LIRR's new fare system, MTA overtime, Blydenburgh dam, Gateway tunnel project
A narrow stream flows through what was once Stump Pond at Blydenburgh County Park in Smithtown last May. The water drained from the pond when a dam broke during a heavy rainfall in August 2024. Credit: Newsday/John Paraskevas
LIRR should rewrite new fare system
The new Long Island Rail Road fare policy insults everyone, including disabled passengers, seniors, and those who carry luggage or bicycles onto the train “When LIRR fails, riders still pay,” Letters, Jan. 23]. The tickets expire the day of purchase and must be activated immediately before entering the train. In view of the glitchy state of the app and the Wi-Fi connection, as well as the delays and track changes at stations like Huntington, the policy is unreasonable and unfair.
People who have waited at Huntington Station for a train on Platform B — only to hear an announcement that the incoming train has been switched to Platform A — know they may as well rip up their activated ticket because the elevator on Platform B doesn’t work. It’s been out of service for months.
The able-bodied better be in great shape to run to the stairs and beat the closing doors. Your next train? If it comes, it’s an hour away. Oh, you can always request a refund from the LIRR — for a $10 fee (more than a senior ticket price).
We are throwing money at the LIRR. This system seems rigged against the riders. Roll it back and rewrite it.
— Tammy Green, Huntington
Tell us, MTA, where do the bucks stop?
If any readers were in a business or labor management and presented their superiors with reports of theft and poor time management, like at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, they would be reprimanded with demotion or outright termination “MTA sets overtime record with $1.5B in spending,” News, Jan. 29]. I know that I would have been!
Then again, my place of employment didn’t have nearly unlimited resources paid by the public like the MTA does.
As a manager, I was responsible for those who worked under my supervision.
Where does the buck stop here?
— Carmi Spiegel, Merrick
Leave dysfunction behind for a change
The fight to save the Nissequogue River tells us a great deal about what is wrong with Long Island [“Experts warn new dam risks harm,” Letters, Feb. 3].
Following a dam failure in 2024 that drained Stump Pond in Blydenburgh County Park, environmental groups spelled out the unequivocal advantages of a free-flowing river, including habitat for multiple native fish species and rare Atlantic white cedar, as well as a riparian border that sequesters carbon and improves water quality. But despite the detriments of re-damming, residents still want Stump Pond remade.
This backward thinking reveals itself in too many local policy debates. The Town of Huntington, for example, refuses to implement an approved ban of polluting gas leaf blowers. Other municipalities, enforcing outdated codes, bully progressive homeowners who create ecologically friendly gardens. Elsewhere, Long Islanders continue to fertilize grass lawns, disregarding the environmental cost.
A sustainable future requires science-backed change. The desire to recreate Stump Pond stems from misguided nostalgia for a flawed and outdated idea of green space.
Shirley Jackson’s story “The Lottery,” once a staple of high school curricula, taught students the need to abandon dysfunctional tradition. It’s time to have the imagination and courage to put away the unsustainable past. Let the river run.
— Wendy Ryden, Oyster Bay
Blocking Gateway hurts most of us
It is unfathomable that President Donald Trump’s administration is suspending federal funds earmarked for the Gateway tunnel project [“Work on tunnel could stop,” Long Island & NYC, Jan. 28].
Trump again shows he can be irrational. A critical infrastructure project with national impacts is suddenly blocked because he acts petulantly and says that “we’re getting rid of programs that we didn’t like.” Is there any critical thinking behind that thought?
Someone, preferably a Republican political leader from a Northeastern state, needs to remind Trump that Gateway has already received federal funding and it is essential to the entire national economy — the same economy that Trump trumpets as his own when things are going well. The Gateway project trains serve eight Northeast Corridor states plus Washington, which have about 51 million-58 million people, or about 16% of the U.S. total.
Trump needs a review of 20th century New York history. The region’s extensive subway and regional rail systems built between 1900 and 1940 greatly enhanced land values because once-remote neighborhoods became accessible.
Ignoring history directly hurts the state where his business career began. Almost everyone who lives in the Northeast Corridor suffers, including many who voted for Trump three times.
— Andrew Sparberg, Oceanside
The writer teaches about New York City transportation history at the City University of New York.
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