Long Island Rail Road [LIRR]
reviews and complaints

Lirr complaint

Jan 14, 2015
7:58 train from penn to ronkonkoma
First car

I was riding the train to get home from new york city. I had an off-peak ticket which I planned on topping up for the peak ride that I was on. However, I was only a dollar short. My card did not have enough money to buy a one-way ticket to ronkonkoma, but it had just enough money to be able to pay the top up at the train station of ronkonkoma. All I needed was a bill to be written because I know that ticket collectors usually write up a bill when you do not have sufficient funds. I was planning on paying what I owed at ronkonkoma train station with my card because I couldn't buy a one-way ticket. The train conductor, a short, on the heavy side, older man, told me that I had to get off of the train at jamaica station. I asked him if he could take the four dollars that I had and write me a bill for one dollar so that I could pay it at ronkonkoma train station, and he told me no, he wouldn't do that for me. It is in the dead of winter, and this was taking place when the sun was already down. I did not feel safe having to get off of the train at jamaica station at night. Plus, I had to go to work which is why I had to take a train home during peak hours. The conductor was very rude and didn't seem to care for the situation that I was in. He was very inconsiderate, and the people around me who were watching thought he was bluffing. I asked the people around me if they had a dollar to help me out. I even showed them the inside of my wallet to show them that I was telling the truth and I only had four dollars cash on me. So a good stranger gave me the dollar I needed. Something should be done about whatever the policy is on topping up, because if there is a way for somebody to pay their top up then, the conductor should help them do that instead of throwing them off of the train, especially when he would be putting a young woman in danger of being raped at night at a train station. Doesn't what i'm saying make sense?

To whom this does concern;

My wife utilized one of the lirr trains yesterday and had a very disturbing experience.
She purchased a "round trip" off peak ticket prior to boarding @ $21.50. She boarded the train
In copiague heading to penn station. The ticket agent, assistant conductor # 1098, was in such
A hurry she just grabbed my wife's ticket, punched a bunch of holes in it, punched another ticket and placed it in
The holder on the chair back. My wife asked for the ticket back since it was a round trip ticket and the agent,
# 1098 said it was not a round trip ticket and left. My wife tried getting her attention throughout the trip to
No avail. All the agent said was go seek customer service, there was nothing she could do. My wife
Asked for her name. She said she was not allowed to give her name. All she did was show my wife
Her hat with the number 1098. My wife then found customer service in penn station. The agent there
Listened to her complaint and handed her a form to fill out which will be sent in upon completion.
Meanwhile, my wife bought a round trip ticket in copiague - the ticket agent confiscated the ticket -
Wouldn't do anything to help - went to customer service in penn station - no help there….
My wife had to come up with another $10.75 to purchase a one-way ticket home.

What would have happened if this event took place with a child? Or somebody that did not have another $10.75 to
Return home? The least the agent on the train could have done was search through her collected tickets to
Locate my wife's "round-trip" ticket.

Very bad business…. Extremely bad customer service… what kind of compensation will we expect to receive?

On the 4:03 a conductor called the police on us for water on the ground of the train he has been harassing us nonstop for weeks. He delayed the train 10 minutes. The police just and got off the train. It was in the fourth car. I've been wanting to train for 16 years and there is no need for this. It was a babylon train and the police got on at jamaica. They question the whole train and no one had any complaints. He has been nothing but rude to the customers.

I am an access-a-ride (aar) client/customer. my aar id is 159051. on thursday, 01/09/2014, I had an aar appointment scheduled for 2:58pm at 10 columbus circle (the time warner center). the special instructions stated that the driver should not pick me up at the back entrance. at 2:30pm I called aar customer service and learned that the carrier was sending a vehicle and not a van. at 2:38pm I received a robot message from aar informing me that my pickup would be at my location in 10 minutes. I immediately went outside and stood in front of the time warner center, by the curb, to look for an aar vehicle. there is only one possible direction in which the driver can come. I saw no aar vehicle, so I got out my cell phone to call aar customer service at 3:05. on my cell phone I saw that someone had attempted to call me. when I tried to call back my cell phone dropped on the ground and the battery came out (it is a $10 cell phone). after I put the battery back, I called aar customer service and was told that the driver had left after I did not answer the cell phone. the driver gave the landmark as the first republic bank which is two doors down and viewable from the time warner center. had the driver been at the first republic bank, he definitely would have seen me because I was the only person with a walker waiting in front of the time warner center. I was waiting at the curb in front of the time warner center so that I could wave the driver down.

I was marked as a no-show and asked if I could make my own way home (the meaning of which was not clear). I explained that I could not, so I told that aar would call me in 45 - 60 minutes after an ride had been arranged. I explained that I would rather call them in case my cell phone didn't ring which it sometimes does not. aar said it was impossible to ask the driver to come back even though it was clear that he was not more than 5 minutes away.

When I called back after 60 minutes, I was told to look for a grey impala chevy and given the number that the driver would show in the window. I was told that the driver would be there in 30 minutes which was at 4:30pm. I went out and stood in front of the time warner center at 4:20pm. I looked for any car that resembled a grey car. the only cars that drove up were dark in color. still, in my desperation, I even flagged them down. nobody showed any number to me.

At about 4:35pm I called aar and was told that I needed to contact the car service. I called the car service and waited 5 minutes and received no live voice. I called aar and asked to speak to a supervisor. the supervisor called the car service and 20 minutes later informed me that the driver had been to the location and then left. the supervisor asked me if I would wait another 30 minutes. I said that it would be impossible because nobody could see me and so it was obvious that I would be waiting there all night in the freezing cold. the supervisor gave me a taxi authorization number. it is clear that neither the aar driver nor the car service driver even attempted to look for me as I have a walker and there was hardly anybody standing at the time warner center next to the first republic bank because it was so freezing cold.

The supervisor stated that I would not be penalized. however, this is not the first time this situation has happened. usually, I am able to get aar customer service agents to call the carrier to make sure that the driver comes to the front entrance which is directly across from the famous statue of christopher columbus. however, on one occasion prior to yesterday's event, I had called aar customer service three times before the pick up time to make sure the driver would not go to the back entrance. three aar customer service agents refused to call the carrier until after the pickup time. when that time arrived, an aar customer service agent stated that the driver had come to the location and I was not there. I was marked as a no-show. I was told that I could not have a taxi authorization number because I was a no show. instead, I was told that I needed to wait for aar to arrange a new ride. finally, after repeated calls to aar customer service, an agent gave me a taxi authorization number. when I tried to cancel the new ride arranged by aar (that would take an hour to arrive), I was told that I would not be reimbursed even though I had a taxi authorization number because I was a no show. but at that time I was already in a yellow cab going home. aar reimbursed me after I made a complaint.

I think this is an impossible situation. time warner center is a beautiful place to visit and aar customers should not be denied access. my suggestion is that you make an official access-a-ride pick up for the time warner center (the entrance covers at least 5 regular store doors) because too many access-a-ride drivers don't know where the location is and, in this latest case, it is clear that the drivers knew where the location was but did not know to look by the curb where I would be trying to flag them down. it is unclear where they were looking, but in the past I have seen aar drivers park a half a block or more from the time warner center forcing me to ask pedestrians to flag them down. I personally am fed up with this situation. it should be resolved so that I and others can have access to the time warner center. there are two entrances with the same address which are on the same street, with the exception that the street curves so that a driver at the back entrance will not see a customer at the front entrance.

"overlapping redundancies"
Not a major problem but a pet peeve I have. Why can't the lirr fare collectors get their act straight. 90+% of them are fine hard working people. It's the rougues that are the culprit. Usually the late-nite crew are responsible for the incompetance. I hate being asked twice for my same ticket. We board the train at penn station & someone collects our tickets. We're in the last car. 20 minutes later after half the train is gone some rogue fare collector comes into the car apparently looking for tickets. I asked what happened to the original fare collector. He got defensive. Either he just woke up or the other guy other went to sleep like a lot of those late night collectors. Overlapping redundancies. Pure incompetance. One does not know what the other one is doing. Get your act straight people. This has happened to me at least 10 times. I can understand an occasional miscommunication but 10 times is too much.in the cosmic scheme of life this is trivial but it is annoying nonetheless. Do not ask me twice for my same ticket. Why can't these employees work certain cars? If one employee takes my ticket & 10-20 min. Later another employee comes along out of nowhere; what happened to the 1st employee? But
Don't confront them. They will get more defensive than perry mason or matlock. They will fight to the death for their right to be incompetant. This goes out to the 5-8% of rogue lirr employees. The rest are very nice people.

Good morning. I am a rider on the babylon line greatly affected by the east river tunnel issue. I am in the midst of dealing with issues from my employer regarding the tardiness to work as a result of the services disruptions. This morning there were significant delays incorrectly announced as 10-15 min delays. The train pulled in 30 min behind schedule resulting in a significant delay in getting to work. We need answers. There has to be a better solution. The babylon is one of the largest lines as you know and was the line mostly affected by cancellations/diversions. After doing some research trying to find answers since the mta website has been very vague about the problems, amtrak is now saying its going to be until mid january until the tunnels are fixed. When will it be possible to reroute / add trains back to the babylon line into penn station. There has to be some other solution... I pray. Mid january coupled with the coming winter months, I fear the problem will only be exacerbated.

Aug 1, 2011 the lirr suspended service to most of the branches in both directions. Specifically the ronkonkoma branch. Because of this suspended service, I decided to take the babylon branch to the patchogue station which departed ontime 5:09pm. I am a long time customer with a monthly ticket that costs over $330 dollars per month. I receive emails messages and texts from the lirr messaging system. This system reported that there were 10-30 min delays on the line and possibly 90 minutes on other lines. Now because the 5:09pm train was believed to be operating on time and good services, I boarded this train and it did leave on time. I made arrangements with my wife to pick me up at the patchogue station at 6:40pm. Unfortunately this train was delayed from massapequa to patchogue and I finally reached patchogue at 9:10pm. I was on this train for 4 hours. We were told that there was a problem with switches and the main branches jamaica and something at mineola. I am not sure this was the case because the babylon line is an overhead elevated system not like ronkonkoma line with many crossings at ground level. I have no idea why this train was delayed for over 2 hours. I cannot imaging being stuck on a train for 4 hours - can you?. We were told by the conductors that there were congestion delays on the babylon branch. This company often encounters delays for some reason or another. The alternate plans are basically none.in my line of business, television, heads would roll if the news went offline for 2 hours for reason unknown, unjustified, or just incorrect reports for outages. The lirr is a ridiculous organization. They keep charging customers more money for budget issues and improvement plans and the service seems to get worse. Their on time performance reports cannot be correct. They all show avg 90% ontime which is impossible. They are not including days like this with long delays and suspended service. The on time performance for this delay must have been 10% and obviously not factored in the montly performance. Realize this is a single complaint and there are many others that can be made against the lirr for other days. This with very similar delays. The folks who manage this system are clueless. The conductors on the train actually went around and punched riders tickets while this 2 hour plus delay occurred. We were also told during the ride by the conductor that the delays were caused by paperwork that needed to be approved before they continued on from one station to the next. Paperwork? I am confused what paperwork? Do they mean 1800's paperwork to approve passing through track switches. Need I say more?

Why is there a discrepancy with "fare" charges between conductors from penn station (zone 1) to zone 7 with an op (off peak) zone 7 to zone 3 ticket? I don't know how or what formula they're using currently but I do recall it based on the face value on the ticket in the past before the major price restructuring. Ex. If you didn't have a ticket at all you'll be charged a fare close to a one week metrocard. Stepup extended of 1 dollar telephone assistancs @ 718 _
Just pay it "whats a dollar"
If it's just a dollar why complain about gasoline.
Arithmetrick
5.75 off peak + 5.75 =11.50
Or two off peak in this case would add up to the peak value

Here's my situation:
1 had several police summoned on a 17:03 (5:03pm) train from penn to babylon, by personnel because I refused to pay the dollar difference which has been an ongoing issue with conductors either not knowing the fare structure arithmetic (charging different amounts with the same type ticket (off peak) to the same destination zone 7 to zone 1 (to and fro),

2 "extended" to and/or "stepup"
Question?
Is it 6 dollars or 7 dollars from penn to massapequa park or (zone1-7) with a massapequa to jamaica (zone 3-7) "off peak"

This is very upsetting - I moved out east to Long Island from Queens NY and my experience riding the LIRR in just a little over month is really disheartening. Every week there are at least 2 incidents of train "derails" or "technical problems" or "frozen tracks" or whatever they come up with next - that delays my commute home from Manhattan after a very long day at work! The cost of transportation is really high - over $250 a month for both my husband and for myself- tgats over $500 not to mention the fact that you still have to pay gor subway transportation if you dont work in Penn station. This is a pretty significant cost - one you would expect is high enough that they can at least provide good, reliable service at least for the majority of the month! It's not just the delay that upsets me but it's the fact that the poor LIRR system is what is keeping me away from my son. It's the difference in seeing him for those 40 mins a day before he goes to sleep vs not seeing for another 24 hours. There has to be some grounds for a lawsuit here- I'm certain I'm not alone - it's just that we all keep quiet an things continue as they are. I'm not keeping quiet.

This is a complaint about the fare structure on the MTA Commuter Railroads (LIRR and Metro-North). They do not honor reduced fares for seniors and the disabled on NYC-bound morning peak trains that arrive in NY between 6am and 10am. This policy is unfair because it makes those who are on a fixed income pay the very high peak-one way fare, a fare that most people on the train dont have to pay, as they are monthly commuters who get a heavily discounted monthly ticket. For example, an occasional senior or disabled person traveling on the LIRR into the city on weekday mornings, will have to pay over $11, while the commuters who are generally better off financially wind up paying roughly $5 per ride with their monthlies. They are taking money from those who cant afford it, while those who are better off effectively ride at the senior/disabled fare every day. The MTA has not responded to my complaints.

I am a home health aide for an elderly client who has approxiamately five-eight apptointments per week.My client is always left on the curb waiting for acces-a-ride for an hour or more.Then when the driver eventually gets there he is always rude and impatient, on a number of occasions my patient wasn't strapped in and fell, on another instance I got up to strap in my client and was verbally assaulted, this is difficult enough as it leads to late or many times cancellations of crucial appointments.Now my biggesst fear is that when it begans to get colder my patient may be placed in a really high risk situation!
Thank you in advance for your assistance in this matter.
Sincerely, Solomon Israel #347-235=1376

No clerks, but two machines on platform of broadway stop. Both faulty. For weeks on end. One doesn't collect my five dollar bills, nor does it recognize my (or my friend's) credit cards (while machines at other stations have taken same five dollar bills and accepted credit cards). The other, the touch screen doesn't work at all and on the keypad, only the number 4 works. Again, weeks on end. Have missed important appointments thinking this would be fixed. And if one boards the train sans tocket and with the excuse that machines don't work, you are told to write a letter and charged a step-up fee (I paid $12 for a normally $5.75 trip, as it was an emergency).
They have people who come to collect the dough. Why not have same people make sure machines work properly, in every way? One week, ok. Two weeks is dubious. Three weeks in a row or more with the same issues and it's irresponsible, cynical, careless.
Again, i've missed important appointments because of this issue.
Folks, do not depend on lirr machines.
In addition, trains have been extremely filthy as late (and I know i'm not the only to have made this complaint, as I just perused their website), which then raises concerns with regard to bedbugs and the like.
I'm not a 'letter writer' (clearly; I don't believe they ever make a difference when it comes to how corporations work), but this is ridiculous. They want our money, they should at least come through with a modicum of consistency with regard to what they purport to offer us.