LIRR riders feel wave of relief as service resumes
People waiting for the train at the LIRR station in Ronkonkoma around noon Tuesday expressed relief the strike had ended.
Orient resident Arthur Fitting normally takes the train two to three times a week to Grand Central Madison in Manhattan for his job in healthcare, he said at the station Tuesday. He was able to work from home Monday.
The LIRR's three-day shutdown doesn't affect his views on using the train, which he sees as valuable, especially given the upgrades to the system made in the past several years, he said.
"Whatever the dispute was, I think that's always going to happen between labor and management, no matter what industry you're in. I don't know if we'll ever get a full story [about the strike], but it doesn't matter. They're running today," Fitting said.
Wyandanch resident Giovanny Delgado, 21, normally takes the train to Ronkonkoma and then transfers to a bus to go to Suffolk County Community College's Selden campus four days a week.
The LIRR strike couldn't have come at a worse time — the week of his final exams this semester, he said.
His commute, which is usually about 30 minutes each way, extended to almost two hours Monday when he had to take two buses to get to the school.
"My earliest class was at 7:30 a.m., so leaving at almost 5 a.m. is crazy," he said.
Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.
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