Riders sound off on MTA, LIRR salaries

Long Island Rail Road riders interviewed Wednesday expressed various opinions - few of them positive - about salaries paid to Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers.

According to data published Wednesday by the Empire Center for New York State Policy, more than 8,000 MTA workers - more than 10 percent of the agency's workforce - made six figures in total yearly pay for a second consecutive year.

Further, more than one in four of the LIRR's 7,046 employees earned more than $100,000 last year.

MTA officials say overtime pension considerations are factors that drive up salary totals.

The Albany-based Empire Center is an arm of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.

Long Islanders react

"It's absurd," said Peter Clark, 53, of Roslyn. "It's coming out of the MTA budget, and with unemployment at double digits and the average salary out there between $65,000 to $75,000, these people are making double. They should hire more people instead of cutting back services.

"Even Fortune 500 companies have policies to keep pension plans from going over. Its crazy," said Clark, who said he has been riding the rails for 25 years.

Emma Green, 66, of Jamaica, Queens, who said she has been riding the LIRR for 15 years, called the size of salaries "ridiculous."

"There are cuts in services and high fares. . . . It makes you think if anyone is padding the payroll," she said.

"It's not the most efficient way in scheduling people," said Chris Lee, 33, of Manhasset, referring to overtime costs. "There needs to be a check-and-balance system in place so that the people who get the overtime are not always the same people with seniority.

"I want people to get comp [compensation] for their work, but there needs to be better management of scheduling hours," said Lee, who has been using the railroad to commute to the city for a year.

Jessica Trujillo, 22, of Medford, said, "I don't think they should pay all that money. Instead they should hire more people. There are plenty of people who are waiting for positions. The railroad should put them through job-training programs and give them jobs.

Trujillo, a daily commuter, said her train to Ronkonkoma is usually packed and she sometimes stands for the full one-hour-and-10-minute ride there from Penn Station.

"You can't get a seat. I feel like I'm riding the subway," she said.

"I wish I had that job," Oscar Juarez, 50, of Lake Ronkonkoma, said as he ran for his train. "Even if I had to sweep up, I'd take that job."

"It's outrageous even if it's legit. It's still a lot of money," said Mary Gould, 40, of Bayville. "It makes you wonder . . . with our fares increasing every six months, shutting down lines - it's impacting me and everyone else who rides the railroad."

Donna DeSantis, 45, of Brentwood, gasped softly at the annual salary amounts.

"It's not responsible management, especially with the upping of railroad tickets," she said.

DeSantis noted that her monthly railroad ticket has jumped from $180 a month to $306 a month over the last decade.

"My pay has remained status quo, and I don't get overtime," she said, adding that she usually works 10 hours extra every week.