(Newsday.com posted the following story by Joie Tyrrell on February 19.)
NEW YORK — The workday commute after one of the biggest snowstorms in recent years turned into a frozen, chaotic nightmare for hundreds of Long Island Rail Road riders yesterday who endured canceled trains, disabled equipment and delays averaging 90 minutes.
Morning commutes stretched into the afternoon. Some riders surrendered and went home. Others waited for trains that seemed never to arrive. Many said the railroad should have let them know of the long delays before they left the house.
“We were cold, we were wet, there was no information. We were left out there to starve,” said Pasquale Crispo, of West Babylon, whose commute from the Wyandanch station to Penn Station took nearly five hours yesterday morning.
The problems, which the railroad blamed largely on snow and ice on the third rail and snow piled at railroad crossings, came after authorities had stressed that commuters should use mass transit and the railroad had reassured riders it could handle the morning rush.
Systemwide delays plagued the evening rush hour as well. As of 10 p.m. yesterday, railroad spokesman Robert Brennan could only say that some trains experienced half-hour delays.
As for this morning, Brennan said, “Customers should expect delays. Some trains will have less than their usual number of cars. Some trains will be canceled or combined. Customers may experience crowded conditions.”
At 7:30 a.m. delays were approximately five to ten minutes on all lines, and ten to fifteen minutes on the Babylon branch.
About 15 to 20 trains are expected to be canceled or combined this morning due to disabled equipment, LIRR officials said.
One saving grace yesterday was that ridership was way down, with only about 25 percent of the normal 105,000 morning rush hour commuters taking the train. LIRR officials expect ridership to be down again today but not in the large numbers seen yesterday.
Icing of the third rail caused delays and problems throughout the system, said Jim Dermody, vice president of operations. The third rail powers the railroad’s electric fleet.
“We had in Jamaica 20 inches and in places on Long Island, 25 inches and the third rail is only 8 inches off the ground and it is automatically buried,” Dermody said. “We had to keep that clear and the biggest problem was the icing of the third rail.”
Though delays averaged 90 minutes throughout the system in the morning, some places experienced much more. Three electric trains on the Port Jefferson line became disabled between Syosset and Cold Spring Harbor after they lost traction with the third rail on an incline, Dermody said. The trains had to be pushed out by diesel engines.
Plow-packed snow at grade crossings slowed and even stopped some diesel trains that suffered equipment trouble after hitting big piles of snow. The railroad also ran some trains up to two cars short after Monday’s storm forced a number of cars into the shop for repairs.
Still, the railroad decided to run on a regular weekday schedule. Metro- North operated on a weekend schedule with fewer trains in service, but also experienced systemwide delays and complaints from commuters about crowded trains.
“I think that was a real disadvantage,” said Beverly Dolinsky, executive director of the Long Island Rail Road Commuter’s Council, a transit advocacy group. “I think to have tried to run a regular schedule was too difficult.”
Dermody said a weekend schedule wouldn’t have adequately served LIRR riders. “If we had put out a weekend schedule, we would be operating hourly service out of Ronkonkoma and Huntington and Port Washington – some of our busiest branches,” Dermody said.
Railroad officials had warned riders Monday night to expect delays of 30 minutes, but nothing of the magnitude experienced yesterday. Peter Haynes, president of another riders’ advocacy group, the LIRR Commuters Campaign, had to return home after his train broke down at Oakdale yesterday morning.
“At the very least, the railroad should have put out more honest information: ‘Look it is going to be terrible. We are going to run on a weekend schedule or run every hour,'” Haynes said.
Crispo began his tumultuous journey to Manhattan at 5:30 a.m. on the platform at Wyandanch. He had heard reports that conditions on the LIRR were normal.
Instead, he waited two hours in Wyandanch and then left for the Babylon station, which also was chaotic. He finally arrived at Penn Station close to 11 a.m.
Several commuters throughout the system reported confusing announcements that left them wondering whether to wait or go home. At the Hicksville station, trains ran on no schedule that anyone could fathom yesterday morning. There were announcements as trains arrived at the station, but people wandered from track to track asking where trains were headed and compared notes on how long they had been waiting.
On the Port Washington line, commuters waiting outside in the cold watched as trains packed with riders passed them by without stopping.
Evening commuters found themselves waiting in delays as well after a trying morning rush.
“It’s my wife’s birthday and it would have been nice if I had gotten home in time,” said Jim Butler of Levittown, who arrived an hour late at the Hicksville station last night. It was his second railroad-related delay of the day.
“I wouldn’t have left my house if the Long Island Rail Road had announced the delays at 5 o’clock in the morning,” he said. “Why can’t they just say we are having problems – go back to bed.”
(Staff writers Rhoda Amon, Bill Bleyer, Jessica Guenzel, Tom Demoretcky and Stephanie McCrummen contributed.)