Long Island Rail Road [LIRR]
reviews and complaints

I live in Lindenhurst. My morning commute consisted of catching the 6:01 train to Penn Station which I had more than enough time to make it to work by 7:30. Now I have to board the 5:54 train to Grand Central, switch at Jamaica for a Penn Station train. Forget about boarding the 6:09 train heading to Penn, which is ALWAYS late by 5-10mins. I would reach Penn about 7:20 am, so I guess I have to fly to work in 10 mins.

Now my afternoon is by far the WORSE. I was taking the 3:21 train which was express and stopped at Lindenhurst. I would be home by 4:30. Now the 3:23 train is express but doesn't stop at Lindenhurst. So, I have to catch the 3:38 train. Which is a long commute because its local. The amount of people who board this train is INSANE. ITS PACKED leaving PENN! There is no room. People literally push and shove just to get a seat. I mean do I blame them? NO! I wouldn't want to stand, what use to take me 40 mins now over an hour to get home. Mind you I pay for a monthly which is almost $400 so I'll be damned if I have to continue to stand. The amount of construction workers, blue collar workers who live in Lindenhurst should be considered as well. You have people breathing down your neck.

Bablyon Train was always crowded but not to this extent. Please bring back the old schedule!

Hello to the LIRR management. I have been riding the train from Massapequa to Penn station for thirty nine years. The new schedule is causing the worst commute since superstorm Sandy. Please allow me to explain my concerns and observations.

(1) Many of the Babylon trains start accepting passengers at Babylon and every station to Wantagh. You can guess what the seating situation is like at Massapequa.

(2) The trains are now eight cars. The train stops further west on the platform, which a problem when passengers need to go downtown. The train stopping position does not align with the yellow markings on the platform.

(3) Every train stops at Jamaica. How can you call this a express train?

(4) Every train is now at least ten minutes late. I check the time we depart and arrive on my cellphone, every train is late.

(5) On the return trip east, numerous people board the train at Wantagh. These people stand in front of the doors. On 3/2/2023, I saw a women fall onto the platform because she had to step around twenty people in the vestibule.

I do agree that having the LIRR stopping at Grand Central is a very positive change, but your execution of this plain is terrible.

Please add more cars ASAP.

If the big picture is to get people to commute back into the city, your current schedule will discourage people.

I am happy to discuss this situation with you.

Sincerly

Cliff Gottlieb

Direct trains to and from Brooklyn have been eliminated causing so much inconvenience to Brooklyn commuters; after 5 days of the new schedule, all the LIRR trains - in the morning or the evening, were delayed causing connection issues; there is an added 10-12 minute walk after reaching Grand Central - all in all this is a very frustrating and impractical change to the timetable. It’s almost like a fix one, break ten situation. Very disappointed

The new train schedule is a hit mess. Trains at Farmingdale have been eliminated adding more people to existing trains. And those trains are shortened, by as many as 2 cars! It is standing room only. Trains are PACKED in the Covid Era. Amd then you'll be raising the fares for the added 42nd st station for this nightmare of incredibly bad service. Please change the schedules in a way that makes sense.

Good morning.

Wanted to reach out and share my experience since your new lirr schedule and route change into Brooklyn. The Atlantic Terminal line is the only artery into Brooklyn. It doesn't make sense to remove direct trains. Our recent commute has been a nightmare.

We, meaning my wife and I, have been using the lirr train for a few years now from Hicksville to Atlantic terminal. The direct train was the main reason we purchased a home in area. However this schedule now extends our commute 15-25 mins each way. It's very silly and alarming in my opinion. Simply due to loss of convenience and valuable family time which will directly relate to lower property values.

Assuming we are not the only unhappy customers. This needs to be addressed and hopefully fixed.

Please add additional direct trains to Atlantic terminal, at the very least during rush hour am/pm. It's is the only artery in to Brooklyn and having to transfer in Jamaica is unnecessary and annoying.

Please help.

On Monday February 27, 2023, the lirr initiated a new system-wide schedule to accommodate or include the new train service to grand central terminal. This new schedule is not accommodating to the other existing branches. I live in Baldwin and I work downtown brooklyn so I was taking atlantic terminal train everyday for eight years living in long island. Now, after 2/27/23, my is INSANE. I have to take a shuttle in the middle of rush hour to get to atl terminal. The trains are packed, standing room only. Conductors can't even get by to check tickets. Walking up and over and down stairs, crowded stairs with hundreds of people trying to get to the same place. Trains are no longer waiting for transfers causing Jamaica to be very very crowded. BOTH WAYS! It's utterly ridiculous. Why and who ever thought of this ingenius idea. Someone who has no idea of what it means to travel or who ever took the lirr in the first place. PLEASE FIX IT! have some direct lines to atlantic during rush hour. Why remove all of them and leave only two in the middle of the day! PURE STUPIDITY!

Again, PLEASE FIX.

it is just not fair to inconvenience all other train lines just for the sake of another train line.

With the overcrowding situation at the Jamaica Station due to the new schedule, it's a very dangerous situation. Are we going to wait until a commuter falls on the stairs, or worse yet, falls onto the tracks due to the overcrowding? Please review this updated schedule and change it so we don't have this dangerous condition.

Times: Feb 27th thru 3/1/2023

Morning rush hour

Thank you.

Sir/Madam,

I have been riding the LIRR for 23 years out of the New Hyde Park or Stewart Manor Station. With the occasional delay, my commute was 30 min. to Penn Station.

Since Monday, Feb. 27th - my commute went from 30 minutes to 47-58 minutes. This is due to the change you made to those trains going to Grand Central.

What about the thousands who work on the West Side - like myself? there are barely any direct trains out of Penn to my station - and the morning especially is mad chaos. No trains arrive for 10-15 min - how was this put together?

Our am commute is - on the main line - out of NHY is only 7:07 or 7:45am! How is that rush hour? You eliminated 2 entire trains!

Hello,

Please, Please, Please, get the LIRR to return to a more sensible schedules! These new schedules implemented this week have added an extra 20mins to my commute in the morning and an extra 40mins to my commute going home. HOW IS THIS PROGRESS ?

These new schedules are an utter and complete failure on the part of the LIRR! It appears to me that the LIRR gave ZERO thought to these new schedules and how they would impact riders and everyone I talk to is very very very angry! Between the sky high fares and now these schedule changes the LIRR is killing us here on Long Island. Please please please DO SOMETHING about this!

Thank you!

With this new schedule, I thought the service would alternate between Penn and Grand Central. However, the two trains in the a.m. (the 7:36 and the 8:06) both go to Grand Central. I tried switching at Jamaica and the platform was so crowded, I felt it was unsafe and then couldn't even get a seat on the train to Penn from Jamaica. It was a terrible and long commute. I tried going to Grand Central and taking the subway down to Wall Street and that just added even more time to my commute. Please change the schedules and be more fair to those of us traveling to Penn Station. This is totally inconvenient and intolerable for those of us over 60 years of age!

I can only imagine how many complaints are flying in since the schedule change has been implemented for the Grand Central stop. I cannot comprehend the amount of tax payer money that has gone into this astonishing [censored]-up. How do you build a system that adds over 40 minutes to a commute? No discernible reason. Did your planning team arrive to work each morning and spend their first hour shoving one another's heads up their [censored] before starting their days?

Who was the blistering gang of [censored]wits to create this new system? I am on the Port Washington line. There are far few trains now to choose from. The ones that are available are for absurd times. Who the hell can catch trains before 5:26 pm? On the best of days I had to fly out of my office no later than 5pm to catch the 5:26, now that is gone. Taking a later train at least allowed for a group that made the 5:26, but no one can do 5:10. The 5:52pm is now the earliest option and it is a game of surviving the stampede each nite. Every seat is packed and it is now all standing room too. So far the numbers are probably light because of the snow and day of the week. Going to be a joy tonight, the busiest nite of the week!

The Grand Central times add over 20 minutes to my commute each way, wtf people? How is a closer train longer? What half witted [censored] designed this system? No one is going to take these trains. We are all working professionals coming in on that line. Obviously, it is the only way we can pay to live out there. We need train times to reflect that we can't run out of the door at 5pm, let alone earlier. Now I can only hope to be home by 7:30 pm or way later

Every single person on my trains so far are livid, livid. Fix this fools, fix it now.

The new schedule is absolutely awful. Why must all the trains travel to Grand Central. Quite a few of your riders use the Atlantic Avenue Terminal. Also after transferring at Jamaica, you have to go to one the farthest tracks to get the train to Atlantic Terminal. Are you even considering your riders? Is there a possibility that maybe every other train can travel into Manhattan.

Please have another meeting, discuss this, and be fair. The new schedule needs to be revamped. As I stated earlier, it is absolutely awful.

Hello,Please, Please, Please, get the LIRR to return to a more sensible schedules! These new schedules implemented this week have added an extra 20mins to my commute in the morning and an extra 30mins to my commute going home. HOW IS THIS PROGRESS ? They added almost 50min to an already terrible commute on the Babylon LIRR train line. Where are all the express trains that have been eliminated? How come every train now MUST change at Jamaica? These new schedules are an utter and complete failure on the part of the LIRR! It appears to me that the LIRR gave ZERO thought to these new schedules and how they would impact riders and everyone I talk to is very very very angry! Between the sky high fares and now these schedule changes the LIRR is killing us here on Long Island. Please please please DO SOMETHING about this!

The new train schedule is horrendous. I boarded the 3:42 train at woodside going to wantagh on the Babylon line. The train was so crowded people couldn’t even board the train. The next train is not for another 43 minutes there is no train service in between that time. The train was so crowded. People were filling up the isles, and could not get off the train and missed their stops. For what the Long Island rail Road charges its customers this is unacceptable. They need to add more trains on the Babylon line. They are all extremely overcrowded. Yesterday I tried to board the 422 massapequa train, and the same thing people could not even board the train. It was so crowded People are paying fares to ride the train and because they’re so crowded. They are not able to get on the trains that they need. The Long Island rail Road needs to add more trains on the Babylon line and more express trains. Instead, they made everything local so the rides take longer have more connections and are slower.

LIRR figured out a way to make a bad thing worse. My morning and evening trains went from express to local and a change at Jamaica if I want to get to work on time. You were very accommodating to the people going to Grand Central and left us who use Penn station to pay the consequences. Thanks for nothing. I guess I will retire earlier than I thought.

Why have all the direct Babylon to Atlantic Terminal and direct Atlantic Terminal to Babylon trains been canceled in favor of the new Grand Central destination? This will result in daily 10-minute or longer transfers across several tracks in either direction. Am I to believe that Atlantic Terminal is not as viable a destination that warrants direct services even during the height of rush hours?

Has any though been given to the expected chaos at the Jamaica terminal and its unsuitability as a major transfer hub? This disjointed service will force me to consider other commuting options.

To Whom It May Concern:

These past few days when I reach my destination which is Penn Station, the train Conductor is not allowing people to exit the LIRR and closing the doors within a few minutes upon arrival! I almost fell into the platform because the doors closed on me and there were still plenty of people on the train trying to exit. You can't close the train doors within 3–4 minutes upon arrival. That is not only unrealistic, but also poses a huge safety issue! Please rectify this issue before someone gets seriously injured!

First off too many people will send a complaint before a compliment. I am a LIRR Ronkonkoma branch rider. I always look forward to hearing Brad on the way home. After a long work day to hear him or have him pass to check tickets. Brad is always positive and professional. I hope after the schedule change I get to ride on his train.

Thank you Brad!

Saturday, January 21, 2023 10:35AM going to Penn Station from Massapequa Park. I was in cart 7253.
I am a frequent rider on the LIRR. Got on the train and asked the conductor if they were still offering the 20% discount if you bought the tickets on the app, and I have never received the nastiest response from a conductor on the train before. He told me in a nasty voice, “I can’t hear you and I don’t know what you are talking about.” The people surrounding me were shocked that he answered me the way he did. I told him not to worry, I will just go to customer service. Maybe he needs to go to a class for proper etiquette. Not only was it embarrassing, it was offensive. I guess next time I should drive into the city. If you need to contact me, I can be contacted at [protected]@yahoo.com.

I have noticed the conductor don't like to ask twice to a person that don't have the ticket, instead of kicking them off the train they don't bother and just move on. I also notice conductor give breaks to people by buying them senior ticket on their device when they know they are young, they should be charged the step-up ticket prices. Some simply don't like their job; they don't even look if the person has their ticket out or not. They just say, " Ticket Ticket" and just walk to the next train cart/box without looking. This happen to me, as I was just opening the app to show him my ticket and before I was able to open it, he was already gone. It wasn't a free ride. I buy monthly pass. Please clean the trains, I don't think the trains are being washed at all. The outside is so filthy that you can't even see out the window, a thick smug is frozen on it and the inside needs a complete wipe down. I have seen people's spit has dried up on the window glass, brown stuff is all around the windows. I don't think I want to sit on the train at all. Please review their work.