New Yorkers brace for travel chaos as strikes disrupt America’s busiest commuter railroad
By Hanna Ziady, Chris Isidore, CNN
London/New York (CNN) — New Yorkers should prepare for travel disruption Monday, the city’s officials have warned, as service on the vital Long Island Rail Road remains suspended because of a historic strike.
“The City is preparing for travel disruptions going into the workweek and New Yorkers should too,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted to X late Sunday, providing an update of the latest developments and advice on how to navigate the service interruption. “New Yorkers should plan for heavier-than-usual traffic and additional travel time,” he added.
Marathon talks between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the railway, and unions representing railroad workers ended early Monday without an agreement to end the strike, which has shut down North America’s busiest commuter rail network since Saturday.
The MTA’s latest service alert shows that all branches of the Long Island Rail Road, which carries around 250,000 customers each weekday across 947 trains, remain suspended. It advised commuters to work from home if possible.
The MTA will provide shuttle busses from Long Island into the city starting at 4.30 a.m. ET Monday, according to New York Governor Kathy Hochul. “We have a plan in place to help essential workers get to the city and minimize disruptions as much as possible,” she said on X.
But the MTA has warned that the buses will have a capacity of 13,000 riders for the morning commute and another 13,000 riders in the afternoon, meaning they will have a small fraction of the capacity that normally rides the trains on weekdays.
The strike by five unions representing 3,500 workers is the first at the railroad since 1994. It comes after the unions failed Friday to reach a deal with management on wages and working conditions. Workers are seeking their first raise since 2022, in the region of 4-5%.
The National Mediation Board, the federal labor agency governing labor relations for railroads and airlines, summoned representatives for both sides to a Sunday afternoon meeting that continued until nearly 1:30 a.m. Monday, the Associated Press reported.
Though a deal could not be reached, the two sides agreed to restart negotiations Monday morning.
Unions on strike represent engineers, signalmen and machinists. The conductors are not on strike but they are union members and honoring the picket lines.
“The LIRR is the lifeblood of Long Island. Hundreds of thousands of riders depend on it every day. This strike hurts both the riders who rely on the LIRR and the workers who operate it,” said Hochul, who has condemned the strike as “reckless.”
Commuters now face the prospect of having to drive to work at a time when gas prices have surged and new tolls are in place on all cars entering Manhattan’s business district.
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