A Long Island Rail Road, LIRR, train arrives at the...

A Long Island Rail Road, LIRR, train arrives at the Ronkonkoma station from Penn Station, Friday, Feb. 3, 2023. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost

Instead of making passengers scramble at Jamaica, trains should do the work [“Adversity in their daily commute,” News, March 27].

As a retired aerospace engineer, I suggest westbound trains could have three sections of cars designated for Penn, Atlantic or Grand Central Madison stations. Passengers choose their destination by boarding the proper car at their home station.

At Jamaica, the three sections separate and join other cars heading to the same place. No mad dash to change trains and all trains have a one-seat ride to every city destination.

Similarly, on eastbound trains, passengers board cars marked for their branches, and cars get sorted at Jamaica.

Railroad scheduling is essentially the same as in the 1900s, even with more working at home today.

To stay relevant, the Long Island Rail Road needs to invest in technology that directly improves service and should hold off on starting another large construction project like a new Penn, which is tangential to its core mission of getting Long Islanders in and out of the city.

I’m not holding out hope, though, because local construction companies have clout, buying new train cars is not the LIRR’s strong suit, and even relatively modest positive-train-control requirements seemed difficult to implement.

 — Ed Mienko, Glen Cove

LIRR riders with disabilities say the new service plan has been particularly challenging, requiring more transfers across different platforms at the Jamaica station.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s chief accessibility officer, Quemuel Arroyo, believes disabled customers will adapt, while MTA chairman and CEO Janno Lieber says the MTA is committed to addressing accessibility and would look for opportunities to address concerns raised by disabled passengers.

Does Lieber talk to Arroyo? Does anybody talk to the disabled passengers?

 — Saul Rothenberg, Rochdale Village

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