How many take the LIRR? (Brookhaven, Babylon: bus, rail, cars)

[WildCardSteve]

Originally Posted by longislandmike

tRonkonkomo is an accident waiting to happen.

I don't know if they still do it, but on the parking lot side...Town of Islip, is it ?....the cars are "parked"...more like JAMMED...bumper to bumper for the entire length of the road in and out of the entrance, the full length, in front of the rail platform, and it's entrances.

One of these days, some accident will occur and NO emergency vehicles will be able to get to the train.

Frankly, I would NOT want to depend on rail employees to help !

It would be a major disaster.

Sometimes something like this has to happen, for change to occur.

Thank heavens I don't live there anymore.

The problem is quite simple - LI is becoming progressively more urbanized. Urban problems require urban solutions. But, people don't seem to want to admit that. They'd rather beat up on illegal immigrants (completely ignoring the native LI'ers that hire them) and inhabit some imaginary la-la land that's "the way it used to be" than invest in mass transit, high density housing near transit hubs, and high density parking structures.

And the deaths that you speak of are already going on, in the form of road deaths.

[longislandmike]

Originally Posted by WildCardSteve

Thank heavens I don't live there anymore.

The problem is quite simple - LI is becoming progressively more urbanized. Urban problems require urban solutions. But, people don't seem to want to admit that. They'd rather beat up on illegal immigrants (completely ignoring the native LI'ers that hire them) and inhabit some imaginary la-la land that's "the way it used to be" than invest in mass transit, high density housing near transit hubs, and high density parking structures.

And the deaths that you speak of are already going on, in the form of road deaths.

Good comments.

The way I see it, is....the "urban problems" come from the City.

It's NOT so much that there is an unwillingness to spend on these socalled "infrastructure" things...it's that the money has been spent unwisely over the years...and there is NO sign of it letting up, even when this country is facing the national economic emergency.

The double decker trains from the MTA.

They are mini japanese-ey in size, a VERY small number of them actually operating, and they are still NOT regularly scheduled, to and from the City. The size of the seats, and the width of the aisles, belies the fact that it's not made for Western body types and sizes !

They promote the "Train to The Plane" with a better scheduled, pilot-less trains from Jamaica to the City airports...and it results in clogging the aisles with, mostly, one-timer Tourists, lugging their large amount of luggage, along with their kids, traveling on overcrowded, jammed in, passengers, on the regular trains.

The MTA asks for more money, and they cut MORE essential train services, in the quest to "turn a profit".

All they really have to do is give passengers MORE trains, and More trains that are on time. But that's not their goal.

[Johninwestbury]

Originally Posted by Transpl

I can only speak for the Babylon line but the crew is always pleasant and professional. The trains are clean and well kept. Not immaculate, but I never go to sit down, see litter or a spill that makes me rethink my seat choice.

I commute daily and am quite impressed at the overall quality of service and reliability/timeliness. Maybe results vary from off hour trains or different lines.

Well I certainly didn't mean to rip crews, most of them are professional and friendly but I've had some probs in the past with them closing cars on Huntington and Ronkonkoma trains that are packed.
The Babylon line is much better than most of the RR, from what I've found riding down there is always much better.
I guess because there are no grade crossings and more track capacity.
It's what the main line should've been!

[Johninwestbury]

Originally Posted by WildCardSteve

Thank heavens I don't live there anymore.

The problem is quite simple - LI is becoming progressively more urbanized. Urban problems require urban solutions. But, people don't seem to want to admit that. They'd rather beat up on illegal immigrants (completely ignoring the native LI'ers that hire them) and inhabit some imaginary la-la land that's "the way it used to be" than invest in mass transit, high density housing near transit hubs, and high density parking structures.

And the deaths that you speak of are already going on, in the form of road deaths.

You hit the nail on the head with that one!

[I_Love_LI_but]

Originally Posted by Johninwestbury

Well I certainly believe there is an attitude of disrespect for the passenger on the LIRR. I have done several videos about the LIRR, including one of an overcrowded train on Halloween, with cars closed with 2 employees just lounging out on a 4 seater while the rest of us stand.
Unfortunately I get regular internet harassment from people claiming to be LIRR employees. Because of that video the MTA found out and now most cars are open, and I am not hearing the end of it. Some of these guys are just real cruel.
Unfortunately it paints all LIRR employees in a bad light, and there's plenty of good, hard working LIRR employees too.
I dont know how many of you have ridden Metro-North, but it is a completely different picture up there, the crew are much friendlier overall and take pride in their equipment as the trains are spotless. Even the seats shine!
Both railroads are MTA, but why is LIRR so much worse than Metro-North?

I just watched your video on youtube. Very good! And that was typical of a lot of offpeak trains. I didn't know it was your video that put an end to it. I remember about a year back there was a guy posting on craigslist rants and raves about an early am rush hour train where they got a new crew member who started blocking off cars because as he put it "she wanted to sit on her duff and read hip hop magazines while the rest of us were crowded in and didn't have enough seats." He complained to the LIRR and encouraged others on CL to do the same and he claimed they stopped blocking off train cars and she (ticket taker) was removed from the train crew.

I enjoyed the crybaby comments you reproduced also, especially about how "safety" will suffer if they can't close off cars two at a time. BS. What will suffer is their loafing time. As it is, often they don't check tickets twice on the train (before and after Jamaica) anyway like they are supposed to. THAT's the only thing that would suffer besides loafing time. The possibility of collecting a ticket from some stray poor soul who happens to get on at Jamaica. These clowns need less cars open to "keep us safe?" Ya right! When the LIRR decided to charge obscenely high "penalty fares" for buying tickets on the train it was a boon to the ticket punchers who had to do even less and now rarely must make change and punch a few more holes than usual in slightly larger pieces of paper.

I myself have found some train crew members to be insufferable to the point where I have actually had to say, "Drop the attitude!!!!!! Come on, YOU punch holes in little pieces of paper for a living and YOU have an attitude!!!!! Cashiers at Walmart have more skills! The organ grinder's monkey who dresses similar to you has a job that needs more skills! Now move along and do your job."

Boy did the jaws drop then! LOL! Thankfully most of the ticket takers are polite and do their job, pathetic as it is, efficiently. They better be nice because being nice, as in "customer service," is all they have to recommend them. Most of them are smart enough to know that they are being paid relatively well for a job that requires a pitiful lack of skills of any kind and behave themselves appropriately when dealing with the public who pays their salary by riding the LIRR. For those who don't, I can be just as snotty, if not more so.

[longislandmike]

The peak trains get the employees who passed their Customer Service Training...the offpeak ones, get the slugs !

Sitting at the end of the last car, one time, the engineer-ticket takers were having a "coffee clutch"...one of them exclaimed, "This job is BETTER than High School."

To me that says IT ALL !

[longislandmike]

Originally Posted by WildCardSteve

I've had better experiences of the LIRR's employees. (though, not the patrons) The cleanliness of the trains has taken a nosedive relative to the eighties.

I don't ride Metro-North much, but I see the trains from the outside a lot. Their equipment looks a lot more antiquated than the LIRR.

That they have the NERVE to ask customers, to clean up, when they are asking for higher fares is silly !

[longislandmike]

Originally Posted by WildCardSteve

I've had better experiences of the LIRR's employees. (though, not the patrons) The cleanliness of the trains has taken a nosedive relative to the eighties.

I don't ride Metro-North much, but I see the trains from the outside a lot. Their equipment looks a lot more antiquated than the LIRR.

The cleanliness of the stations and platforms is lacking too !

Port Jefferson, these days, NEVER gets plowed out, anymore !

Knowing that it's a very small parking lot, makes it ALL the more difficult.

During the summer, they relined the parking spaces...MAKING THEM SMALLER !

[Crookhaven]

Originally Posted by longislandmike

The cleanliness of the stations and platforms is lacking too !

Port Jefferson, these days, NEVER gets plowed out, anymore !

Knowing that it's a very small parking lot, makes it ALL the more difficult.

During the summer, they relined the parking spaces...MAKING THEM SMALLER !

Port Jeff's been left for dead due to subpar service and a lack of ridership.
Now its just a haven for the homeless.

The overwheming majority of NE Brookahaven has to drive to Ronkonkonkoma for better service.( hence the ClusterF at Exit 65-60)

My favorite MTA trick is how they combine Ronkonkoma in the same zone as PJ/Patchogue just to a$$rape the woefully underserved commuters of Brookahven.
They refuse to electrify the PJ line due to the topograpy,and hills of the North Shore

They gotta electrify out to AT LEAST 112/Medford to deal with the current insanity or theyll continue to send empty seats out of Port Jeff and overwhelm Ronkonkoma.

crooks

[longislandmike]

Originally Posted by Crookhaven

Port Jeff's been left for dead due to subpar service and a lack of ridership.
Now its just a haven for the homeless.

The overwheming majority of NE Brookahaven has to drive to Ronkonkonkoma for better service.( hence the ClusterF at Exit 65-60)

My favorite MTA trick is how they combine Ronkonkoma in the same zone as PJ/Patchogue just to a$$rape the woefully underserved commuters of Brookahven.
They refuse to electrify the PJ line due to the topograpy,and hills of the North Shore

They gotta electrify out to AT LEAST 112/Medford to deal with the current insanity or theyll continue to send empty seats out of Port Jeff and overwhelm Ronkonkoma.

crooks

When you live out as far as I do, you have a choice.

After a certain distance, between the two stations, and when the gas prices are high, Port Jeff is jammed...ALL of those extra cars in that small parking lot !