Incremental progress as both sides look to avoid a first work stoppage in decades

Long Island Rail Road union leaders and MTA managers engaged in continuing marathon negotiations Thursday night as the two sides worked on a contract agreement to avert a railroad strike and leave tens of thousands of New Yorkers struggling to get on, off and around Long Island.

While the two sides acknowledged incremental progress in Thursday’s talks — which, for the first time, were attended by the transit authority's chairman — they also dialed up the temperature ahead of the Saturday, 12:01 a.m. deadline to avoid the railroad’s first work stoppage in more than three decades.

"We’ve been bargaining throughout the day, passing proposals back and forth," Kevin Sexton, national vice president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and a spokesman for the coalition of five unions. "We’re going to do everything in our power to reach an agreement, but I cannot guarantee that at this time."

Adding to commuters' anxiety, and highlighting the LIRR’s critical role in the region’s transportation network, a fire inside an East River rail tunnel shut down train service at Penn during the evening rush hour, sending riders scurrying to find other ways to get home.