LIE RR

As we head into more snow and the prospect of tough commutes a word about the Long Island Railroad.

The LIRR was praised for cleaning up the rails and platforms fast enough to have most of the system back up and running for the Monday morning post blizzard commute a couple of storms ago.

But where they failed, and always seem to fail is telling customers what’s going on!

The LIRR has always had troubles with an antiquated system, disintegrating station platforms and switches that seem to freeze the moment the temperature drops below 32 anywhere in the country.

The riders have come to expect terrible service with on time performance being a joke.

Is it coming?
I think so. I heard an announcement.
No that was me coughing.

A train that is 5 minutes 59 seconds late is considered ON-TIME by their standards!

Try being 5 minutes late with your taxes or mortgage.

But what really irks most commuters is the lack of information.

It’s impossible to hear announcements as too many speakers don’t work and when they do the voices are inaudible or garbled.

They only have 9 tracks in and out of Penn Station New York but still cannot tell riders what track a train will be on until just before it is supposed to depart.

They claim they don’t want to overcrowd the platforms until a train arrives as that could be dangerous.

I submit that running to catch a train you’ve been waiting on for half an hour with only a 2 minute warning is dangerous too!

After the blizzard riders were told the trains would start running Monday at 5 am.  When people arrived at Penn Station they waited until well past 5am without hearing anything new.

Finally word came that the trains would actually start moving at 7am.

With time to now spare many left to grab another cup of coffee or a quick breakfast in that extra hour.

BUT the trains actually started leaving the station at 6am!

What happened?

Was it a rogue engineer?

They just can’t get it right!

Knowing all the above information and so much more the LIRR puts its customers through the more you realize how poorly run a corporation this really is.