A Train Wreck of a Week

The derailment of the Amtrak train on Sunday has wreaked havoc on everyone’s commute this week. The trains out of Farmingdale heading into NYC and Brooklyn were pretty much on time. However, trains running west of Jamaica were a mess. Some trains were diverted, some were canceled and others made additional stops.

If you were headed into Penn Station or Brooklyn your commute wasn’t interrupted too much. But if you were headed to Kew Gardens, Forrest Hills or Woodside, good luck. Random trains had added stops, but the trains had so many people waiting to get on that there wasn’t even standing room. I really haven’t a clue what the LIRR was thinking or who came up with the diversions.

The commute home was definitely a different story. Trains were canceled and the ones that were running were running late. Some passengers were even waiting in the tunnel in Penn for about 30 minutes. I commute home from Woodside Station and when we walked up to the platform, the message board said next train 8:19 p.m. heading to Babylon. That would scare just about every commuter since that meant it would be 2 hours before a train would stop.

The message boards weren’t updated, random trains were making stops and again, trains were packed. The LIRR did give passengers the option to take subways free of charge. Has anyone tried taking the 7 train from Woodside? You can’t get on a train right away and you have to change at another station to catch the E that brings you to Jamaica Station. Once you reach Jamaica, they fail to mention how many flights of stairs you have to walk up to actually get to the LIRR Platform. Thanks but no thanks with the subway system!

I’ve dealt with constant track changes, running for trains, trains showing up two cars short and packed and having to run to a different platform to catch the train.

Yesterday commuters were dealing with the Amtrak derailment from Sunday, a disabled Amtrak train in the East River Tunnel (Shocker!) and a track fire at Woodside. What next? I’m sorry, if you are canceling trains and combining others, you do not have the right to then run the train two cars short. I literally had to run past six cars at Jamaica station to get onto my train. I squeezed myself into the car just so that I could get home.

Why is it that if anything happens that affects the LIRR, they seem to have a complete meltdown? I think they just decided to pick trains out of a hat to decide which trains would be canceled, which would be diverted and which ones would have added stops.

How has your commute been affected this week? What are your thoughts about the LIRR meltdown?