Riders navigate alternatives as strike that shut down largest US commuter rail enters a 3rd day

NEW YORK (AP) — Commuters in New York City’s suburbs navigated a gauntlet of car, bus and subway routes to get to work Monday after a strike on the Long Island Rail Road that shut down the nation’s busiest commuter rail system entered its third day.

Unions representing rail workers and the Metropolitan Transportation Agency, which runs the railroad, negotiated for much of Sunday, wrapping their talks around 1 a.m., but failed to reach an agreement, despite pressure from the National Mediation Board and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. A spokesperson for union workers said negotiators returned to the bargaining table early Monday.

Katie Dolgow, who teaches first graders in Manhattan, said it had already taken her an hour just to travel from Long Island to Queens as more commuters turned to the region's already notoriously gridlocked roads. But her big concern was coming home.

“I have to get my son at daycare by 5:30. It's going to take me longer getting home. I'm a teacher, I'm going to have leave work at 1:30,” she said.

Picketers were out early.

“We're just asking for a reasonable cost of living adjustment on our wages,” Byron Lee, a locomotive engineer, said outside Penn Station in midtown Manhattan. “People think that you don't deserve it.”

‘The skyrocketing cost of living’

The LIRR serves hundreds of thousands of commuters who live along a 118-mile-long (190-kilometer-long) land mass that includes Brooklyn and Queens in New York City and the Hamptons, a summertime playground for the rich and famous near its eastern tip. The railroad has long provided commuters relief from its rush-hour clogged highways.

Most of its riders live outside New York City in two counties populated by nearly three million people.

The railroad closed down and workers went on strike at 12:01 a.m. Saturday after five unions representing about half its workforce walked off the job for the first time in three decades.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and the Transportation Communications Union said in a statement Sunday that workers “are not asking for special treatment — they are simply fighting to keep up with the skyrocketing cost of living in the New York region after years without a raise.”

Workers have gone years without a new contract

The unions and the MTA have been negotiating a new contract since 2023, but talks have stalled over salaries and healthcare. The Trump administration got involved in September after unions asked for the appointment of a panel of experts, but they still couldn't reach a deal.

At a news conference Sunday, Hochul said workers would lose every dollar they would gain with a new contract by remaining on strike for three days.

MTA Chairman Janno Lieber also urged a fast resolution.

“We are headed in a positive direction but we have to get it finished,” Lieber told WABC-TV.

Sports fans felt the pain first

The first to be affected by the walkout — the LIRR's first since a two-day strike in 1994 — were the many sports fans who wanted to see the Yankees and Mets battle or the Knicks’ playoff run at Madison Square Garden, which is located directly above the railroad’s Penn Station hub in Manhattan.

Federal law makes it extremely difficult for rail workers to walk out and even allows Congress to block a strike, but lawmakers have not intervened as they did with the nation's freight railroads in 2022.

Would-be commuters were greeted by train departure boards that listed ghost trains marked “No Passengers” rather than upcoming trains listed by destination.

Essential workers among the roughly 250,000 weekday LIRR riders took buses into the city from six locations on Long Island starting at 4 a.m. Monday. The evening rush-hour commute runs from around 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Hochul and Trump trade blame

Hochul, a Democrat, has blamed the Trump administration for cutting mediation short in September and pushing the unions toward a strike. Trump, a Republican, said on his Truth Social platform that he had nothing to do with it.

“No, Kathy, it’s your fault, and now looking over the facts, you should not have allowed this to happen,” Trump said.

Hochul urged companies and agencies that employ workers from Long Island to let them work from home whenever possible.

“It’s impossible to fully replace LIRR service. So effective Monday, I’m asking that regular commuters who can work from home, should. Please do so,” she said.

The MTA has said the unions’ initial demands to raise salaries would result in large fare increases and be disproportionate to other unionized workers' pay.

The unions, which represent locomotive engineers, machinists, signalmen and others, have said more substantial raises are warranted to help workers keep up with inflation and rising living costs. ___

McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press writers Ted Shaffrey and Joseph Frederick in New York; Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska; and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed.