LIRR strike has many worrying about Monday's commute. Here is the most recent.

Lengthy Island Rail Street employees have been again on the picket traces at numerous spots in New York Metropolis and on Lengthy Island on Sunday, voicing their issues and calls for as the strike continues for a second day.

Whereas the work stoppage has precipitated a large number for folks heading to weekend occasions, the true concern is Monday morning’s commute. The LIRR is the busiest commuter rail system in North America, with roughly 250,000 weekday riders. The strike is anticipated to drive many to seek out different routes into town from the Lengthy Island suburbs.

Lengthy Island Rail Street employees picketed exterior Penn Station and others on Lengthy Island on Might 17, 2026.

CBS Information New York

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority says it has activated its contingency plan, which incorporates beneficial subway stations as passenger drop-off factors to get into town. Nevertheless, if you do not have a experience, there can be restricted, free shuttle buses from a number of Lengthy Island practice stations to subway connections in Queens. Bay Shore, Hicksville, Mineola and Lakeview will go to Howard Seaside-JFK Airport, whereas Ronkonkoma and Huntington can be certain for Jamaica-179th Road.

The MTA says it intends to problem pro-rated refunds to might month-to-month ticket holders.

Union, MTA trade barbs

For months, the railroad’s unions and the MTA have been negotiating a brand new contract, however talks have repeatedly stalled over employees’ salaries and healthcare premiums.

With no deal, employees went on strike simply after midnight Saturday and no new negotiations are at present scheduled.

“The MTA by no means actually got here to the desk to barter till we needed to name them out at their final board assembly,” mentioned Karl Bischoff, president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. “There is no such thing as a sense or urgency, as has been mentioned earlier than. It simply looks as if the MTA board is rarely held accountable. My members are all the time held accountable for his or her actions.”

MTA President and CEO Janno Lieber issued a response on CBS Information New York on Sunday morning.

“Simply to be completely clear, we by no means broke off negotiations. The union elected to chop off negotiations and go on strike and inconvenience everyone. That was their alternative,” Lieber mentioned. “We’ve been out there each minute of daily, if they’re severe about making an attempt to deliver this to an in depth. These are by far the best-paid employees in all the nationwide railroad system, and so they need a greater deal than each different MTA employee. That is not truthful.

“These guys appear to suppose they’re particular, they’re higher than everyone else, and we’re not going to blow the MTA’s funds and put extra burdens on taxpayers and riders as a result of they suppose they’re particular,” Lieber added.

Requested how lengthy the MTA can maintain such a standoff financially, Lieber mentioned, “Pay attention, the MTA is a giant group and if we do not have ridership, clearly, that hits the underside line. It isn’t a secret that fares do not cowl all the quantities, so this isn’t a monetary disaster proper now for the MTA. It could be a monetary disaster if we gave in and gave them, after which everyone else, a ton more cash.”

Gov. Hochul, Blakeman take totally different approaches to the strike

Gov. Kathy Hochul and Nassau County Government Bruce Blakeman, her opponent within the upcoming November election, every addressed the strike late Sunday morning.

Flanked by Lieber and different MTA officers, Hochul praised LIRR employees and mentioned they deserve truthful wages and advantages, however added, “The strike has put all that in danger. Simply three days of a strike would erase each greenback of further wage that employees would obtain underneath a brand new contract.

“We do not have to be right here. Employees deserve higher, but in addition New Yorkers deserve higher. That is why as we speak, I’m urging all events as soon as once more to discount on the desk and get a deal performed,” Hochul mentioned.

The governor additionally went into additional element on the MTA’s contingency plan and urged all non-essential employees to make money working from home Monday if they will.

Talking on the Lengthy Seaside station, Blakeman once more blamed Hochul for the strike, calling it “a failure of management.”

He additionally lauded the unions and known as for congestion pricing, the controversial Manhattan tolling program, to be suspended for at the very least the period of the strike, if not utterly after the work stoppage ends.

“We should not need to finance our state authorities with a toll on a highway that we already paid for in our tax {dollars},” Blakeman mentioned.

Blakeman then took goal at Lieber, saying he is mismanaging the MTA and {that a} change of management is important.

“I hope they might determine this out”

Although Monday’s anticipated chaos looms, many weekend vacationers have been left feeling confused and pissed off.

On the Jamaica station, usually a fundamental transit hub within the metropolis for LIRR riders and anticipated to be a fundamental picketing location for employees, many commuters arrived Sunday morning unaware that trains weren’t operating.

Whereas the MTA has these contingency plans, the shuttle bus service would not begin till Monday.

So weekend occasions just like the Subway Collection between the Yankees and Mets at Citi Subject, the Bruce Springsteen live performance on Saturday night time at Madison Sq. Backyard, and the Brooklyn Half Marathon, to not point out graduations and different occasions throughout town, have been an actual battle to get to for Lengthy Islanders who usually would get round on the LIRR with out a problem.

“It could’ve been a 15-minute practice experience. As a substitute, it was like an hour and a half to get right here,” Alex Lupo mentioned at Citi Subject on Saturday night time.

“It is fairly annoying. I hope they might determine this out. It is actually poor timing for this to occur throughout the Subway Collection,” Ryan Mattel added.

And with one other Yankees-Mets recreation set to begin at 1:40 p.m., the identical journey situation is prone to unfold. In different situations, some ticketholders for different concert events and Broadway reveals had no alternative however to surrender their tickets due to the strike.