NEW YORK — Service changes are coming Long Island Railroad after a difficult start involving Grand Central Madison which led to several days of chaotic travel.
At Jamaica Station on Thursday night, passengers described crowded platforms and trains, and confusion on the tracks as they attempted to transfer.
“They actually changed my lane three times, which caused people to go up and down the escalators and stairs and crowd the platforms,” said commuter John O’Hara, who filmed people who struggled to find new paths. .
Needless to say, it wasn’t the most enjoyable way to end a long day at work.
“The situation is worse than what I have seen in my 30 years of displacement,” Ohara said.
New crowds at the transfer center and elsewhere along LIRR lines are some of the growing pains associated with the opening of the Grand Central Madison of $11 billion and the historic expansion of rail lines to Grand Central Terminal.
“I’m not going to tell you the first week hasn’t been eventful. The first week has been eventful, no doubt about it,” said LIRR Acting President Cathy Rinaldi. “What we try to do is react to what we see.”
She said the overcrowding stems from new schedules that have shortened trains to Penn Station and Brooklyn. Rinaldi acknowledged that his team had reduced the number of cars on some trains based on data analysis. Transit officials thought many of those people would want to get to Grand Central instead.
“I don’t think it was a miscalculation, it was based on data. Recent data points even more to Grand Central Madison,” Rinaldi said.
Engineers are monitoring crowd conditions in real time and have made the following changes:
- The 7:07 a.m. shuttle from Jamaica to Brooklyn has been reduced from eight cars to 10.
- The 7:28 a.m. trip from Ronkonkoma to Penn Station has also been reduced from 8 to 10.
- The Port Washington branch will receive longer trains next week.
- Increase the Atlantic terminal shuttle from every 12 minutes to every 10 minutes
While some appreciated the new schedule, saying it has significantly reduced travel time for them, others have seen their travels become more difficult due to the changes.
Gerry Bringmann, del LIRR Runners Councilsaid that while each additional car can accommodate an additional 100 passengers, no one should expect a change overnight, not after a timetable overhaul that eliminated timed transfers in Jamaica.
“It’s going to have to take place over about a month. It’s only day four,” Bringmann said.
Still, Rinaldi said she was “very confident” the serve would improve in week two.
“We will have more frequency on the ferry, we will have longer trains, the busiest trains will be longer,” he said.