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Admittedly, I'm predjudiced, since I grew up around the rail industry, but I wish those of us here in Reading and Allentown had a fraction ofr the access to rail passenger service you have on the Island; I have to drive to Hackettstown or Somerville and stow the car, but it still beats fighting the traffic and wasting time and money on parking.
I have really gotten in shape climbing that pedestrian bridge up and over the tracks to the parking at the Huntington station while carrying two heavy pieces of luggage. And boy do your legs get toned when you do this on icy days in the winter.
(OK, besides this gripe, I actually do like LIRR. Slow at times but better than trains in many other cities. The seats are fairly comfortable. The view out the window is interesting, sometimes even entertaining. And I especially like the train from the airport--what an improvement over taking a taxi.)
LIRR is GREAT, compare it to the cost of gas, tolls, parking, and traffic is ALOT worse than a few LIRR delays. im on the Babylon branch and had 2 delays in the last 5 years. 40 minutes into Penn, drive in rush hour...1.5 hours in the AM 2-2.5 hours in the afternoon. this is from Baldwin.
I have some halfway decent things to say about it...
I work flex time (10 AM to about 7 PM or so), so I'm always at the back end (time-wise) of the peak trains going in and out of the city. As a result, I miss a lot of the overcrowding of the "real" peak trains--although I DO have to take these fairly often when I have to get to work earlier. I'm no stranger to that.
I'd say that the problem with the LIRR isn't the railroad itself. They do a pretty decent job of being there on time the vast, vast majority of the time, and I'm rarely ever late to work as a result of the LIRR. Maybe once every six weeks or so there'll be a serious problem that gets me in a half hour late, but my company knows I commute, and when there's a problem, I just text and tell them.
From Penn, I usually take the same two trains home from work, and it's the same deal. Once a month or so, or once every six weeks, there's some kind of problem that makes the train leave later than usual. Then, once every few months, there's something that causes a major issue. When this happens, I go ballistic and curse the LIRR up and down, but again, on a daily basis, I still find it reliable and don't doubt that the train will be there and get me home on time.
The problem with the LIRR is the people who take it. I have far more problem with the inconsiderate people on the train than I have with the LIRR itself. This isn't even about the volume of people. One jerk can cause an issue for an entire car, and every morning (and every evening), it seems like there's one of these in every car. My biggest negative impression of the LIRR (and 99% of my negative stories) comes from fellow passengers and their bizarre behavior, to the point where, for the first 13 years of our education, including kindergarten, I suggest public schools have a class called "Sitting Quietly and Not Bothering Other People."
Maybe.... why ? do you think it moves faster than the trains in 3rd world countries ?
Lets see.... 50 miles in 75 minutes, and I am not even on the Port Jeff line.
LIRR is GREAT, compare it to the cost of gas, tolls, parking, and traffic is ALOT worse than a few LIRR delays. im on the Babylon branch and had 2 delays in the last 5 years. 40 minutes into Penn, drive in rush hour...1.5 hours in the AM 2-2.5 hours in the afternoon. this is from Baldwin.
You must have a very liberal definition of delay. There have been sitewide delays every week for the entire summer. I have taken the train from Valley Stream twice in the past two weeks, both times delays of 10mins.
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