RVC LIRR commuters brace for worst

Standing atop the platform on the Rockville Centre Long Island Rail Road trestle around 7 a.m. last Friday, early-morning commuters waited with headphones in their ears and briefcases in their hands for a train that few of them said they expected to arrive on time.

“There’s absolutely no consistency,” said a Rockville Centre resident who identified himself only as Max. “It’s a total crapshoot as to when the train will come and when it will arrive. Sometimes the train will come on time, but then it will just crawl through Jamaica, and I’ll get there late anyway.”

On May 21, Gov. Andrew Cuomo called attention to the poorly performing railroad in a letter to President Donald Trump. Describing the upcoming season as a “a summer of agony” in anticipation of the widespread delays that renovations at Penn Station will create, Cuomo requested funding from the federal government to accelerate the work.

To further emphasize his point, Cuomo compared the impending delays to a natural disaster. “While this is not a hurricane or flood, it will affect as many people and businesses with dire consequence,” he said. “Like a natural disaster, we didn’t create it, but our public offices require we address it.” He went on to call for bipartisanship in addressing the situation.

His dire prediction has, in many ways, already come true. On Tuesday morning, the LIRR had westbound delays averaging 75 minutes between Jamaica and Penn Station because of Antrak’s ongoing third-rail issues in one of its East River tunnels.

Another village resident, who identified herself only as Anna, is a regular on the 7:17 a.m. train to Jamaica. She also said she does not look forward to a summer of delays caused by Penn Station repairs. “I expect the summer schedule to have a lot of combined trains, a lot of frustration, people standing in the aisle,” she said. “It’s not fair.”

The operative word of the day for irked Rockville Centre residents was inefficiency. “Empty train cars on pointless lines, overflowing cars on the lines everyone needs,” said one particularly discouraged commuter, who declined to be identified. “It seems like an overhaul is the only way forward. The renovations are going to make it worse, but it’s been terrible for the last three months.”

Responding to growing outrage over the state of the railroad and Cuomo’s formation of an emergency task force, State Sen. Todd Kaminsky, a Democrat from Long Beach, joined the governor in requesting federal aid for the renovations. And he called on Amtrak to “relinquish control of Penn Station so that it can be managed from here on by a responsible operator who is accountable to Long Islanders and other riders who depend on the transportation hub daily.”

This came days after Kaminsky led a Rally for a Sane Commute at the Rockville Centre station. More than 100 people joined him on May 13 to protest the delays and demand that Amtrak give up control over Penn Station.

Amtrak owns and operates Penn Station, and is being blamed by many for its handling of the renovations.

Cuomo has faced outrage over a $65 million cut to the MTA budget, a figure that his office disputes. According to the governor’s office, “State aid to the MTA last year was $4.456 billion, and this year it’s $4.486 billion — $30 million more. This is on top of $8.3 billion in state funds secured for the MTA capital plan.” Members of the Riders Alliance, a transit advocacy group, take issue with the money being used for repairs rather than operating expenses, which they believe will hurt already tumultuous train service.

All of this occurs as the Trump administration proposes a budget would cut $95 billion from the Highway Trust Fund by 2027. The HTF is a major source of funding for both the MTA and Amtrak.

Reached for comment, MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan referred only to Cuomo’s newly formed task force and his determination to form “short-term transit solutions, as well as long-term systemic changes.”