The Long Island Railroad strike entered its third day Monday, bringing the first full weekday shutdown of service and forcing Bellmore and Merrick commuters to improvise travel plans into New York City as negotiations continued without resolution.
The shutdown began early Saturday after five railroad unions went on strike at 12:01 a.m., following the expiration of a federally mandated cooling-off period. Union members began picketing that morning at major hubs including Babylon, Ronkonkoma and Penn Station, halting service across the region.
The walkout involves workers represented by signalmen, electricians, clerks, machinists and locomotive engineers, affecting thousands of employees and disrupting travel for hundreds of thousands of daily riders who rely on the Long Island Rail Road.
In Bellmore and Merrick, longtime commuters described a sudden return to patchwork travel arrangements as the strike carried into the workweek.
“I’m driving to the Bellmore station area and then carpooling the rest of the way in with coworkers,” said Bellmore resident Mark Robles, a Manhattan office worker. “There really is no other option right now unless you fully work from home.”
Merrick resident Carla Jennings said she shifted to a combination of driving and subway connections from Queens.
“I drove to Jamaica and took the subway in from there,” she said. “It’s crowded, expensive, and stressful—but I couldn’t miss in-person meetings.”
The disruption is especially visible for local businesses that typically depend on commuter patterns tied to the railroad.
Jim Floyd, who operates Third Rail Bar and Grill near the Bellmore LIRR rail corridor and previously worked in Manhattan for decades, said the strike underscores how dependent local commerce once was on predictable commuting traffic—and how that has already changed in recent years.
“I took the railroad for over 40 years,” Floyd said in an interview with the Herald. “I could count on one hand the amount of times I stopped at a bar or restaurant on my way home. I just wanted to get home.”
Floyd added that remote work has already reshaped commuter behavior, even before the strike removed rail service entirely. “So many people work from home now, that definitely has an impact on the amount of people you’re getting in here as customers,” he said. “The most business we get is people going into the city on the weekends.”
Negotiations between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and union leaders resumed Sunday under the National Mediation Board after breaking down late last week. Talks continued into early Monday before restarting again in the morning, but no agreement had been announced.
Union officials say they were forced to strike after negotiations collapsed following round-the-clock discussions. MTA leadership has maintained it is willing to negotiate but argues it cannot agree to terms that would significantly increase long-term costs for riders.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said Sunday that state officials remained engaged in the talks, emphasizing that “no one wins in a strike.”
As the shutdown stretches on, the MTA has implemented limited contingency bus service for essential workers, though capacity remains far below normal rail operations.
