MTA plans to reroute multiple LIRR trains to Penn Station after opening chaos in Grand Central Madison

NEW YORK — Long Island Rail Road will begin rerouting many of its Grand Central Madison trains to Penn Station starting next week to better accommodate ridership patterns and reduce congestion.

“We noticed red flags right away. Trains to Penn were packed due to higher than expected ridership as people get used to the new schedule and frequency of Atlantic Shuttle services to Brooklyn,” LIRR Acting President Catherine Rinaldi said Thursday.

“News for next Monday we will be moving some trains from GCM to Penn Station and also adding stops to trains that currently originate from Brentwood,” Rinaldi continued.

Changes include:

• The 2013 train, which is currently the 5:42 a.m. train from Ronkonkoma to Grand Central Madison starting Monday, will run to Penn Station and arrive at 6:55 a.m.
• Train 827, which is currently the 7:54 a.m. train from Long Beach to Grand Central Madison, will operate from Monday to Penn Station, arriving at 8:44 a.m.
• Train 268, which is the 5:28 p.m. train between Grand Central Madison and Babylon, will now depart from Penn Station instead of Grand Central Madison at 5:28 p.m.
• Train 714, the 7:31 a.m. train to Hempstead, will depart from Penn Station on Monday instead of Grand Central Madison.

The MTA also adds several stops. Trains currently from Brentwood will have additional stops at Central Islip and Ronkonkoma.

• The 05:16 train from Brentwood to Penn Station will now have additional stops at Central Islip and Ronkonkoma.
• The 05:48 train from Brentwood to Penn Station will now have additional stops at Central Islip and Ronkonkoma.
• The 6:03 a.m. train from Brentwood and the 7:57 a.m. train from Brentwood to Penn Station will also stop starting Monday at Central Islip and Ronkonkoma.

“The purpose of this is to alleviate some of the transfers we are seeing in Jamaica, to provide more service opportunities in Grand Islip and Ronkonkoma, to spread some customer loads and in response to some of our customer requests that we received in a week and a half,” Rinadli said.

The full-service launch at Grand Central Madison proved chaotic with overcrowding and confusion, prompting the LIRR to implement a series of schedule changes last Monday.

Long Island Rail Road implemented a series of schedule changes earlier this month that aimed to address the overcrowding and confusion that dominated the first week of service at the highly anticipated new Grand Central Madison station. .

The station had been touted as the antidote to these scourges, but many LIRR users say the very infrastructure meant to help them has made their journeys more chaotic.

The railroad acknowledged the bumpy first week and said growing pains are expected amid the $11 billion station opening and historic expansion of rail lines to Grand Central Terminal.

Specifically, LIRR and Metro-North President Cathy Rinaldi blamed the overcrowding on new schedules that shortened trains to Penn Station and Brooklyn. Rinaldi admitted that his team 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.

The first changes on March 3 aimed to quickly adapt to the reality of daily travel. Governor Kathy Hochul also ordered the MTA to modify the service to improve the experience for travelers. He wants more rush-hour service to Brooklyn, more cars on trains serving Penn Station to ease overcrowding, and more cars on any trains that exceeded capacity last week.

The Democratic governor also called for better communication and a more comprehensive customer service experience at Jamaica Station, where passengers described an epic nightmare: one that involved three track changes and people getting on and off trains. escalators to get where they needed to be.

Hochul also asked the MTA to continue to monitor the situation in real time to determine if any further schedule changes might be necessary. Rinaldi says that has always been the plan. She said data shows LIRR riders saved a combined 38,051 hours of travel time on the East Side compared to travel time using Penn Station during peak periods last week despite early headaches and l Agency will continue to assess capacity and ridership in the future.

“We said we were looking at every train and every line to assess where customers weren’t getting the level of service they and we expected,” Rinaldi said previously. “These changes are steps to ensure a better experience in the future while continuing to provide broader service to more New York City terminals than the LIRR has ever had before. We will continue to monitor the trends in traffic and load conditions and will make the necessary adjustments.

Although there were some signs of improvement this week following the changes, many still described crowded trains, longer journey times and more train transfers. Brooklyn shuttle trains were kept on standby to transfer passengers. But despite more trains, more carriages and customer service representatives patrolling the platforms, there was still plenty of room for improvement, passengers said.

The head of the LIRR Commuter Council said things were a bit calmer on Monday, but added it was clear train timetables will again have to be rearranged. Some officials, like at Oyster Bay, said the changes needed to be made immediately.

To see the full set of changes, be sure to visit MTA’s website at https://new.mta.info/.