LIRR invites bathroom feedback with pilot program

Long Island Rail Road officials are inviting commuters to show them, in real time, how gross station bathrooms are, with a plan to use their reports to dispatch cleaning crews.

The LIRR on Monday announced the launch of the pilot program that will allow customers to scan a QR code posted inside station bathrooms to report an issue.

LIRR president Robert Free, who began his career at the LIRR cleaning stations, said the new program was inspired, in part, “by me constantly checking bathrooms,” and his awareness that bathroom cleanliness typically receives some of the railroad’s lowest scores in customer satisfaction surveys.

“We want to know about problems in real time,” Free said at a Manhattan meeting of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board's railroad committee on Monday.

Posters in bathrooms will contain the code, which will link customers to an online survey with questions about the bathroom's condition. Customers can choose from a variety of options, including: “bad odor,” “toilet needs cleaning,” “sink needs cleaning,” “floors or walls need cleaning,” or “out of toilet paper, towels or soap.”

Customers can supplement their report with additional comments or photos. An alert is sent to the LIRR, and a cleaning crew can be dispatched.

The railroad, in a statement, said it expects the program to be up and running by early July, and that it will collect and analyze data received from customers to “adjust cleaning schedules and manpower needs.”

At Hicksville station Monday, riders acknowledged having low expectations for LIRR bathrooms.

Jack Lugo, of East Meadow, said station restrooms are not the best, but they fulfill their purpose.

“They’re what you expect — gross, smell a bit — but it gets the job done,” Lugo said.

Lugo said he will “probably not” take the time to scan the QR code, preferring to just “get out of there.”

Nikki Silva, of Queens, expects to use the new online survey to report on bathroom conditions.

“I try to avoid but when I do use them, I think they're OK, they're not terrible,” Silva said.

Although the pilot program will be exclusively for station bathrooms, Free said a plan is “in the works” to expand the survey to train bathrooms.

Free also announced Monday that earlier this month, work was completed on the installation of an elevator in Amityville — one of four stations on the Babylon line slated for accessibility upgrades this year to become compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The Copiague station got an elevator last month, and the Lindenhurst and Massapequa Park stations are scheduled to open their elevators later this year, Free said.

Although those are moving ahead, other station accessibility projects are being put on hold because of the funding shortfall caused by Gov. Kathy Hochul's pause on the MTA's congestion pricing plan. The LIRR has stopped work on accessibility projects at Hollis and Forest Hills stations, documents show.

MTA officials are expected to announce other capital projects being put on hold at a meeting this Wednesday. The transit agency has said, without the toll revenue it expected from congestion pricing, it needs to trim its $55 billion capital budget by $15 billion.