Latest updates: LIRR service resumes after strike

Long Island commuters and LIRR getting back on track after strike ends

"All aboard!" an announcer said over the PA system shortly before noon Tuesday as the Ronkonkoma-bound Long Island Rail Road train prepared to depart from Penn Station.

And with that, the three-and-a-half day LIRR union strike, which forced hundreds of thousands of commuters to alter their daily commute, boarding sparsely-utilized shuttle buses or enduring jam-packed highways to trek extra hours into work or school, came to an official end Tuesday.

The strike, which lasted 84 hours — spanning a weekend, a full workday and a second morning commute — was the first to hobble the nation's largest commuter rail system in 32 years.

Read more here. 

LIRR got these brothers to Knicks' Game 1

Adam and Andrew Ayroso, of Bethpage, were in good spirits Tuesday when they took the LIRR to Game 1 of the Knicks’ Eastern Conference Finals game with the Cavaliers.

But a day earlier? There was serious doubts and their father was concerned their commute would be a lot worse.

“We worried we’d have to drive in and that would take a couple of hours,” Adam said at Penn Station.

Instead they arrived 90 mins before tipoff in Knicks jerseys. Andrew Ayroso was glad because he’s been to plenty of Knicks games and it could’ve been a strain both arriving and leaving the city.

Having the LIRR back made him appreciate how many people have to commute to and from Long Island to Manhattan. The brothers could now focus on more important matters, such as if the Knicks would win Tuesday.

Yet they also supported the LIRR union and weren’t upset they went on strike just before a pivotal playoff game.

“I hope that people got what they asked for,” Adam said.

Slow ride home despite LIRR restart

As of 6 p.m., traffic on the eastbound Long Island Expressway began to slow near Long Island City and remained glacial through Queens, according to the New York State Department of Transportation’s traffic monitoring website 511ny.org. Rush hour westbound traffic appeared predictably jammed, while traffic in either direction appeared to bottleneck near Lake Success, Old Westbury and Woodbury.

Pockets of dense traffic in either direction blotted the Southern State Parkway from Valley Steam to the west to West Babylon in the east. Eastbound jams along the Grand Central Parkway stretched east into Nassau County on the Northern State Parkway.

All branches of the LIRR are on or close to schedule.

Lone rider has the shuttle bus from Howard Beach to himself

Talk about a quiet ride. Vinny Migliore of Babylon was the only person on the shuttle ride from Howard Beach to Bay Shore Train Station.

It took about two hours — notably longer than the 50-minute train ride he usually enjoys — but it wasn’t a bad experience for Migliore.

“It was pretty cool,” Migliore said. “It was pretty sufficient, a little traffic obviously, but aside from that it was pretty smooth.”

Migliore drove to Bay Shore Train Station in the morning and took the shuttle to and from his work as an electrician in Terminal 1 at John F. Kennedy Airport. He said he understood where the union was coming from with the strike.

“I’m just happy it was resolved quickly and everyone could get back to work and be at ease, not having to wake up an hour or two earlier just to get to work at their normal time,” Migliore said.

As someone who takes the railroad six days a week, he said he’s looking forward to taking the Wednesday morning train after managing a shuttle schedule during the strike.
“It makes my commute so much easier and quicker,” Migliore said. “Obviously it wouldn’t take you two hours to get home.“

A dearth of customers at Hicksville station coffee shop

Business was slow late Tuesday afternoon at Farhat Qureshi’s coffee shop and convenience store at the Hicksville train station.

Normally she would be upset. (Well … she was a little upset.)

But it was still better than Monday, Qureshi said.

“It is better, but not that good,” she said while filling orders for soft drinks and snacks. She was open on Monday, “but business was zero.”

Qureshi said she didn't bother opening Tuesday morning, knowing the trains still would not be running, even after the end of the LIRR strike was announced late Monday.

She opened the store around noon Tuesday, about the time limited service resumed.

Still, no customers.

“But until 4 [p.m.], it was nothing. After 4, it was something,”

Her boss told her to open the shop on Saturday, even though the strike had begun a minute past midnight that day.

“Saturday, I was here whole day. I made $114 for 14 hours,” Qureshi said.

But at least she was working, instead of “sitting at home on the couch.”

“I would be home and watching TV all day,” Qureshi said. “This is better.”

No searching for parking spaces at LIRR lots

For Alex Christoforatos of Floral Park, the return of the LIRR Tuesday brought an unexpected surprise. An empty parking lot.

Usually, she has to search a long time for parking at her train stop. Instead, with passengers either arriving early or staying home, she enjoyed an easy path into Manhattan for her 2:59 p.m. train.

“I guess people didn’t want to commute to work today,” Christoforatos said.

She was just as calm Tuesday waiting for her train home. Even if parking is more hectic with the LIRR back, she offered her support for the union after the three-day ordeal.

“I hope the workers got what they wanted,” Christoforatos said.

Another rider, Sherion Morris of Deer Park, usually wakes up early to catch a 4:30 a.m. train to her job via the LIRR. But with the strike, her commute went from 1 hour, 20 minutes to almost 3 hours Tuesday

That meant a 3:30 a.m. wake-up call so she could arrive at work at 7:15 a.m.

“I had to take a shuttle to Howard Beach in Queens, then take the A Train through Brooklyn and Manhattan,” Morris said. “I wish they would’ve done (the shuttle) through Jamaica Center in Queens”

She was thrilled the strike was over and didn’t have to take the shuttle home.

“Oh my god, I’m so happy,” Moore said. “I’m not sure how long it’d take to get home.”

A 'quiet' ride on one of the last shuttle buses

Dennis Madsen of Lindenhurst took the shuttle back from Howard Beach to the Bay Shore train station. He was just one of two passengers on the bus.

“It was quiet,” Madsen chuckled.

He also took the shuttle in the morning, which took about an hour. Madsen said he takes the train to his work in downtown Brooklyn five days a week and said he’s “very happy” that he can take the LIRR into work Wednesday morning.

“It helps me a lot,” Madsen said. “I don’t have to get up earlier to go in, so it’s better.”

Reflecting on a nightmare travel week for LI

A track fire shut down Penn Station. Falling debris snarled the George Washington Bridge. A sink hole swallowed a car on the LIE. And then a strike stopped the LIRR.

Newsday's transportation reporter Alfonso A. Castillo can't remember a more surreal stretch of time on the beat than these past few days. It revealed the importance, and fragility of the region's transportation network, and showed what happens when it goes down.

Read his full reflections in the Dangerous Roads newsletter, and sign up to get the latest transportation news.

Philosophical about the strike, high schooler says 'they happen'

Islip’s Gavin Volk stepped off the eastbound train at Bay Shore Train Station at 4:19 p.m., arriving from Mineola. He usually takes the train as a student to Chaminade High School.

“[The strike] was a big impact,” Volk said. “I had to figure out driving to school, getting a ride back and forth. It changed the whole day.”

With the trains running again, Volk is able to skip the traffic and return to his usual route. He said he didn’t blame the MTA or the union for the strike, saying “it’s how a union works. It goes back-and-forth like that. Strikes over contracts, they happen every so often.”

Riders heading home on rails, still aggravated with strike's inconvenience

As LIRR service returned to mostly normal at Penn Station Tuesday, the end of the strike had mixed reactions from passengers waiting in the terminal.

For Bill Axmacher, 65, the East Northport native wasn’t a fan of the LIRR even though he was grateful to head home on the rails.

He drove in to Manhattan Sunday night to stay with family but was still bothered by how the strike impacted him and other residents.

“I had things to do in Long Island so it was super inconvenient,” he said.

He also wasn’t a fan of the LIRR union because he noted that workers have what he called “a golden ticket” with their contract.

“I’m relieved...it was a big inconvenience,” Axmacher said, eating a scoop of ice cream.

It was a different story for Maddy Holt of Massepequa. To beat the traffic Tuesday, she left home at 5:40 a.m. and drove one hour into the city to avoid traffic. She was worried about the shuttles taking perhaps 90 minutes so she decided to leave earlier than usual.

It also meant spending time at Starbucks to kill time before starting her job at a local school.

“It was totally different. The traffic was good down the West Side Highway,” Holt said.

Still, she was glad to be at Penn Station along with other passengers. While she appreciated a different way to work and downtime getting coffee, Holt was glad for the familiarity of her usual commute and the LIRR running again.

“So happy to be waiting here to go home,” Holt said.

MTA: LIRR running full schedule

It's official.

The MTA has put out a release saying: "The LIRR is now running full weekday service and is operating on or close to schedule" and advising riders to use the TrainTime app to plan their commute.

Shuttle bus service will also be available during the p.m. rush to and from six locations on Long Island, the MTA said.

Click on this link for more details.

Glad to see 'the ticket man'

Suzanne Sharp stood at Bay Shore Train Station waiting for the 3:58 p.m. westbound train.

Originally from Seaford, Sharp now lives in Queens and said she was thrilled to hear that the strike had ended.

“Thank god, man. I was so glad to see the ticket man in Patchogue,” Sharp said.

Sharp, who is in between jobs, said she was worried the strike would last longer. She said the strike did not affect her opinion of the MTA.

“No, I love the MTA. I don’t know where I’d be without them,” Sharp said. “I was so scared; I went to Jamaica yesterday and everything said, ‘No passengers.’ ”

Go Knicks! Fans relieved to ride rails to MSG

Omar Ahmed, Aun Abbas and Steve Mandola waved a Knicks flag on the westbound train platform in Hicksville as they headed to Madison Square Garden for Tuesday’s NBA playoff game.

All was good — especially after the LIRR strike was settled.

But if it hadn’t ended Monday night?

“To be honest, we would have Uber-ed or we would have driven,” said Ahmed, 21, a Stony Brook University junior from Hicksville.

It would have fallen on Abbas, 21, who goes to Farmingdale State, to fill up his gas tank if they took the car.

“It would have been a lot of money,” said Abbas, like his friends decked out in blue-and-orange Knicks gear. “We’re a bunch of college kids.”

Knicks playoff game Tuesday night and the strike ending? Coincidence?

The most remarkable thing about the Hicksville train station Tuesday afternoon was how normal it seemed.

Barely three hours after trains resumed running, a few dozen passengers stared at train schedules, punched keys at ticket kiosks and waited on platforms. The familiar squeal of railroad brakes sounded as trains arrived. Automated announcements blared from loudspeakers like they normally do.

Giancarlo Cornejo, who was waiting for a westbound train with his 8-year-old daughter, had a theory about the timing of the strike's end. He figured the deal between the LIRR unions and the MTA had been struck because of the Knicks. The basketball team had a playoff game at Madison Square Garden Tuesday night — not even 24 hours after the contract dispute was settled.

Not that the Queens resident is inclined toward conspiracy theories.

"If it wasn't for the Knicks being back on ...," Cornejo said. "That has something to do with it."

Some passengers rued the money lost and the hours they'll never recover as they recounted tales of the previous days' commuting adventures.

"I must have spent 60 bucks on taxis because there was no trains," Pedro Francia, of Hicksville, said as he described his Monday trip to Farmingville, where he is a cook.

But Sunday was worse. That cost him $70.

"I tried to take the bus and the bus never come," he said.

Farhana Ibrahim took the train home from her Manhattan job Tuesday afternoon, but getting to work in the morning entailed a three-hour ordeal involving a shuttle bus from Hicksville to the city.

"It was worse" than her Monday morning commute, she said.

On Monday she had hitched a ride with a friend.

"It wasn't that bad, but I don't want that," Ibrahim said.
 

What to expect on the Tuesday afternoon/evening commute

Here's a rundown of what to expect for the Tuesday commute.

Empty off-peak LIRR cars

Moynihan Trail Hall at Penn Station was bustling with passengers by mid-day Tuesday,

Restaurant tables were packed with diners and the lines to the bathroom snaked around the corner.

But the off-peak LIRR trains were the exact opposite as commuters hadn't quite caught up with their train routines following the strike's end.

Train cars on a 2:07 train from Penn Station to Huntington left with mostly empty cars except for a ticket taker who walked down the aisle.

An international student's transportation dilemma

Aboard the first train to depart Penn Station since the strike ended was Becca Thomas, whose move back to East Meadow, and the Gulf, from college upstate had been left with a question mark.

Thomas, 18, an international student who is from Dubai, attends Bard College and needs to commute from upstate — via Amtrak, then the LIRR — to get home after the semester ends. She is with relatives in East Meadow when she's not at college or home in the United Arab Emirates, where she is headed for summer break.

"I was watching the news and so were my relatives who live here and my parents who back home were also paying attention to the news for any updates," she texted Newsday from the 12:03 p.m. bound for Ronkonkoma.

She added: "We were forced to consider how I would completely reroute my trip, manage all of my bags, and find an alternative way home —something that would have been both financially and emotionally draining."

"It made me realize how deeply transportation disruptions affect people’s everyday lives," Thomas said.

A day in NYC waiting for the LIRR to start up

Commuters aren't home free just yet. Some aren't home at all yet.

Eli Scalere, 19, of Garden City, had just arrived back from a visit to see family up in Albany and was sitting on the floor of Penn Station soon after the restoration of train service.

"There's no trains back, so I decided to make a day out of it," said Scalere, an Arizona State University rising sophomore: He'll hang out with friends, get lunch, get dinner and will later ride a Huntington line train to New Hyde Park, to be picked up.

On Saturday, he was planning to ride the LIRR into the city to get to Penn and then ride the Amtrak train at Moynihan Train Hall, heading upstate.

But that was day one of the strike — and no LIRR. So what would have been a roughly 40-minute ride on the railroad turned into a 90-minute car ride in traffic, courtesy of his parents, who then had to do the commute back too.

"I just barely made my train," he said. He explained: "It was just a pain in the butt."

'It wasn't too painful'

Passengers boarded the first Huntington train to Penn Station, heading to work or visiting Manhattan. Some commuters related calling out to work over the weekend, unable to drive or find other options to get to the city.

Others worked remotely, but said the train served as a vital artery to connect Long Island and the city.

“I'm glad to be on the train, glad that the strike is over,” said Ted Lyons, 68, of Huntington, who said he plans to ride the rails to visit a new grandson in Hoboken, New Jersey. “I'm glad we can get into the city rather than driving. We need the trains.”

Lyons said the strike didn't change the need or expectations of using the LIRR.

“We haven't had one in quite a long time, so I'm happy about that. It's kind of like what you expect when you live in New York,” Lyons said “These kind of things happen; you’ve got to be prepared for everything, and it wasn't too painful. It could have been, but I'm very happy that the strike's over.”

He traveled with a software engineer, Shriz Niazi, 30, of Seattle.

Niazi said because he was unable to get to work Monday he got permission to work remotely.

“It was insane. For a lot of people, you have to go five days in the office a week, and so you have to work with management to say, you cannot come in,” Niazi said. “You had to convince the HR that, ‘Hey, this thing is not working,’ and you cannot make it in."

LIRR riders feel wave of relief as service resumes

People waiting for the train at the LIRR station in Ronkonkoma around noon Tuesday expressed relief the strike had ended.

Orient resident Arthur Fitting normally takes the train two to three times a week to Grand Central Madison in Manhattan for his job in healthcare, he said at the station Tuesday. He was able to work from home Monday.

The LIRR's three-day shutdown doesn't affect his views on using the train, which he sees as valuable, especially given the upgrades to the system made in the past several years, he said.

"Whatever the dispute was, I think that's always going to happen between labor and management, no matter what industry you're in. I don't know if we'll ever get a full story [about the strike], but it doesn't matter. They're running today," Fitting said.

Wyandanch resident Giovanny Delgado, 21, normally takes the train to Ronkonkoma and then transfers to a bus to go to Suffolk County Community College's Selden campus four days a week.

The LIRR strike couldn't have come at a worse time — the week of his final exams this semester, he said.

His commute, which is usually about 30 minutes each way, extended to almost two hours Monday when he had to take two buses to get to the school.

"My earliest class was at 7:30 a.m., so leaving at almost 5 a.m. is crazy," he said.

Sisters express no hard feelings over LIRR strike

Lori Colon, 58, of Port Jefferson Station, arrived at the Ronkonkoma station with her sister, Donna Cooley, 62, of Sayville, with a mission to board the 12:18 p.m. train to Penn Station.

Colon said her 19-year-old daughter is finishing her freshman year at the Fashion Institute of Technology and worried about how she would help her move out of her dorm room.

"It’s ... not only end of her freshman year ... it is the week everyone's packing up, everyone's got to be out this week, or they're graduating," Colon said. "It’s been really rough for people getting in and out and stuff."

The sisters jointly carried a suitcase filled with packing bags.

While they were concerned about railroad service, the sisters said they had no negative feelings about the railroad.

They said that MTA leadership should have agreed to a deal on Sunday to prevent the strike from going into the workweek.

"Everyone is always talking about overtime, this, and ... they get paid. Please, do you know how difficult it is to live right now? It's ridiculous," Colon. "Give them what they're worth, give them their pay. Period. End of story. Everyone needs a raise."

Huntington sees first Penn Station-bound train post-strike

A sparsely occupied LIRR train marked the first to leave Huntington for Penn Station since just before midnight Friday.

The 12:17 p.m. train was five minutes late, but relatively normally, as passengers had to walk up the stairs to the opposite track.

LIRR workers returned to work, heading down the platform and aboard the train. Ticket takers walked down the aisles with the familiar sound of clicking hole punches.

“This is the train to Penn Station,” an announcement boomed inside the mostly empty train cars. “All tickets please. All tickets.” 

Updated shuttle bus service schedule for Tuesday p.m. rush hour

Though hourly train service on the Babylon, Huntington, Ronkonkoma and Port Washington branches resumed around noon — with normal service scheduled to start systemwide at 4 p.m. — the MTA said it will still run some shuttle bus service throughout the evening rush hour.

Eastbound peak service will run from 3 to 7 p.m. and westbound off-peak service will run from 3 to 6:30 p.m., according to the agency. 

Eastbound service will run from Howard Beach-JFK Airport and the A subway to the following points:

• Hempstead Lake State Park
• Hicksville LIRR
• Mineola LIRR
• Bay Shore LIRR

There will also be eastbound shuttle service from Jamaica-179 St “F” subway to:

• Huntington LIRR
• Ronkonkoma LIRR

The westbound, reverse-peak service will only run:

• From Bay Shore LIRR to Howard Beach-JFK Airport / A subway line
• From Huntington LIRR to Jamaica-179 St / F subway line

Commuters can transfer to and from the A train at Howard Beach and the F train from Jamaica-179 Street.

Cost of shuttle buses was as high as $550G, MTA says

The shuttle buses did not have as many riders as expected, with just 3,056 riders on Tuesday morning — an uptick from the day before, according to LIRR President Rob Free.

The daily cost of the shuttle buses was between $325,000 and $550,000, according to Jai Patel, the MTA's Chief Financial Officer, who said during last month's MTA board meeting that the exact cost would depend on the number of buses deployed. The buses are free for riders and the costs come out of the MTA budget.

Speaking at Jamaica station on Tuesday morning, Free said the shuttle service "worked out extremely well — we were able to accommodate everyone who showed up."

Ronkonkoma riders document moment first train pulled in

At 12:12 p.m., for the first time in three days, dozens of commuters standing on the Ronkonkoma train station platform partook in the longtime, communal instinct of turning their heads to the left — as the first train destined to Penn Station arrived.

Passengers quietly boarded the train without hurrah, camaraderie or applause — although several pulled out their phones or hand-held cameras to document the occasion.

'All aboard!': LIRR trains resume out of Penn Station

At Penn Station, it felt as if there hadn't been a strike. Almost.

Passengers ran for trains — the first, a 12:03 p.m. to Ronkonkoma — leaving from Track 19. Digital displays listed future departures: to Port Washington (Track 18, 12:16) to Babylon (Track 20, 12:22).

Perhaps the only signs that there hadn't been a strike were the news photographers documenting the first departure, joined in photo-taking by an MTA police supervisor snapping a cellphone pic of the moment.

“All aboard!" an announcer said over the PA system

A train to Greenport arrived on Track 1 at the Ronkonkoma station at 11:54 a.m. and left at 11:56 a.m., the first commuter train to operate since the strike.

Dozens of people gathered at Track 1 by noon, most eager to get on the 12:18 p.m. train to Penn Station.

For the first time in three days, the overhead screen displayed the train schedule.

'For as long as it lasts'

Jay Lano, 65, of Northport, was waiting for the first Huntington train into Penn Station to go to work in the city.

He said he had scrambled back from the city Friday night as train schedules, already impeded by an Amtrak tunnel fire a day earlier, were significantly disrupted at Penn Station.

He said he could have driven into the city but is happy to have the LIRR back, "for as long as it lasts."

"That option wasn't palatable but it's nice to rely on the railroad again as long it is going to last," Lano said. "It's generally reliable, but you never know when something else is going to disrupt service"

Here are the post-strike LIRR schedules

The first eastbound train since the strike began 3½ days ago is due to depart Penn Station for Ronkokoma at 12:03 p.m., according to the MTA.

Other eastbound trains are scheduled to leave from Penn Station for Port Washington at 12:16 p.m., Huntington at 12:10 p.m. and Babylon at 12:22 p.m. From Grand Central Madison, trains will leave for Port Washington at 12:41 p.m., Massapequa at 12:06 p.m., and Far Rockaway at 1:17 p.m.

The first westbound trains headed toward the city will leave from Port Washington at 12:06 p.m., Huntington at 12:17 p.m., Ronkonkoma at 12:18 p.m. and Babylon at 12:14 p.m.

Riders should check TrainTime app for the latest updates.

Trains on diesel branches will start later. A westbound train from Montauk is scheduled for 2:45 p.m., while others are supposed to leave from Port Jefferson at 2 p.m., Greenport at 1:53 p.m. and Oyster Bay at 1:38 p.m.

Even though the strike ended at 12:01 a.m., restarting takes time because of federally mandated inspections of equipment and the need to position trains and workers in the right locations, according to LIRR President Rob Free.

"There's a lot of work that goes into it, and we're going to provide service rather quickly," Free said last night.

Mamdani says LIRR contract is fair

Mayor Zohran Mamdani, saying he thinks the Long Island Rail Road union contract proposal appears to be fair, is looking forward to service resuming and making life easier for New Yorkers.

"We see it’s been incredibly difficult for New Yorkers over these past few days to negotiate their day-to-day needs. Now at 12 p.m., they're going to see it gets that little bit easier," he said, after looking at his wristwatch.

Asked whether he thought the deal is fair, Mamdani said: “It looks like it.”

“I think obviously this still has to be ratified by unions. But given the way in which it’s being responded to, I think that many New Yorkers are overjoyed at the fact that we’re going to see a resumption of service in about 46, 47 minutes, and that that is something that is important for the workers who keep our commuter rail running and also for the New Yorkers who rely on that commuter rail.”

Asked about highest-in-the-nation salaries for rail workers LIRR salaries, some more than the mayor's own, which is about $260,000, he said: “I think the most important thing is that when you’re looking at these kinds of contracts, there’s an acknowledgment of the kind of work that is being done to ensure this commuter rail system is continuing to operate, and also the importance that it plays in the lives of so many New Yorkers, those who live in New York City but those who are also commuting into New York City. I also don’t think of my own salary as a barometer."

He was speaking at an unrelated event in Queens about childcare alongside Gov. Kathy Hochul.

He said he wasn't familiar enough with LIRR work rules, such as one giving three days' pay for a single shift's work for driving different kinds of trains, to comment.

Hochul left the event abruptly, before anyone could ask her a question. Newsday tried to ask her about the strike and the deal but she walked away without answering.

What it takes to restore service, from a former LIRR engineer

Getting train service up and running following a multiday union strike on the nation’s largest commuter railroad is no easy feat, according to Jeff Anderson.

And he would know.

A former locomotive engineer, Anderson was operating trains for the LIRR when its unions last went on strike in 1994, and remembers what it took to restore service after a two-day shutdown.

“When the strike took place, all that equipment had to be yarded up. And the yards are right now fully packed,” said Anderson, author of "Thirty Years Behind the Throttle: The Unexpected Journeys of a LIRR Locomotive Engineer".

“That equipment has to be repositioned," Anderson said. "It’s just a matter of contacting everyone and letting them know that they need to be in certain spots and get equipment repositioned, and pre-positioned for any kind of rush hour.”

Before the LIRR’s fleet of about 1,200 train cars can roll out, inspections must be conducted of both trains and tracks in accordance with Federal Railroad Administration regulations. Signal circuits, speed control systems and grade-crossing safety gates must all be tested to ensure they are working properly, Anderson said.

“It all has to be checked out before they can run passenger trains,” he said.

Although the union strike ended Monday night with the settlement of a new four-year contract, limited LIRR service is not expected to return until noon Tuesday, with hourly train service on the Babylon, Huntington, Ronkonkoma and Port Washington branches. 

Last shuttle buses depart Ronkonkoma

The last shuttle bus to leave Ronkonkoma as the strike came to a close departed at 9:06 a.m. with a single passenger.

“We don’t leave anyone behind,” an MTA employee said.

One completely empty bus remained in the station. It left after MTA employees told the driver no more passengers would come.

Passengers on the second-to-last bus to leave Ronkonkoma were mostly grateful to have made the cut.

“I'm excited that I'm making it on the shuttle,” said Natalie Bederman, 29, of Fort Greene, Brooklyn, who ran to the shuttle after being dropped off in a car. “I thought I was gonna be late, and this has been crazy, but I'm really excited to be here, and I'm thankful that they thought of a system as a backup for us to get to work.”

Bederman, who works as a child psychologist in Brooklyn, was the last person on the penultimate shuttle to leave Ronkonkoma, which was about a quarter full of people.

Jay Rivas, 19, of Brentwood, also took the second-to-last shuttle to his job as a swim instructor in Brooklyn.

He said he couldn’t make his shift on Saturday as there was no way for him to get to Brooklyn. Rivas said he relies on the railroad to get to work and usually takes the train from Brentwood.

“My only thoughts on the strike is that they should just pay the people… the shuttle is very inconvenient,” Rivas said. “I think this strike is very avoidable … just pay your workers. ... We all should be on that right now, but no, because the workers aren't getting paid fair.“

James Baron-Murray, 49, of Mastic, said he works in Manhattan as a technician.

“This is my first time on it, so last first and last time, hopefully,” said Baron-Murray, who was one of the last people to leave Ronkonkoma on a shuttle.

'I can't afford $80'

Home health aide Andrea Gray, 58, of Jamaica, Queens, took a shuttle bus that left 179th Street at 8:20 a.m. Tuesday to get to a job in Locust Valley.

But when she arrived at the Ronkonkoma train station after 9 a.m., she saw Uber charging $80 for a ride to Locust Valley.

“I can’t afford an $80 ride,” she said.

Gray said she canceled the job, which was to relieve another home health aide, and hoped her agency would be able to send someone else.

She didn't know there would be no more buses running back to Jamaica, let alone that railroad service would start at noon.

Gray was one of the first people to buy a railroad ticket since the end of the strike.

“I guess I’ll walk around,” she told Newsday as she waited for service to commence.

Westbury resident repeats odyssey to Manhattan restaurant, with some tweaks

Juan Perazo Monday had a three-hour commute to his job as a waiter at Grand Central Oyster Bar. He didn’t want a repeat so he drove from his home in Westbury Tuesday morning to catch a shuttle bus at the Hicksville LIRR station to the Howard Beach/JFK Airport subway station.

But he was too late. He didn’t realize the shuttle service only lasted until 9 a.m. He arrived 25 minutes too late.

“Right now you can take the city buses,” an MTA employee told him, referring to NICE. “The N22 or N24 will take you to Jamaica and connect with the subway.”

He headed across North Newbridge Road toward the bus stop. He didn’t mind the change in plans.

“Jamaica is OK,” he said. “There will be trains tonight, so I can come back here to pick up my car.”

On Monday, he had driven to a friend’s house in Bayside, Queens, parked his car, and then took a bus and a subway train to work.

“It was a lot,” he said.

LIRR strike triggers a first for Setauket resident

When Maryellen Hughes needs to catch a flight from Kennedy Airport, she usually drives there from her home in Setauket.

With the long drive to the airport and the parking such a hassle, Hughes on Thursday for the first time took the LIRR to the AirTrain to get to her Seattle-bound flight to visit a friend. She’s now an AirTrain fan.

“It was quite easy,” she said. “I was hoping to do it on the way home. But it didn’t happen.”

Instead, Hughes, 57, paid $100 for an Uber to the Hicksville LIRR station, where she was waiting for a friend to pick her up and drive her home. She didn’t want to overly inconvenience the friend, so she suggested Hicksville as a meet-up point.

“I was going to wait at the airport until noon,” when some trains are scheduled to begin running, Hughes said as she sat on a green metal chair inside the station with a foot propped up on her suitcase, a cup of coffee in hand. “But I couldn’t do it after a red-eye flight. I didn’t have the energy.”

Hughes doesn’t know the details of the contract dispute, but she supports the workers.

“I’m in a union,” she said. “I know what it’s like to negotiate with management. So I support them without a doubt.”

'Sounds like a win-win'

On the last morning of the Long Island Rail Road's charter bus service, a string of buses from Huntington and Ronkonkoma disgorged Long Islanders onto busy Hillside Avenue in Jamaica, Queens: some frazzled and running late, all relieved that the ordeal was almost over.

Though she sided with the workers in the labor dispute, Tracy Ann Anderson, 55, a social worker from Brentwood who works in Queens, said that a two-hour morning bus ride had made her an hour late to work. She would take the train home after work and was eager to return to normal commuting life, she said: "Oh, my goodness, I am."

Doug Adil, 71, a construction manager from Northport who formerly worked for LIRR, was getting off his first bus, after driving into work Monday.

"I'm glad the state and the unions got together," he said.

The deal reached by LIRR management and unions "sounds like a win-win," Owen Dixon, 27, a student from Hicksville, said the bus ride from Huntington had cost him about precious 20 minutes. "I have exams," he said. He planned to go home by train.

Ronkonkoma shuttles were more popular Tuesday

MTA workers at Ronkonkoma told Newsday that more people are taking the shuttle Tuesday than on Monday. They estimated that at least 500 people took the buses for the ride to the city.

Just before 9 a.m., only three buses of the earlier fleet remained at the Ronkonkoma train station.

The station’s ticket office had reopened, but no one had come in to buy a ticket, a clerk said.

A screen in the office lobby said that rail service would resume at noon.

Newsday is reaching out to the MTA to see if this pattern is holding across the six shuttle bus locations.
 

Major congestion, long commutes reported Tuesday morning

At the height of the morning commute, the traffic-aware real-time data report shows incredibly heavy traffic crawling both west and east on major roads between Long Island and New York City.

Data shows that the trek between Ronkonkoma and Penn Station is taking 45 minutes more than usual eastbound — and 76 minutes more than usual westbound — as of 8 a.m. That’s an eastbound trip of 109 minutes and a westbound trek of 140 minutes.

The trip between Babylon and Penn was 107 minutes eastbound, 42 minutes more than normal, and 134 minutes westbound, or 68 minutes more than the usual 66-minute non-strike commute time.

The trip between Hicksville and Penn is taking 39 minutes more eastbound and 71 minutes more westbound. That’s an 81-minute trip east, 119 minutes west.

A student's struggle to get home

Abbie Zheng, 18, of Queens, expressed relief the strike was over as she wheeled a black suitcase to a shuttle bus just after 7 a.m. at Ronkonkoma.

The Stony Brook University student said she had just completed her freshman year and was going back home andto move her things from her dorm.

“I'm pretty excited I'll be able to go on the trains now,” Zheng said.

While she didn’t think too much of the strike before leaving school, she now recognized its importance.

“I thought that [the strike would] go down in history,” she said. “We haven't had this in a long time, right? But I'm just glad the strike is over now.”

At Hicksville, not everyone got the word

Nadir Waheed ran on the Hicksville LIRR platform Tuesday to catch what he thought was an LIRR train leaving for Penn or Grand Central Station.

“It stopped, but they didn’t open the doors,” he said.

Waheed, 48, saw two men board another car on the train, so he stayed on the platform awaiting another. “Maybe they’re MTA employees.”

Waheed had Googled Monday night for information on the strike and read it was settled, so he drove to the train station Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile, at the staffed ticket counter inside the station, every few minutes someone arrived to buy a ticket for a morning train, only to be told trains won’t be running until noon.

In the station parking lot, there were waiting shuttle buses to Howard Beach. But Waheed said he would return home and take a train to his office in Midtown on Wednesday. The long bus and subway rides would be “too difficult,” he said.

“I prefer to go home and get a cup of coffee,” he said.

Shuttle buses will run through evening commute

Though hourly train service is set to resume at noon on the Babylon, Huntington, Ronkonkoma and Port Washington branches — with normal service scheduled to resume system-wide beginning at 4 p.m. — the LIRR peak- and reverse-peak shuttle buses will still run from 4:30 to 9 a.m. and 3 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, serving commuters impacted by the just-ended strike, officials said.

Peak direction service only will run from the railroad stations in Hicksville and Mineola to the Howard Beach-Kennedy Airport lot, as well as from Hempstead Lake State Park to Howard Beach-Kennedy.

Peak and off-peak shuttle buses will run between the LIRR station in Bay Shore and Howard Beach-Kennedy Airport, as well as between Huntington and Ronkonkoma and Jamaica-179th Street at Hillside Avenue.

Commuters can transfer to and from the A train at Howard Beach and the F train from Jamaica-179th Street.

At the shuttle, frustration and relief

As commuters continued to arrive at Ronkonkoma to take the last shuttles of the strike, empty trains headed west toward New York City, rolling past the platform and onto the main line.

Joe Boko, 41, of Centereach, said he was taking a 6:38 a.m. shuttle to work as a chef in the city. He expressed frustration at the negotiations taking three days.

“Kind of disappointed; it's grown adults that can't talk things out,” Boko said. “I think that was their goal, to strike all along.”

Both his parents were in unrelated unions and he said he “backs unions 100%” as the unions, in turn, gave him a good life.

Ultimately, he said, both sides need to “be realistic” and the union should have considered taking an arbitration year.

“Look, it's never perfect, right? Arbitration and …negotiations get ugly," Boko said. "Sometimes the unions are right, sometimes the unions are wrong.”

Shelley Curcio, 39, of Holbrook, said she has to work in person two times a week as an actuary in midtown. She usually takes the train but worked from home yesterday.

“I have really no idea what's going on, because they didn't say how often the buses are coming,” Curcio said. “Thankfully, there's tons of them here.”

Juan Vargas, 58, of Patchogue, who works for the health department, brought his electric bike with him to the shuttle.

“I’m happy,” he said about the settlement. “I’m really happy.”

Early shuttle riders: A disruptive headache

Diego Alvarez, 41, is happy there’s a settlement. But, he said, “It’s been a headache,” with his typical 1-hour commute from an LIRR station within walking distance of his Seaford home turning into a 2 ½ hour ordeal.

“We didn’t want this,” he said outside the Hicksville LIRR station as he was about to step onto a shuttle bus to an A subway train stop in Howard Beach, near Kennedy Airport. “We’re already paying so much for the train.”

Alvarez then planned to take the A train to 42nd Street in Manhattan for his audiovisual job. He starts work at 9 a.m. but arrived at the shuttle bus at 5:40 a.m. With traffic and the long subway ride, he didn’t want to take the chance of arriving at work late.

Alvarez and other passengers did not have to wait in line for the buses, which were assembled in the parking lot, one arriving as another departed about seven or eight minutes apart.

Melissa Kamper, who grew up in East Meadow and now lives in Buffalo, said the settlement didn’t help her.

Kamper arrived at Penn Station from Buffalo on May 6, visiting her parents in East Meadow and then her girlfriend in Philadelphia. Her Amtrak train back to Buffalo is scheduled for 10.20 a.m. but she was at the Hicksville station at 5:50 a.m.

On a normal day, the trip on the train from Merrick into Penn would be an easy hour ride.

“People need a living wage,” she said, “but it was disruptive. But I guess that’s good. Disruption works.”

She spent $900 on ride share fares

Steika Artciste, 23, of Ronkonkoma, said she spent over $900 in ride share app fares to get to work the past three days.

The United Airways flight attendant works out of Newark Airport and said her recent flights were too late in the day to take a shuttle.

This was the first time she took the shuttle since service was suspended, she said.

“I'm up early because I don't want to get late to the airport,” she said, having arrived at the Ronkonkoma station to take the 6 a.m. shuttle Tuesday. “I’m not even supposed to get there til 1 p.m.”

A heat advisory to strike the region

For Long Island commuters there’ll be one less — and one more — reason to be hot under the collar Tuesday.

The LIRR strike is over, with “phased” service scheduled to begin at noon.

But the National Weather Service is calling for a genuine hot one in the city Tuesday, issuing a heat advisory and warning those in the five boroughs to expect temperatures soaring into the low-to-mid 90s. Heat index values will make it feel like it’s pushing 100 degrees.

The weather service said Long Islanders not venturing out of Nassau and Suffolk will catch a bit of a break, with heat and humidity falling short of heat advisory criteria -- even though it could still hit 90.

The advisory is in effect from 11 a.m. Tuesday through 8 p.m. Wednesday.

“Use air conditioning to stay cool at home or go to a place that has air conditioning,” the weather service said on its website.

An air quality alert is in effect for both Long Island and the five boroughs on Tuesday, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

An empty train departs Ronkonkoma

Aside from the three large charter buses parked at Ronkonkoma station, the return to normal was evident Tuesday morning. Only a few riders were seen on the waiting buses.

For the first time in three days, an empty train sat parked on the tracks of the Ronkonkoma train station as the sun began to rise over Long Island. It pulled out of the station at 5:37 a.m. The MTA said it would take some time to reposition all its trains.

The dedicated group of union workers who had protested at 1000 Railroad Ave. with red shirts and picket signs in the dark on Monday were gone Tuesday, a tentative contract having been reached.

For the miserable commuter, one more day

Resilient Long Islanders who endured three days of the Long Island Rail Road strike of 2026 need to hang in there one more day.

No doubt they will, especially after commuters navigated a weekday without the nation’s’ largest commuter railroad and confronted jam-packed highways that added 60 to 90 minutes for many.

The MTA and the striking unions reached an agreement Monday night, and both sides promised to get the first trains running by noon on the electrified branches: Port Washington, Huntington, Ronkonkoma and Babylon.

The rest of the system is expected to be running by the afternoon rush hour.

There are shuttle buses running again Tuesday morning from six locations.

One more day, and the morning commute, always a challenge, will at least be back to normal.

After chaotic day for LI travelers, a long-sought contract deal ends strike

A deal to end the historic Long Island Rail Road union strike was reached late Monday night, allowing tens of thousands of harried and frustrated Long Islanders — who saw their commutes double or even triple during the first workday of the dispute — to expect a return of rail service by midday on Tuesday, officials said.

Shortly before 9 p.m. Monday, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the MTA had "reached a fair deal with the five LIRR unions that delivers raises for workers while protecting riders and taxpayers."

Phased-in LIRR service, she said, will resume at noon on Tuesday.

Read the full story here.

LIRR service to resume at noon Tuesday on 4 electrified branches

LIRR President Rob Free said train service will resume at noon Tuesday on the four electrified branches of the railroad — the Babylon, Huntington, Port Washington Ronkonkoma branches. All branches — including those that use electric as well as diesel trains — will resume service at 4 p.m., using normal weekday schedule.

At a news conference with Gov. Kathy Hochul to announce the end of strike by LIRR workers, Free reminded customers to check the TrainTime app and the Long Island Rail Road website for the most up-to-date schedules.

"The riders have our word to get service back up and running with the great on-time performance ... the reliability and the safety that we provide every single day," Free said.

MTA CEO and Chairman Janno Lieber said that on Tuesday morning, shuttle buses will operate just as they did Monday.

Hochul had thanks for "New Yorkers, Long Islanders, particularly, who made all the accommodations, who had to work from home, who sacrificed, who had to put up with inconveniences."

The governor declined to answer questions about the terms of the deal — including about wages and work rules.

She promised that the MTA negotiators reached this deal without having to raise fares or taxes.

"I also would not accept a deal that would compromise affordability for Long Island at a time when everything is going up," Hochul said.

Lieber said: "We had to find a deal that gave people fair raises, but didn't put the hit on the riders, the taxpayers, that didn't blow up the MTA budget, which would have bad consequences for everybody. I'm really proud that we were able to meet your challenge."

At Station Yards, businesses thankful for 'amazing' news

Businesses at Ronkonkoma station and Station Yards across Railroad Avenue were thankful to learn the late Monday news that the trains, and customers, will be chugging through the area on Wednesday.

On a normal Monday, the Tap Room at Station Yards would be approaching maximum capacity, according to bartender Brandon Aitcheson. But on Monday, with the LIRR strike that just concluded, there were a few seats open at the bar, and hardly anyone dining at tables. He estimated the establishment saw less than half the normal amount of business it would have had the train been running. He called news that the strike would end “amazing.”

“On Mondays, we have a lot of commuters for happy hour,” Aitcheson told Newsday. “I think once the trains are back up and running, we’ll go right back to business as usual.”

Carl Klass, 42, of Ronkonkoma, is happy that more customers will visit The Pink Fin come Wednesday, and that his fiance can ride the train to her job once again.

Boxcar Burgers manager Martin Strunk said the popular American takeout spot has mostly been fulfilling pickup orders through DoorDash and similar services since the strike began.

“It's definitely been a lot slower with the strike because most of our passengers come with the train,” Strunk said. “If it wasn't for DoorDash, UberEats and Grubhub we’d be extremely slow.”

Strunk learned the news that the strike has ended Monday evening when approached by a Newsday reporter, just as coincidentally, the first train he’s seen move through the restaurant window creeped west through the station.

“Wednesday they're back to normal?” Strunk said. “That sounds good.”

Buses to Hicksville available

While MTA workers above the 179th Street F train station moved passengers quickly to shuttle buses to Ronkonkoma and Huntington and to other New York City Transit buses, some riders looking for buses to Hicksville or Great Neck were told there were none.

Three blocks up the street, however, NICE buses to Hicksville, Great Neck and Roosevelt Field were departing regularly.

Minimal strike impact on major retailers

Major retailers and carriers on Long Island said the LIRR strike has caused minimal or no disruptions.

Stop & Shop stores remain fully stocked and the chain has “not experienced any supply chain challenges or a slowdown in foot traffic since the start of the LIRR strike,” said spokesman Daniel Wolk.

Most Stop & Shop employees live and work locally, which has helped stores maintain normal operations, he said, adding: “We understand this situation has been difficult for many in our community, and we hope for a quick resolution.”

Spokespeople for the United States Postal Service and CVS Pharmacy said operations remain unaffected by the strike and a spokesperson for Amazon said there’s been “minimal impact” for Long Island customers.

Opting for the free shuttle

A half dozen shuttles from Queens arrived at the Bay Shore LIRR station between 6:30 and 7:30 p.m., with more expected to bring Long Islanders home as the night goes on. Some carried more than a dozen passengers, while one brought only two riders.

Donna Willenbrock arrived in Penn Station Monday afternoon from Washington D.C., where she celebrated her daughter’s graduation from law school. She relied on the shuttle to take her to Bay Shore on Monday after checking the prices for an Uber to her Amityville home. That ride in the opposite direction cost her $170 after a fire disrupted LIRR service. On Monday, the cost would have been about $250, she said.

“This was probably the best the situation could be,” Willenbrock said as she waited for her son to pick her up from the Bay Shore LIRR station. “I was waiting for a nightmare, but this is like seamless.”

Property manager Christian Greene said he will have to head into the city for in-person meetings again on Wednesday and Thursday. Even though the shuttle and a ride on the A train more than doubled his ordinarily hour-and-a-half commute, he will opt for the same excursion over driving.

“I’d spend $50 a day parking,” Greene, 50, of Islip, said. “I have a huge pickup truck, so getting in the city is a huge pain in the butt. And at least I can sleep on the bus on the way in.”

At Hicksville, complaints and resignation

Veronica Muzek of Farmingdale works in the city as a teacher and said her commute was about two hours longer than it usually is.

“It was pretty smooth, all things considered. Very obnoxious, having to go through all the hoops, but it is what it is,” Muzek said.

Muzek said she got on the bus at JFK Airport at 3:30 p.m. before arriving at Hicksville Train Station at 5 p.m. She expressed support for the strike, saying “as long as the unions get what they need, I’ll do what I got to do.”

“The bus was comfortable — it was a Coach bus, can’t really complain,” Muzek said. “You get to sit back and relax a bit, so I can’t say it was the worst.”

Farmingdale’s Rose Pina arrived at Hicksville Train Station at 7 a.m. and reached Howard Beach at about 8:30. It took “roughly another hour and a half” to arrive in the city. Her commute usually takes an hour.

“It's Long Island, so traffic is always crazy,” Pina said.

Pina works in midtown and said her trip into work was smoother than her ride back, describing the latter as a “little more bumpy.” She usually takes the train twice a week and does not drive in.

“Obviously it's inconvenient, but there's a reason why they're doing this,” Pina said. “One of my concerns is fares going up, but I know they're going to raise it anyway no matter what.

Levittown’s Mario Echavez, a construction worker for Local 28, expressed frustration on the current shuttle schedule upon his return to Hicksville Train Station. His commute can differ depending on where his job in construction takes him across the city.

“The trains got to run differently this time along with the shuttles, because two and a half hours coming home, three hours going, it's crazy,” Echavez said. “I hope everything works out as soon as possible. We definitely need the MTA back.”
 

Avoiding a 'chaotic' ride into NYC

Nick Buonadonna, 20, of Garden City landed an internship at a construction company in Manhattan between his junior and senior years at the University of Florida where he's majoring in construction management.

As an MTA worker in an orange and yellow vest yelled "Huntington on the right! Ronkonkoma on the left!" above the Jamaica 179th Street subway station, Buonadonna waited for a friend to pick him up.

"I don't want to get on the bus," Buonadonna said. "It's too chaotic."

The long lines seen at mid-afternoon were long gone as a trickle of passengers boarded the shuttle buses after leaving the subway station.

In the morning he said he got a ride into Manhattan with his uncle who drove and he figures he'll do the same if the strike continues.

The internship began today, though he had worked the same internship last summer.

"I didn't want to miss my first day back," he said. Though he made it in to work today, he said a lot people in the office did not. He said the ride in took about two hours and then he took the F train out to Jamaica after work. "I'll just have to keep doing it for the rest of the week I guess."

No Tuesday morning service, MTA says

An MTA spokesman said that there will be no morning service on the LIRR Tuesday, given how long negotiations have gone on Monday.

If a deal is reached later tonight, afternoon service is a possibility

A 'stress-free' commute to Bay Shore

As he departed the third shuttle to pull into Bay Shore from Queens about 6 p.m. Monday, Tracy Moore marveled that his commute was “surprisingly stress-free.”

The 4:30 a.m. shuttle to Howard Beach to his job repairing tracks for the New York City Transit Authority, and the 4:30 p.m. shuttle back to his Bay Shore home only added about 15 minutes to his commute in each direction, he said.

“It was definitely coordinated a lot better than I thought it would be,” Moore, 58, told Newsday. “The traffic wasn’t as bad as I was anticipating. Fingers crossed it'll be just as easy tomorrow.”

'They deserve better' says daughter of union members

Jasper Wittenhagen, 23, of Seaford, woke up at 5:15 a.m. Monday for her commute to John Jay College, which began with a 15-minute drive to Hicksville. She then boarded a shuttle bound for the city.

She said she didn’t mind the commute of about two hours each way, given that both of her parents are union workers.

“It’s not my favorite thing to do in the world, but I support the union, because they need better pay, they deserve better pay,” Wittenhagen said before boarding a bus at the Howard Beach-JFK station. “I understand how unions work, and I understand that it’s important they get what they need.”

Reginald Leone, 20, of Bay Shore, used the shuttles to commute into the city Monday for jury duty, which he described as “tedious, long and annoying.”

He was less down on the commute.

“The subway is fun. The subway is untouched, it’s just that the bus is the thing that took a little longer, but that’s about it,” he said. “I like seeing the scenery and stuff like that. We took Sunrise Highway to get here. I like Sunrise Highway.”

Ferries, subways and a bus ride to Bay Shore

After a pair of ferries from Astoria to Rockaway, two subways to Howard Beach and most recently a two-hour MTA shuttle ride to Bay Shore, Aneta Holanova and Jammie Cuadrado’s trip to Fire Island was far from over.

“We rented a place, but then we realized we couldn't get there,” Cuadrado, 32, told Newsday about 5 p.m. as she and around 20 others departed the first evening eastbound shuttle from Queens to Bay Shore.

“We should get some money because it was very uncomfortable,” Holanova, 31, added.

Also hoping for more money were the 20 members of the Local 56 Brotherhood of Signalmen picketed alongside County Road 50 at the southeast edge of the Bay Shore station.

“I don't think we're asking for the world,” union member Joseph Terrusa told Newsday in between chants of “no contract, no trains” into a megaphone at passing cars and trucks, many honking their horns. He thinks fellow blue collar Long Islanders understand they’re “not asking for the world,” noting that even with the contested ask for a 5% raise in the fourth year of the contract comes to an average between 3 and 4%.

“We've had a huge majority of support,” Terrusa added. “The thumbs down or the middle finger has been few and far between.”

A 'horrible' trip from Jamaica

Peter Caterina of Wantagh works on Sixth Avenue in the city and said he takes the LIRR to work every day. He described his experience taking the shuttle from Jamaica to Howard Beach and back to Hicksville Train Station, which took over two hours, as “horrible.”

“Normally I would’ve been at home, at dinner, relaxing for the evening,” Caterina said. “I’m all about getting a fair wage, but they seem to be having a fair wage and they’re haggling over half a percent...They seem to be well-paid and they deserve to be well-paid. There are people in worse situations than I am, so I have no sympathy for these people at this point.”

Caterina said his employers are allowing him to work from home at times during the week, but he said he’ll have to go through the same process Thursday if the strike is not resolved.

“I don’t need to be traveling two hours plus in the morning and then over three hours back,” Caterina said. “That’s five hours of traffic. If anybody thinks they’re doing us a favor by striking, they’re not.”

No headway in ongoing negotiations

No details of any new proposals or counter-proposals by the parties emerged publicly from the 16th floor of 2 Broadway, where negotiators spent almost all day in talks Monday.

After concluding around 1:30 a.m. in the early hours of Monday morning, negotiators returned at around 7:30 a.m.

They broke for lunch at about 11 a.m. – around the time Gov. Kathy Hochul entered the building via a side entrance to meet with top MTA managers, ducking the press gathered on Broadway, where protesters were chanting “New York is a union town – Kathy Hochul shut it down!”

Talks resumed at 3 p.m. “and are ongoing at the moment,” MTA spokesman Eugene Resnick told Newsday.

At one point during the break, the MTA’s chief negotiator Gary Dellaverson, long grey hair flowing in the wind, emerged with a police officer who escorted him to the Bowling Green subway station across the street. He boarded an uptown subway train, saying he had to get something from his office.

Around 2 p.m., Dellaverson and the MTA’s policy chief, John McCarthy, convened a news conference on the sunny sidewalk, punctuated by the chants of nearby protesters and an ambulance siren. He said labor union leaders had "no sense of urgency” in the talks and that that the two sides remain no closer to a deal. An hour later, the unions emerged to push back, saying claims they were dragging their feet were “laughable.”
 

Getting on the wrong bus

While most commuters getting off MTA buses at the Ronkonkoma train station on Monday afternoon reported a relatively smooth experience, Mel Santos had a bit of a hiccup.

The 50 year-old substitute teacher in New York City thought he was getting on a bus in Jamaica destined for Hicksville, where he lives. When the nonstop bus pulled into Ronkonkoma instead, he wasn’t too pleased.

“I’m exhausted," he said as he got off the bus. “It’s been a horrible day and this has made it a bit worse… I’m about an hour away from where I’m supposed to be.”

But he said he was trying to take it in stride, and said he would figure out how to backtrack to Hicksville.

“It’s a mess right now, but what can you do?" he said.

As for Tuesday morning if the strike is still on, he said he doesn’t know how he will get to his elementary school in Jamaica. He might have to pay $100 again for an Uber like he did on Monday.

Or maybe, he said, he might be able to catch a ride with a friend headed that way.

How striking LIRR unions could set precedent for other railroad workers

The LIRR strike is a symptom of the region’s affordability crisis, which has only spiraled in the years since the pandemic, an expert on transportation and labor relations told Newsday.

In the past year alone, from April 2025 to April 2026, consumer prices in the New York metro area rose 4.6%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

One of the reasons the MTA is “trying to drag their feet” is because giving in would provide other railroad unions — and perhaps, more broadly, other workers in the metro area — the power to negotiate similar raises, said Art Wheaton, an expert on transportation industries and director of labor studies at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

“It’s called pattern bargaining. If you give [a raise] to one, other members of similar or related industries will also ask or try to fight for that same increase. So it does have spillover costs for other employers as well,” he said.

The ability to negotiate raises depends on how much leverage workers have, Wheaton said, but raises for LIRR workers “does help other people, even if they’re not directly or indirectly related. Once you start giving raises, it’s like ‘Hey, this is a reasonable request. They got it here. We want it too.’”

The MTA has agreed to retroactive wage increases for LIRR workers of 3% for 2023 and 2024, and 3.5% in 2025, but has been unwilling to agree to a 5% raise in 2026 and has asked new hires to contribute more for healthcare, Newsday has previously reported.

Payroll records show the median salary among the five striking unions was $131,212 in 2024, Newsday has reported. A fact-finding report recommended a 4.5% raise for railroad workers in 2026.

Under the Railway Labor Act, there’s a possibility that Congress will get involved to end the strike, Wheaton said.

Besides subways, the LIRR is among the biggest movers of passengers for trains in the United States, he noted.

Hundreds of thousands take the LIRR each day. No trains running means more traffic on the roads, which means slower deliveries and more people who can’t get to work in time or at all, he said.

“That’s why they’re encouraging people just to work from home. The infrastructure can’t handle that many cars,” he said.

Three-hour commute from Northport

On Hillside Avenue between 181st and 182nd streets some regular LIRR riders waited for NICE bus service to Mineola and Hicksville.

Xiomara Sorto, 20, a student at City University of New York Sofie Davis School of Biomedical Education in Harlem usually takes the LIRR from Northport into the city. Today she had no choice but to come in because she had a final exam in anatomy.

“It's final season,” Sorto said. “I usually study on the LIRR.”

Today that wasn't possible because this morning she drove to New Hyde Park and and caught the NICE bus to Jamaica and then took the F train into Manhattan.

Sorto said her commute is usually 60 to 90 minutes one way, but Monday it took three hours to get to college.

Even so, “I think I did good” she said of her final as a bus to Mineola pulled up.

Opposing views of an altered commute

Stacey Richards, a nurse from Massapequa Park, was at the Howard Beach-JFK train station Monday afternoon and said she was “exhausted” from the commute.

She had been awake since 2:30 a.m. to catch a 4:30 a.m. shuttle from Hicksville. A little after 4 p.m., she boarded a shuttle outside the station in Queens for the final leg of her journey.

Keith Skylan, 23, a train enthusiast from the Upper West Side, was on hand to document the events for his YouTube channel.

“As someone that actually likes riding Coach buses, I’ve found this ride to be a luxury for me,” he said.

Bus service to LI commencement for St. Joseph's-Brooklyn students

St. Joseph’s University students in Brooklyn won’t have to worry about travel arrangements for Tuesday’s commencement on Long Island amid the ongoing LIRR strike.

The ceremony is to be held at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale. David Gonzalez, the university's assistant vice president for student life on the Brooklyn Campus, said in an email the college is offering "complimentary charter bus service that will depart from our Brooklyn Campus to assist graduates and guests/families potentially impacted by suspended LIRR service."

Gonzalez said Long Island students have not expressed any concerns regarding transportation.

In Jamaica, long lines wait for buses back to LI

The F train to Jamaica at midafternoon Monday was mostly empty by the time it reached the last stop at 179th Street. Yellow and black signs directed passengers to “Free LIRR shuttle buses,” though few passengers were headed that way.

However, on the street above, it was a different story: More than 100 people waited for 3 p.m. buses to Huntington and Ronkonkoma. Some managed to step into the shade, but others weren't so fortunate as the sun beat down and the mercury hit the 80s.

Craig Grassi, 57, an IT worker from Huntington, arrived at 1 p.m. and had been waiting for an hour and a half. He said he works a hybrid schedule with some days in the office and others working remotely from home.

“I had to be in the office today, there was physical hardware I had to deal with,” Grassi said as he stood on line waiting for a white charter bus to open its doors. The pandemic prepared people for remote work, he said.

“I’m not too worried about this going on for a weeks; I can manage,” Grassi said. ““It’s an inconvenience for work, sure, I’ve been doing a lot on my phone, communicating with co-workers.”

Grassi said his wife drove him to Flushing, where he picked up the 7 train into Manhattan this morning, which he said took about two hours in traffic.

“The only confusing part for me is I was led to believe that there would be non-rush hour buses,” Grassi said, referring to his long wait for the bus.

Jim Griffin, 64, of Centereach, who works in private security, waited on line for the bus to Ronkonkoma.

Griffin said he normally leaves his home at 5:30 a.m., but today he left at 4:30.

“This morning they were well prepared and everything was smooth, Griffin said. “Normally it takes me about an hour and half, today it took me two hours [to get to work].”

He said he was not a “complainer” but “hopefully it doesn’t go for a long time.”

When the bus arrived for Ronkonkoma, it filled to capacity, and a second bus pulled up to take the overflow. The Huntington bus did not fill up and pulled out at 2:58 p.m.

Buses await wave of commuters outside Howard Beach station

A row of Coach buses lined up Monday afternoon outside the Howard Beach-JFK train station, ready to ferry commuters to locations such as Hicksville, Mineola, Hempstead/Lake State Park and Bay Shore.

MTA employees wearing bright orange vests and MTA Police officers milled about in the scorching heat, preparing for the first wave of the afternoon rush hour crowd.

Nassau Community College staff and students brace for commute home

At Nassau Community College, some students and staff were bracing Monday for a grueling commute home amid the strike.

"It's going to be atrocious," said Fannie Lee, 53, a financial aid counselor. "To be honest, I've stressed about it all weekend.”

Lee said she left her Brentwood home at 5:30 a.m. Monday, 45 minutes earlier than usual, but encountered double the amount of traffic on her commute to the Garden City school.

"I was able to get here pretty effortlessly, but I had to wake up an hour earlier … in order to not suffer from any potential road rage," she said.

As far as the ongoing contract negotiations, she said, "I don't understand why the two parties can't compromise."

Student Louise Castaneda, 24, of Valley Stream, said it took her an extra 15 minutes on top of her usual 30-minute drive to get to class.

But many other students said Monday's commute was like any regular weekday.

Sierra Hopper, 28, from Seaford, said the strike hasn't “impacted my commute whatsoever."

Suspect ride-share price gouging? Here's what you can do

Think someone is price gouging you for a ride amid the Long Island Rail Road strike? The state attorney general’s office wants to know.

Newsday has written about skyrocketing fares since the strike began Saturday, including an instance of a ride-share company trying to charge someone $297 to get home from the airport.

On Monday, Attorney General Letitia James issued a consumer alert about ride-share companies potentially price gouging and providing a way to report incidents.

“As New Yorkers face a complete shutdown of LIRR service, many are counting on rideshares, rental cars, and other services to help them commute,” James said in a statement.

“This strike is no excuse for companies to unfairly raise prices on New Yorkers,” she said. “We will not tolerate price gouging, and I encourage everyone to remain vigilant and report illegal price hikes to my office.”

James noted New York’s price gouging law covers vendors, retailers and suppliers, and includes essential goods and services that are necessary for the health, safety and welfare of consumers or the general public. “Transportation options” are covered, her office said.

Penalties can run up to $25,000 per violation.

Consumers may report incidents by calling the AG’s hotline, 800-771-7755, or by reporting them online here.

For LIRR workers in Ronkonkoma, hope wanes as hours pass

A few dozen Long Island Rail Road workers gathered under tents, munched on doughnuts and cookies, and drank beverages to try to stay cool at the Ronkonkoma station parking lot on Monday as they waited — nervously in some cases — for word of a breakthrough in the 3-day-old strike.

Some said they were surprised the strike happened and were anxious for it to get over.

"I thought they would settle” before a strike was declared, said James Ristano, 52, a substation electrician from Selden. “I didn’t think it would come to this.”

“It’s a little worrisome” the strike is now in Day 3, he added. “I thought the governor would’ve stepped in and made something happen, work out a deal.”

As the hours passed, “I’m getting less and less hopeful,” he said. “It shows me that no side is giving in.”

The workers traded bits of information they were seeing on news media websites about the negotiations but said it was hard to know anything until a final deal is announced. Later, they started marching in a circle, holding signs and shouting slogans like "when we fight, we win."

“I didn’t want it to happen, “ Greg LaCorte, 62, an electrician from Lake Grove, said of the strike. “Hopefully the negotiations will go through today. Hopefully everybody comes to their senses."

He said the workers were “just looking for a fair wage. It’s very expensive to live on this island.”

Union pushes back on MTA claims of foot-dragging in negotiations

Kevin Sexton, a vice president of one of the striking LIRR unions, said MTA claims that the unions were responsible for delays in restarting talks were "laughable."

“We had to leave and eat lunch, like every other human being. We weren't dodging anybody,” Sexton, a spokesman for the workers' bargaining coalition, said as he returned to MTA headquarters just before 3 p.m. “Unfortunately, from our perspective, in true MTA fashion, it's take two steps forward and one step back.”

He declined to go into particulars about the offers currently on the table, but said union negotiators were in a “windowless room without WiFi or printer.”

Less than an hour earlier, Gary Dellaverson, MTA chief negotiator, said the unions had shown "no sense of urgency" in ending the strike. He cited the example of the unions informing the MTA at 1 p.m. that they couldn't return to the bargaining table until 3 p.m.

East End school district staffers feel strike's effects

The Long Island Rail Road strike is significantly impacting staffers in at least one Long Island school district.

About 50 East Hampton school district staffers who usually ride the railroad’s South Fork Commuter Connection had to find another way to get to work Monday.

Thirty-three rode a district shuttle bus with pickups at the Westhampton and Hampton Bays LIRR stations that Superintendent Adam Fine said the district will provide for the duration of the strike.

The Commuter Connection, which combines LIRR trains with shuttle bus connections, runs from Speonk to Montauk and was created in 2019 to ease East End traffic by taking cars off the roads. East Hampton school staffers rode the buses directly to work.

Fine said in a phone interview that the Connection was “massive for recruitment” of teachers and other district staffers, given heavy summer traffic and high local real estate costs that force many younger staffers to commute to the East End from elsewhere on the Island.

District officials started planning their shuttle service two weeks ago, he said. The cost is minimal because the district owns the bus.

Staffers from other East End districts including Montauk, Bridgehampton and Amagansett also use the Connection, Fine said.

MTA lead negotiator says unions have 'No sense of urgency'

The MTA’s chief negotiator lambasted Long Island Rail Road labor union leaders Monday for "no sense of urgency” in ending the three-day strike of the nation’s largest commuter rail system.

During an afternoon news conference held only hours before the start of the first evening workday rush hour without LIRR trains, Gary Dellaverson indicated that the two sides remain no closer to a deal

“Our sense last night was that we were moving, perhaps slowly, but moving intentionally… towards a collective bargaining agreement that would restore service to the couple hundred thousand Long Island customers,” Dellaverson said during an outdoor briefing interrupted repeatedly by horn honking, construction work and sirens.

But Dellaverson said the MTA was apparently “overly optimistic” that a deal was within reach.

“We continue to have optimism that we can get this done, but it's not at the same level,” he said. “And I think that the unions have shown us that they have no sense of urgency in getting this resolved, notwithstanding the fact that they have 3,500 members on the picket lines not getting paid.”

For example, Dellaverson, the MTA’s former chief financial officer, said that they were informed at 1 p.m. Monday by a mediator that the union “would not be available” until 3 p.m., further pushing back the negotiations.

“Whether they will be or not, I don’t know,” he said of returning the negotiating table this afternoon. “I really don’t have any confidence in this at this point.”

Remote work option has helped, LIA acting president says

Local employers, particularly those with large bases of office workers, have leaned into their remote work capacity to navigate the LIRR’s shutdown, said Stacey I. Sikes, acting president and CEO of the Long Island Association business group.

“The good news today is that a lot of employers listened to the message from the governor and the Long Island Rail Road and implemented remote work for employees that can do that,” Sikes said.

Major employers, like Henry Schein, said earlier Monday that its “flexible work-from-home policies” are helping ensure that disruptions to workflow are minimal during the strike.

However, Sikes said that smaller businesses that sell goods directly to customers, particularly those next to currently shuttered train stations, really have no means to deal with the loss of sales.

“We’re still deeply concerned about the impact this will have on small businesses that rely on foot traffic from around the train stations,” Sikes said. “As soon as the LIRR was shut down, these small businesses lost a customer base.”

Speaking with local employers, Sikes said the big question for businesses remains: “How long should we expect to be in this situation?”

Feeling 'a powerful effect,' and the heat

As the day has worn on, temperatures outside MTA headquarters in Manhattan have risen to the mid-80s and the sun’s angle has shifted, so picketers are feeling the heat.

Taking a break, Ezekiel Rose, a locomotive engineer who has been with the LIRR two years, spoke to Newsday in a voice hoarse from chanting.

“It’s been a powerful effect [to be] out here with my union brothers and my sisters. We just want a fair contract and a fair wage," he said.
“We know the MTA has the power to give us what we want.”

Lieber earlier predicted possible 3-day strike

The MTA’s chairman appeared to predict earlier this year that if an LIRR union strike took place, it would last three days.

At a March board meeting, MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber said “a three-day strike will waste big money.”

He added later at the same meeting that a strike would be “insane ... not just because of the harm it does to Long Islanders and to their economy, but because three days of a strike will wipe out 1.1% of wage raises you are fighting for.”

Union officials have repeatedly questioned Lieber’s prediction of a three-day strike. Signalmen union leader Michael Sullivan, at an April 8 news conference, said he “didn’t know that to be true.”

“What I can say is, once we reach this moment, there are now guaranteed off-ramps,” Sullivan said.

A New Jersey Transit strike last year involving the same locomotive engineers union as the one involved in the LIRR strike lasted three days.

The LIRR’s last union strike lasted two days, beginning on Friday, June 17, 1994, and being settled on the night of Sunday, June 18, ahead of the Monday morning rush hour.

Blakeman: Thousands of shuttle bus seats available

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman addressed commuters, MTA officials and Gov. Kathy Hochul in a news conference Monday afternoon, describing the morning commute: “People were miserable. I’m not going to sugarcoat it.”

The MTA deployed shuttle buses to accommodate 13,000 Long Islanders during their Monday morning commute, but only 2,100 people used the buses, Blakeman said. “People are either working from home or they’re choosing to drive into the city,” he said.

NICE deployed six extra buses that each hold 70 people, Blakeman said. The bus system will make up to 30 extra trips each day from Hicksville, Mineola, Great Neck and Freeport to subway hubs in Jamaica and Flushing.

Blakeman, who is running for governor, also called on Gov. Kathy Hochul to suspend congestion pricing.

“It is a shame that we will charge people in New York State an additional $9 to travel on an public roadway that they already paid for with tax dollars, especially during this strike, when they have no choice in many instances but to use their cars,” Blakeman said.

He encouraged commuters to carpool with co-workers, friends and neighbors, and use parking lots in Nassau's parks like Eisenhower and Wantagh Park to leave extra cars. "Long Islanders are resilient; they’re tough. We will get through this crisis together," he said.

MTA's chief negotiator left his mark on Nassau County

The year was 2018 and Nassau’s first woman county executive, Laura Curran, a Democrat, took office and found herself in the sticky position of having to negotiate new contracts with five public employee unions — none of whom had endorsed her campaign against Republican Ed Mangano.

Enter Gary Dellaverson.

Dellaverson, former chief financial officer and lead negotiator at the MTA, had spent much of his 40-year career in public labor relations law. Curran’s deputy county executive, Helena Williams, a Garden City resident and former LIRR president, brought him in to sit across the table from the county’s politically powerful unions, who had been working under the terms of an expired contract.

Republicans and Democrats on the county legislature rejected Curran’s request to hire Dellaverson for a flat fee of $25,000 per month, but he wound up working for the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, the county’s state-appointed fiscal watchdog as a consultant and then for the outside counsel that does all of Nassau’s labor contracts.

In the end, Dellaverson helped set the contracts currently in place for all of Nassau County’s five public unions, representing more than 7,000 workers.

He put in place a template that each collective bargaining unit would then follow: total raises of 15% over 8½ years. The pattern was established first with the contracts between the county and its detectives union and then the high-ranking officers, Superior Officers Association, followed by the Police Benevolent Association.

Peter Bee, whose Mineola law firm served as outside labor counsel to Nassau County since 1980, told Newsday he has a “great respect” for Dellaverson.

“He’s extremely smart and knowledgeable in the field of public sector labor relations," Bee said. "In my opinion, he wisely counsels his clients but ultimately carries out their directives in a very professional manner.”

'We are basically at capacity'

After the strike went into effect Saturday, demand for seats aboard the Hampton Jitney have shot through the roof, company president Geoffrey Lynch said.

"Starting on Saturday, the day the strike began and certainly extending into today, we are basically at capacity," said Lynch, head of the Calverton-based business known for ferrying summer travelers between Manhattan and the East End. "We’ve added 30% to 40% capacity on our existing schedule."

Lynch said business this week is up by 50% to 60% compared to the same week last year, a an increase he attributed to the impact of the strike.

"We are adding trips tomorrow westbound to help East End commuters heading into the city," he said.

Lynch said that for its North Fork and Westhampton routes, it's seeing a major uptick in customers using the bus for commuting purposes, not for leisure.

"Those regions that utilize Speonk and Ronkonkoma train stations quite a bit, there is no access to those stations during the strike," he said. "We're seeing more of an increase in that active commuter." 

While the rise in ticket sales is good in the short-term, he said, it creates logistical hurdles.

For one, the company is working with contractors and other bus companies to try to meet the demand, a process that takes time and money. Additionally, with increased traffic on the road slowing down arrival times, drivers are having to be switched out to comply with "hours of service" restrictions that cap the number of hours drivers can be on the road.

"We are neck deep in the traffic that the strike has caused," Lynch said. "It makes our schedule and logistics a little more difficult. ... It means we need more drivers."

Hochul visits MTA headquarters for briefing on negotiations

Gov. Kathy Hochul paid a visit Monday to MTA headquarters to be briefed by agency managers, her transit spokesman said.

Whichever way she got into the building, it wasn’t via the front entrance, where picketing strikers’ chants all morning have cycled through the rhyme, “New York is a union town! Kathy Hochul shut it down!”

The spokesman, Sean Butler, emailed photos of her meeting with Janno Lieber, the MTA’s chairman and chief executive, LIRR President Rob Free, NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow and others.

Butler said by email: "Governor Hochul continues to closely monitor the LIRR strike and travel alternatives. At 11 a.m., she received a briefing from MTA and state leaders on this morning's commute and the status of negotiations between the MTA and LIRR unions. She is pleased that the unions accepted her invitation to return to the table and encourages both parties to continue negotiating in good faith."

Hochul, who as governor effectively controls the MTA, had telephoned into the negotiations Friday, the morning before the talks collapsed and the strike began.

High gas prices stressing drivers amid LIRR strike

As more Long Islanders hit the road during the LIRR strike, some drivers said higher gas prices are adding to the financial strain.

Vince Vacca, of Centereach, said filling up his tank now costs nearly $80.

“The gas prices are definitely hurting everybody,” Vacca said while fueling up his 15-gallon Subaru. “It’s costing me almost $80 just to fill up my tank, and there are way more people on the road, so you’re burning more gas just being stuck in traffic.”

Vacca said prices have risen sharply in recent months.

“They’re double what they were a couple months ago, so it’s definitely hurting my pocket, and I’d assume everybody else’s,” he said.

Ralph Cefarello, of Melville, said the increased cost of fuel is a burden, especially for people who drive every day. He had just spent $38 to fill up his GMC Yukon, something he typically does once a week.

“The gas prices today are out of sight,” he said. “I hope things change for the better.”

Progress in deal to end LIRR strike, sources say

MTA managers and Long Island Rail Road union leaders are getting closer to an agreement to return LIRR employees to work and end the strike on its third day, according to four sources with knowledge of negotiations Monday.

While talks continue at the MTA’s lower Manhattan headquarters, sources who've been briefed on talks and speaking under the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations, said an agreement is taking shape, though there was no deal imminent early Monday afternoon.

However, a separate union source said the two sides did not appear close to a deal, and said any progress made so far Monday was minimal.

It is unclear when LIRR service would resume, but it would take a significant amount of time for employees to return to work and complete the procedures required to get trains out of yards and back in service, MTA officials have said.

One commuter sees travel time go from 90 minutes to 5 hours

The strike has turbocharged Ayoub Elmahmoudi's commute from as little as 90 minutes ordinarily to as long as four or five hours.

Elmahmoudi, 19, would typically ride the LIRR on the Port Washington Branch from Bayside, Queens, where he lives, to Penn Station, then go via PATH to Jersey City. Total trip time, between 90 minutes and 2 hours.

Now, he must ride a bus — which he is unfamiliar with; he relies on Apple Maps — to Jamaica, Queens, then rides the E subway line to Penn Station. Total trip time, four to five hours.

"I'm pretty mad about it," said Elmahmoudi, who works for Project Hope, a nonprofit that raises money for children and families in war and natural disasters. As an in-person fundraiser, Elmahmoudi cannot work from home.

Ordinarily, he could wake up at 7 a.m. Today, it was 5:45 a.m.

He happened to be tabling Monday for the job across from MTA headquarters — he must first go to Jersey City, where he is based, then is dispatched around the area — and was watching 2 Broadway from Bowling Green to seek updates on the strike.

"I'm hoping that it's like back by this week," he said, asking a Newsday reporter for updates.

MTA's chief negotiator takes off on subway

The MTA’s chief negotiator, Gary Dellaverson, just left the negotiations, escorted by an MTA police officer. Dellaverson told Newsday he needs to go to his office, which is in midtown, to get something.

Deal ends LIRR strike, 'phased' service resumes at noon Tuesday, Hochul says

A deal has been reached to the end the historic Long Island Rail Road union strike, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday night.

"Tonight, the MTA reached a fair deal with the five LIRR unions that delivers raises for workers while protecting riders and taxpayers. I’m pleased to announce that phased LIRR service will resume beginning tomorrow at noon," Hochul tweeted on X shortly before 9 p.m.

Tonight, the @MTA reached a fair deal with the five LIRR unions that delivers raises for workers while protecting riders and taxpayers.

I’m pleased to announce that phased LIRR service will resume beginning tomorrow at noon.

— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) May 19, 2026

Kevin Sexton vice president of locomotive engineers said outside MTA headquarters in Manhattan: "We have good news tonight...We're pleased to announce that the parties have reached an agreement. Due to the nature of the negotiations, we cannot discuss the specifics. What we can say is that we're looking forward to our members getting back to work and doing what they do best, which is serving the region."

When asked what he had to say to the commuters who use the LIRR, Sexton said. "We appreciate their patience during this difficult time."

Sexton said that he believed that the agreement would be passed by his members. "If we didn't think that it would be ratifiable, we would still be at the bargaining table," he said.

His only message to his members was: "We got you on this."

Sexton seemed clearly seemed exhausted by the long negotiations. "It's been a long night, everybody is tired," he said.

The deal, hammered out Monday evening at a lengthy bargaining session, resolves the three-year long contract dispute between five LIRR unions representing about 3,500 employees, including locomotive engineers, who had sought raises beyond what most other Metropolitan Transportation Authority organized workers had already accepted.

The deal came on the third day of the first LIRR work stoppage since 1994, and after the first weekday rush hours without any trains running—forcing what would be an average of 270,000 commuters to find alternatives, including special shuttle buses operating between six Long Island locations and two Queens subway stops.

MTA officials have said several tasks would have to be completed to get the LIRR's fleet of about 1,300 trains out of the yards where they are parked and back into service.