Lynbrook/East Rockaway - LIRR Strike Countdown

Commuters brace for LIRR strike

East Rockaway, Lynbrook train riders scramble to make alternate plans

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Commuters and other Lynbrook and East Rockaway residents said this week that they were growing increasingly anxious as negotiations between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Long Island Rail Road’s eight unions stalled without an agreement to stave off a strike that would begin on Sunday.

Bill Gaylor, a past president of the Lynbrook Chamber of Commerce, said that a strike would be economically devastating to Long Island. “The strike is not good for anybody,” he said. “It certainly is going to have a very negative economic impact on Long Island, especially the towns that depend on the railroad for their livelihoods.”

Gaylor added that Lynbrook businesses would not be immediately impacted by the planned strike because “we don’t have so many businesses that are directly affected by whether the railroad is going or not going.”

David Bernstein, a Lynbrook commuter who works in New York City, said that a strike would create chaos on the Island, because so many people rely on the LIRR — especially those who use the three train lines that run through Lynbrook. Bernstein said he believed that while the unions’ demands are reasonable, the strike is not.

“I understand the need for pay raises and benefits,” he said, “but you don’t do it at the expense of other riders.” He added that increased wages and benefits for railroad employees have the potential to raise fares.

Bernstein, who works for a digital media company in Manhattan, said that in the event of a strike, he would work from a satellite office that his company would provide for him.

Gaylor said he doesn’t sympathize with either side in the contract impasse, but rather is concerned for Long Islanders who need the railroad to make a living. “I feel bad for the many, many people, and not just those from Lynbrook,” he said. “I’m talking about people all the way from Montauk Point, [to] the people in Long Beach, who depend on it.”

Elizabeth Daitz, a native of East Rockaway who has used the village’s LIRR train station as well as the one in Rockville Centre to get to Penn Station, said that a strike could raise safety concerns for New York City residents. “By striking, they’re not just inconveniencing 300,000 commuters for the sake of a 17 percent raise … they’re actually jeopardizing the health and safety of every single New Yorker who relies on police, fire and emergency personnel who use the LIRR to get to their commands and their companies every day,” Daitz told the Herald while riding a train. “The same police, fire and emergency personnel who are working without a contract because they care more about the city and its safety than they care about politics. They should get back to the table, get to work, and maybe even attempt to be on time when it rains again.”

Negotiations went nowhere on Monday, and as the Herald went to press on Tuesday, the unions were proceeding with plans to strike.

A contingency plan

The MTA released its strike contingency plan to the media in a conference call on July 11. The MTA plans to bus commuters to Queens subway stations from seven LIRR stations, including, Bellmore, Deer Park, Freeport, Hicksville, Manhasset, Ronkonkoma and Seaford; Nassau Community College, in Garden City, would be involved as well. There would also be a total of 7,000 park-and-ride spots available at Aqueduct Racetrack and Citi Field in Queens, and a ferry from Glen Cove. All bus, park-and-ride, and ferry services would be free of charge.

The Bellmore, Freeport and Seaford buses would connect to the A subway station at Howard Beach. The Manhasset bus would take commuters to the 7-line subway station at Mets-Willets Point. The Hicksville buses would connect with the M and R subway stations at Woodhaven Boulevard.

“The MTA is working closely with the state and Nassau and Suffolk counties to ease traffic as much as possible,” MTA CEO and Chairman Thomas F. Prendergast said. “The High Occupancy Vehicle lane on the Long Island Expressway will be expanded to require three people in a vehicle, not just two.”

In the event of a strike, all non-emergency construction on highways would be put on hold to keep roads clear.

In a prepared statement, MTA officials said that “realistically, there is no way to replace the Long Island Rail Road and the service it provides … Our top priority is reaching a fair and reasonable settlement to avoid a traffic nightmare that would paralyze Long Island.”

Nassau County Legislator David Denenberg, of Merrick, a candidate for State Senate, held a news conference at the Bellmore train station on Monday morning to decry what he called the lack of a workable strike contingency plan. “Most people don’t know what the contingency plan is,” Denenberg said. “… If there is a strike, right now it looks like there will be chaos.”

Denenberg passed out fliers from 511NY.org, which helps inform New York commuters about their transportation alternatives.