'
Commuters get off the bus at the 179 Street Station in Jamaica Tuesday morning. Credit: Marcus Santos
On the last morning of the Long Island Rail Road's charter bus service, a string of buses from Huntington and Ronkonkoma disgorged Long Islanders onto busy Hillside Avenue in Jamaica, Queens: some frazzled and running late, all relieved that the ordeal was almost over.
Though she sided with the workers in the labor dispute, Tracy Ann Anderson, 55, a social worker from Brentwood who works in Queens, said that a two-hour morning bus ride had made her an hour late to work. She would take the train home after work and was eager to return to normal commuting life, she said: "Oh, my goodness, I am."
Doug Adil, 71, a construction manager from Northport who formerly worked for LIRR, was getting off his first bus, after driving into work Monday.
"I'm glad the state and the unions got together," he said.
The deal reached by LIRR management and unions "sounds like a win-win," Owen Dixon, 27, a student from Hicksville, said the bus ride from Huntington had cost him about precious 20 minutes. "I have exams," he said. He planned to go home by train.
Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.
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