{"id":235966,"date":"2026-05-18T22:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T22:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/235966\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T22:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T22:12:08","slug":"lirr-strike-forces-nyc-workers-into-nightmare-travel-that-adds-hours-to-commute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/235966\/","title":{"rendered":"LIRR strike forces NYC workers into ‘nightmare’ travel that adds hours to commute"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Long Island Rail Road strike<\/a> forced some commuters to waste two extra hours on the road as they scrambled to catch shuttle buses while motorists who drove into the city struggled to find parking Monday morning.<\/p>\n

Nassau and Suffolk county residents who typically rely on the LIRR to get into work described their trip into the Big Apple as a \u201cnightmare\u201d and \u201chell\u201d as they were reduced to pawns in the heated bickering between the MTA and the picketing unions.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s miserable, but the people really getting screwed are the ones who physically have to show up somewhere,\u201d Wantagh local Kevin Haller, 38, told The Post as he boarded a bus at the Bellmore station.<\/p>\n

Train workers picket outside Penn Station. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n

Diane Carlucci, 54, was forced to leave her house at 5:30 a.m. to catch a shuttle bus from the same station and it took her nearly three hours to reach her job where she works as a billing coordinator at a doctor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Usually, she would enter Penn Station in less than an hour as she blasted the unions for the train shutdown that started Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s really terrible, and I\u2019m getting palpitations thinking about doing this every day while those stubborn a\u2013holes \u2013 who already get paid way above national average and get out-of-control overtime \u2013 stop the system and make life hell for hundreds of thousands of people,\u201d the Bellmore resident fumed.<\/p>\n

The MTA-provided buses picked up workers from six locations across Long Island, then dropped them off at different subway stations in Queens, leaving workers to take subways the rest of the way as train workers picketed outside Penn Station and other spots in the region.<\/p>\n

Paralegal Marisol Vega, 39, said her commute, which involved a bus, a subway and then another bus added almost two hours to her travel.<\/p>\n

Commuters were forced to get on buses. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m already exhausted before I even start work,\u201d the Seaford resident said.<\/p>\n

Ricky Persaud, who took a bus from Ronkonkoma to Queens called the arrangement \u201cmayhem,\u201d while Andrea, who did not want to share her last name, described her commute from the same station as a \u201cnightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI now have to spend 30 hours per week just commuting, on top of working my regular 40 hours per week,\u201d added Matt, who is a construction project manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cGo to work, do the work, go home, go to sleep, repeat \u2014 nonstop,\u201d he griped as he estimated he\u2019ll spend 10 extra hours on the road this week if the strike drags on. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Shuttle buses drop off LIRR passengers at the 179th Street F train station in Jamaica, Queens, on Monday, May 18, 2026 Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n

The coalition of five labor groups and the MTA continued to be at odds mostly over how much of a pay raise union workers should receive over the next several years.<\/p>\n

The MTA\u2019s chief negotiator Gary Dellaverson said at a press conference Monday he was \u201cpretty optimistic\u201d about reaching a deal predawn Monday morning, but progress appeared to stall.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, it is 2 o\u2019clock,\u201d he said Monday afternoon. \u201cThat didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gov. Kathy Hochul bizarrely claimed the morning commute \u201cwent smoother than expected\u201d as she thanked office workers who worked from home instead of venturing into the city.<\/p>\n

The buses led to longer travel. Dennis A. Clark for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is get this over as soon as possible,\u201d she said. \u201cWe know people are inconvenienced.\u201d <\/p>\n

While the MTA offered buses that could pick up about 13,000 passengers for the AM and PM rush hours, the agency told the New York Times fewer than 2,200 riders have taken advantage of the service.<\/p>\n

Other workers who didn\u2019t take the bus ended up driving, leading to more frustration and confusion.<\/p>\n

Drivers were advised by officials to park at Citi Field in Queens and then catch a 7 subway train into other parts of the city \u2013 but were actually directed to drop their cars off at lots across the street, which are\u00a0MTA train yard and bus yard lots.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no signage. No signage, really. I came from Long Island. I saw it on the news this morning,\u201d said Northport resident Steve Betzios.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could get to Citi Field and park here all day for 6 bucks and take the 7 train in and you can get to Manhattan. I come down here and I\u2019ve been going around the block trying to find where the parking is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Governor Kathy Hochul meets with MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber and LIRR President Rob Free regarding the Long Island Railroad strike on Saturday, May 16, 2026. Susan Watts\/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul<\/p>\n

Motorists were also stuck waiting to get into Midtown garages, including Icon Parking near Penn Station where a line of cars led to gridlock on the street. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my normal parking garage \u2014 I\u2019ve been parking here for over 10 years \u2014 I\u2019ve never seen it this bad before,\u201d said Ronnette, who lives in the area.<\/p>\n

A Connecticut resident who drives in said he had to swing by three lots before finally getting a spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never seen it like this,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli\u2019s office warned last week before the strike began<\/a> that the region would lose about $61 million each day if the train workers walked off the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cA LIRR strike will be felt far beyond the tracks, triggering the loss of millions of dollars per day in lost economic activity, disrupting thousands of riders and throwing the region\u2019s transit service into chaos and gridlock,\u201d DiNapoli in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Long Island Rail Road strike forced some commuters to waste two extra hours on the road as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[14737,1606,85688,57,9,56,63,65,64,58],"class_list":["post-235966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-commuters","tag-lirr","tag-lirr-strike","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}