Commuters complain and adjust to LIRR service cuts

Carmine Gibaldi of Port Washington was among the commuters left feeling more than a little abandoned Monday as he sat on a train heading for Penn Station, trying to make a 3 p.m. appointment in Manhattan.

A professor, Gibaldi, 55, found himself on the 1:08 p.m. train instead of the 2:08 p.m. because - starting Monday and from now on - MTA officials nixed the mid-hour off-peak train that he would have taken and 13 other weekday trains in one of the deepest service cuts in history.

And the reductions come alongside price increases scheduled for January.

Gibaldi was among the grousing commuters in train cars and on platforms from Port Washington and other communities all the way to Penn Station Monday who didn't appreciate being forced to be early.

"Disastrous," Gibaldi said of the cuts that ruined his timetable. "I feel like Port Washington is particularly hard hit. I am not sure why the burden was put on this community."

Officials eliminated the 14 weekday trains and 32 weekend trains on the Port Washington line as part of a cost-reduction program designed to save as much as $950,000 this year and about $3.8 million each year after that.

The largesse in savings was little solace to Patrick Barbarito, 45, a court reporter from Fresh Meadows, Queens, who lamented that the LIRR is raising fares while it cuts services.

SEE PHOTOSLIRR trains and commuters through the years

"If I have to be in the city, I'll have to come an hour early and wait," Barbarito said. "I have no choice."

Officials claim the cuts are all necessary to close a yawning $900 million budget shortfall.

But commuters like Don Scott said the money could be made up if the system's operators wasted less.

"They need to better manage overtime costs and they need to better manage the pensions they're giving to their employees that most of the country do not get any more," said Scott, of Port Washington. "You can only squeeze the population for so long."

Tina Lobel, a math tutor, said she was forced to wait nearly an hour because she missed the 10:49 a.m. Port Washington train by a hair.

"I think it's going to make more people drive into the city," she said.Richard Pilson, 57, a real estate attorney whose office is in Great Neck, said when he has a court case in Manhattan, he has no control when it's done. So he has relied on the frequency of LIRR trains to get home at a reasonable hour. Now, he'll be stuck waiting for up to an hour if he finishes at a time that doesn't square with the LIRR's new schedule.

"I can't control when I am leaving," said Pilson. "If I don't catch the train, I sit for an hour. It's really tough for me. It's not good."