{"id":801670,"date":"2026-05-16T23:51:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T23:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/801670\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T23:51:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T23:51:14","slug":"long-island-rail-road-strike-leaving-riders-with-marathon-travel-times-to-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/801670\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Island Rail Road strike leaving riders with marathon travel times to NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Day 1 of the Long Island Rail Road strike<\/a>, riders reported their regular trips to and from New York City turned into marathons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Long Island drivers also faced heavy traffic Saturday, as people who would’ve taken the train were forced to hit the road, including Mets and Yankees fans heading to Citi Field for the Subway Series.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chopper 2 video showed backups on the Long Island Expressway, Grand Central Parkway and Northern State Parkway.<\/p>\n

LIRR service halted<\/p>\n

It’s all quiet on the rails after LIRR union workers walked off the job<\/a> amid failed contract negotiations with the MTA. There’s been no word from either side about when negotiations will pick up.<\/p>\n

“Woke up this morning, got to the LIRR and I was like, ‘Oh s***, it’s not running,'” said a rider named Devin from Port Washington.<\/p>\n

Devin had to take two buses to visit his friend in Manhattan, which meant he had a longer day ahead of him than if the trains were running.<\/p>\n

He didn’t know how he’d get back home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I might crash at a friend’s house tonight,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ramses Brye, of Queens Village, was on his way to work the overnight shift at a Syosset Amazon warehouse when he found out about the strike.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I took the train at midnight. That was the last time, and then I looked at the [TrainTime] app at like 12:30, and, like, yeah, they’re definitely on strike,” Brye said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Replacement shuttle bus service<\/p>\n

MTA workers posted signs at Mineola Station, where starting Monday shuttle buses will take essential workers to and from New York City subway stations in Queens.<\/p>\n

The MTA’s strike contingency plan<\/a> designates five Queens subway stations as drop-off locations, which are also near major roadways to and from Long Island.\u00a0<\/p>\n

LIRR strike shuttle bus service map<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, however, the Nassau Inter-County Express bus is all the area has.<\/p>\n

“Fortunately the buses are reliable, but the trains would’ve been better,” Brye said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It means riders will be dealing with excess travel times.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The train ride itself is 36 minutes. So, it turns out now an hour and 36 minutes instead of 36 minutes,” said a rider named John from Mineola.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Max Rallo, of Dix Hills, and his friends spend over $100 on an Uber ride from Long Island to Jamaica, Queens.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Now the plan’s all messed up because I can’t take a 45-minute train ride anymore. It’s a two and a half hour trip,” said Rallo, who said it was too early to think about how he’ll get home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Subway Series impact<\/p>\n

The Subway Series at Citi Field this weekend might be the unofficial litmus test for what commuters can expect Monday if the strike spills into the workweek.<\/p>\n

Even with the Mets expanding their direct shuttle service for the series against the Yankees, fans faced obstacles getting to Saturday’s game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I heard my neighbor earlier, he was just like, ‘Yeah, I’m giving up my tickets for Sunday because it’s not worth driving,” a fan named Daniel said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“If I was taking the LIRR, would’ve been here an hour and a half early,” another fan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It was smooth, but it was bumper-to-bumper. It was like a parking lot,” Ed Owens said.<\/p>\n

Fans leaving Friday night’s game had to catch the last train before midnight in order to beat the strike.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Day 1 of the Long Island Rail Road strike, riders reported their regular trips to and from…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":801671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,133977,9904,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-801670","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-long-island-rail-road","10":"tag-mta","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkcity","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116586944211084104","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}