Night workers gear up for a rough commute

During the four years she has worked grueling shifts as a nurse in the operating room at The Brooklyn Hospital Center, Sonia Falconer has relied on the 12:15 a.m. Long Island Rail Road train to get her home from Brooklyn to Valley Steam.

Falconer, 50, technically ends her shift at 11:30 p.m., but it's rare when her relief shows up on time, so the train is her safety net, she said. Come Monday, that safety net disappears when the LIRR ends overnight service from Brooklyn in an effort to plug its budget deficit.

"That's bad for me," said Falconer, who had been unaware of the service change. "If I don't get relieved in time, I am definitely not catching train, which happens a lot of the time. This is supposed to be a major hub. So why would they want to do that?"

Ending overnight service to and from Brooklyn along with other service cuts that go into effect Monday systemwide are expected to save the LIRR $950,000 the rest of this year and $3.8 million a year starting in 2011, spokesman Joe Calderone said.

Last week, regular riders like Falconer were not happy about the changes and now will find themselves either rushing to catch earlier trains, driving or being forced to add time and money to their commutes.

Batch Michel, 23, of Queens Village, has been working double shifts - 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. to midnight - as a counselor with disabled people to get experience and save money for the physical therapy program at Nassau Community College. He said he will now take two subways instead, getting him home at closer to 1:30 a.m., an hour later than when he usually gets home. "It's going to be a long ride home at night," he said, when told about the change. "Why are they doing this, exactly? That's horrible."

If he rushes, Gordon Rothbard, a night supervisor in the Kings County courts from Lynbrook, will catch the last train out of Brooklyn, but should he miss it, he will have to take the subway to Penn Station to catch a train home. The added commute will mean an additional $2.25 on the subway and getting home a half-hour later. "I am not thrilled about it," Rothbard said. "I just started to work the night shift thinking it was not going to be too bad, and there you go. It's going to make it a rough commute."