LIRR: Care 'ambassadors' ready to assist riders needing station access

LIRR officials are celebrating the early success of a program designed to aid riders in need of extra help getting on and off trains, but some critics say it doesn't go far enough in making the railroad accessible.

Since its launch in July 2018, the Long Island Rail Road's LIRR Care program has received more than 4,000 requests from customers, officials said.

The program allows riders with mobility issues to contact the railroad 24 hours a day, seven days a week through a special hotline and to arrange for assistance getting at train stations. Railroad officials said they have logged about 500 calls to the hotline since November alone.

Requests for services through the hotline are directed to LIRR customer service "ambassadors" deployed in key stations, including Penn, Atlantic Terminal and Jamaica. Ambassadors seek out the customers, help them onto and off trains, and relay information to their counterparts at the passengers' destinations — including details about which cars they are riding so they can assist them at the other end.

LIRR president Phillip Eng noted that, by contrast, the railroad’s previous and little-known “Call Ahead” program for riders in need of assistance had received just 16 requests in the 12 months before LIRR Care was created. The popularity of the new program is due, in part, to the railroad's efforts at promoting it, LIRR officials said.  

“It just shows that we are doing what we said we would do. We are making the railroad much more comfortable for our riders and giving them assurance that, if they need assistance, they’re going to get assistance,” Eng said.

 Among those taking advantage of LIRR Care is Yassin El-Youty, 91, an attorney and writer who said he needs a little more time, and some help, getting on and off the train than when he began riding the LIRR 45 years ago.

“Fear, at my age, becomes magnified, because you don’t want to slip,” El-Youty said. 

He was so touched by one recent interaction with an LIRR ambassador with “the warmest possible smile,” Stariasia Young, that he wrote a letter to the railroad commending her and the LIRR Care program.

“That’s really the human touch,” El-Youty said. “They do the help without expecting even a thank-you.” 

The letter led to Young and her fellow red jacket-wearing ambassadors receiving commendations from Eng at a ceremony at the railroad’s Jamaica station.

Young, of Harlem, recalled El-Youty as a “a lovely guy” who “kind of fell in love with my name.”

“Me and him walked hand in hand. He actually held onto my arm … He needed a little extra time getting to the track, so I took him downstairs on the elevator and we took our time to get there,” said Young, who has worked as a customer service ambassador for the LIRR for three years. “You make people’s day. They make your day.” 

Despite the program's success, some disabled advocates have said LIRR Care doesn’t go nearly far enough. 

Two pending class-action lawsuits against the LIRR allege the railroad has violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, including by not having elevators at some stations and by not providing assistance to wheelchair users at some stations. 

One of the plaintiff’s attorneys in both suits, James Bahamonde, called LIRR Care “a Band-Aid on something that needs greater attention.”

He noted that the LIRR’s customer service ambassadors are only stationed at the railroad’s major New York City hubs — Penn, Jamaica and Atlantic Terminal — and don’t work during overnight hours. He also called for better training and staffing levels for employees interacting with disabled customers.

“They say they want to make changes and that they want to reach the same objectives that we do,” Bahamonde said. “We’ll see.”

Eng said LIRR Care is part of a broader initiative to improve handicapped accessibility throughout the railroad, including making seven more stations accessible in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s recently approved 2020-24 Capital Program. LIRR officials also noted that ambassadors can be deployed to any station, as needed.

“Our goal is to make the system fully accessible … but until the funding is in place, until those projects are done, it was important for us to make sure that we did everything that was within our control now, today, to enhance that experience,” Eng said.

The railroad also recently empaneled an Americans with Disabilities Act Task Force that includes riders with disabilities, who will consult with LIRR leaders about improving accessibility.

Floral Park resident Nadia Holubnyczyj-Ortiz, who uses a wheelchair, said she's been invited to join the task force. She said the railroad still has work to do to make its system truly accessible, but called LIRR Care "a good first step."

“But it’s exactly that. You have to take an additional step before going on the train,” Holubnyczyj-Ortiz said. “I want to see a time when you don’t have to involve anybody … You don’t have to call ahead to anybody to get assistance. You just go up to a track and you enter.”

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.