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Long Island Rail Road [LIRR]

Long Island Rail Road [LIRR] review: men's restroom deplorable unsafe 65

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8:05 am EDT
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This is a complaint and a report on the deplorable and depraved conditions I experienced in the men’s rest rooms of njt and lirr penn station in new york city. On monday august 23, 2010 upon arriving in penn station just after 8am I had the unfortunate and immediate requirement to use a toilet. I first tried the men’s restroom up by 8th avenue and found it populated with indigent/homeless men (one bare foot and dirt encrusted) and not a single open stall. One kindly homeless man offered me his spot in the line for a stall, but I could only imagine what unsanitary conditions I would have found once the stall was vacated.

I dashed out of there hoping to find an open stall and a better situation at the njt restrooms near 7th avenue by the “ticket holders” only waiting area. (I was transferring to a njt train at 8:41am). What a joke! The njt restroom had 2 open stalls, the first stall (handicapped) had no door at all and the smaller second stall had a banged up door with no lock and no way to close the door properly or secure it for any measure of safety. The stall toilet paper dispenser was also missing. It appears the dispenser had been ripped from the wall but someone luckily had fashioned a toilet paper holder with the wire hanger. On the way out of the restroom another homeless men had arrived (with large plastic bag of redeemable cans in tow) was forced to use the toilet with no door. Meanwhile out in the “ticket holders only” waiting area a group of other mostly homeless men sat quietly. There was nobody sitting at the security desk.

As a new yorker I was ashamed to find these unacceptable, unsafe, and unsanitary conditions for both myself and the homeless (not to mention the poor unknowing tourist that might need to use a bathroom anyplace in penn station). The mta/lirr/njt needs to correct immediately the poor physical condition of these rest rooms (especially the njt restroom) and also address the complete lack of security in the restrooms, and lack of compliance with the “ticket holders” waiting area security. These depraved conditions are likely a symptom of the homeless situation in nyc, so the njt/lirrmta needs to more resources for them and partner more with homeless coalitions or something to improve the situation, because someday day you too might find yourself in the unfortunate situation of needing a restroom in penn station. Nyc is the greatest city in the world and even our restrooms should reflect that reality.
Cc: lirr/njt/mta

65 comments
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Eligettia
, US
Dec 22, 2019 12:40 am EST

As much as we appreciate the new chip reading machines we cannot effectively use them because the machines do not accept credit card. Credit cards do not come with PIN numbers and that is what the machines keep asking for. Please make a permanent fix to this problem.
Thank you

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Munjal Japee
, US
Nov 20, 2019 5:20 pm EST

Why evening time waiting area at Farmingdale train station is locked and close.
Why students, elderly people should suffer waiting for the train in nasty weather.
Most of the time trains are late.
Is it a showpiece made from taxpayers money?

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Massimo Paternoster
, US
Nov 10, 2019 2:24 pm EST

Why the hell should I pay you 300$ bucks a month for this [censored] service you give?
There are 2 car less on the Merrick - Atlantic station of 7:16!for some genius who decides not to add car?
Or are you saving on something. That's unbelievable and unacceptable for what I pay you monthly !
Wish you see you in bankruptcy really!

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Helen Panageas
, US
Nov 06, 2019 1:21 pm EST

The 6:41 train from Baldwin to penn station on 10:31 was an older train and the conditions of the train are deplorable! Shame on you LIRR management to ask the fares that you ask and to make passengers ride on a dirt filled train. These trains are disgusting and uncomfortable See attached photo. When will you retire these disgustingly old trains?

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Jboo44
, US
Oct 14, 2019 5:34 am EDT

Train conductor is blowing train whistle unnecessarily loud at 4:45am. Everyone in town is complaining about this. This is not usually a problem, there must be a new conductor.

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Dangkim
, US
Oct 14, 2019 11:48 am EDT

Hi, the train is always late when I commute. This is so annoying

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Ketkeet
, US
Oct 14, 2019 1:38 pm EDT

The service is awfully. Why is there no train service anywhere for almost 2 hrs in the late night after 1 am. Penn Station close down there is no waiting area . penn station is filthy dirty and all the bums hanging out. What happened to the 230 am trains there only available on late Friday night. Why

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Reinaldo Bello
, US
Oct 08, 2019 7:56 am EDT

Tonight at around 9:00 PM, went Patchogue Train Station to buy a ticket for tomorrow. $ 28.50 Ronkonkoma - Penn Station off peak round trip. Started to pay with coins, $ 1, 50, realized that coins never made it all the way, seems like they got stuck right in the slut. DO NOT USE COINS. You will lose them.

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Ryan_Kelly
, US
Sep 10, 2019 8:50 pm EDT
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The railroad crossing on Lowell Avenue at the Central Islip train station can take over 10 minutes to cross at times. The track's gates go down several minutes before a train arrives and won't raise until we'll after a train has left. The excessive amount of time that the gates stay down causes a huge inconvenience to morning/evening commuters.

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Davidjohnson631
, US
Aug 19, 2019 8:30 am EDT

The crossing at ocean avenue in ronkonkoma is causing major traffic issues for a westbound train the gates are down for more than 10 minutes can you please look into the reason for the extended amount of time the gates are down thank you

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St.felz
, US
Jul 24, 2019 9:15 am EDT

The train going to Babylon leaving Penn station at 11:47pm had some disruptive kids that act like animals on the train . The conductors should have authority to kick those kids off the train . For every dollar we pay for the lirr we should feel safe . The workers should not have to wait for the police to get them off the train

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Ddubs
, US
Jul 21, 2019 5:27 pm EDT

I take the 1:59pm to Atlantic out of rosedale and while it now says it arrives in 1 minute now. We went this entire time absent announcements. As well the 3:13pm to penn out of jamaica is consistently late! People pay to much for your service for you to be making them late for work.

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Lisa Sifre
, US
Jul 06, 2019 6:00 pm EDT

How can you leave people at Farmingdale and we have to go to Ronkonkoma with out no transportation this is very unfair I paid a round trip to go to the pride parade today with my son and it ended with no ride so I'm waiting for a taxi to come and get me and my son to Ronkonkoma

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Mariec128
, US
Jun 25, 2019 7:20 pm EDT
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8:22 to ny get on train and ur employee is taking up two seats on a packed train and vaping. Lead by example.

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Mariec128
, US
Jun 19, 2019 8:50 am EDT
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2 seats and vaping

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Nik Nazaroff
, US
Jun 16, 2019 2:26 pm EDT

President Eng, here we ago again. Is this going to be the norm that every Monday there will be 10 to 20 minutes delay? Missed connections at Jamaica? Getting late to work. It"s time, you should resign and maybe they could find someone more compitent.

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Rider sardine
, US
Jun 09, 2019 11:11 am EDT
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The Ronkonkoma train, leaving Penn at 4:51pm, has people taking up seats before the train doors open at Penn. These non-revenue generating riders never got up. Even though others are standing on this (West-end car) very crowded train.
Should the conductor correct this? Or is it a acceptable practice?

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Radhika1306
, US
Jun 06, 2019 12:10 am EDT

Hi

the long island city line is always late and never on time at 7:57
This causes a lot of delays. Also there is no train between 7:40 am and 8 am that goes via hickville other than the long island city line which is always late
please help

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Munmatt
, US
May 20, 2019 10:52 am EDT

The entire Far Rockaway line is neglected with not enough train service, not enough/substandard cars and late arrivals. It's ridiculous to have two am peak trains to Penn between 8-9am and three pm rush hour trains between 5-6 pm. Totally unacceptable for the amount of Far Rockaway line commuters. Disgraceful!

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AS15
, US
May 11, 2019 10:06 pm EDT
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The area adjacent to the sidewalk at the overpass bridge on Heiser Lane in So Farmingdale is filthy, broken bottles, glass, tree branches, pieces of concrete (its a dumping ground). Town of OysterBay and Village of Farmingdale DPW says its LIRR property. Please clean it ASAP before someone or a child gets hurt!

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Linda Shay
, US
May 12, 2019 3:39 am EDT

7:08 out of Jamaica to Babylon. There was no one on the train when we left...except for the conductors. My husband left his backpack, unfortunately. It contained a Mac Laptop. We will never see it again. Your conductors are a bunch of thieves and should be arrested!

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Debbie katy
, US
Apr 30, 2019 5:38 am EDT

It is really ridiculous how the fare is going up when the trains are still cancellation.

Three hundred dollars and up is ridiculously crazy.

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Neeta Ahmed
, US
Apr 16, 2019 8:09 am EDT

Tried calling multiple times to no avail. Phone kept hanging up while trying to retrieve accurate and detailed information about parking. Lost keys prevented me from picking up vehicle and tried for hours to receive assistance . After multiple instances of redirecting, there was nothing but ended phone calls. Useless calls to MTA and LIRR.

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Patrick17
, US
Nov 11, 2018 9:28 pm EST

I boarded the 11/4/18 12:25 train in Hicksville. Although the train was late, I was assured by the conductor that 12:54 train from Jamaica to Atlantic Terminal would be held for us. It wasn't. We were less than 10 min late. The dispatcher told me that "due to track work" he was told not to hold trains. Sounds like B.S. to me.

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Rob Fiumara
, US
Oct 03, 2018 3:05 am EDT

I live in West Islip (77 Paprocki Ave.) The noise of the train horns is disrupting our quality of life. Especially in the evening times or overnight times when the neighborhood is sleeping. Please do something about this!