LIRR admits it miscalculated demand for Grand Central Madison, will add Brooklyn shuttles

Acknowledging that ridership demand for Grand Central Madison is lower than the LIRR expected, the railroad’s president said Thursday that several changes are on the way to help the rest of its commuters, including more frequent Brooklyn shuttles and more cars on busiest trains.

Long Island Rail Road interim president Catherine Rinaldi on Thursday outlined plans to bring some relief to exasperated LIRR commuters, who have dealt with crowded trains and platforms and longer waits since Monday, when the railroad enacted its new service plan.

“We are looking on a train-by-train basis — every train, every day — how long is it? Who’s on it? How crowded is it? And we’re making adjustments to be able to reflect actually what we’re seeing out there,” Rinaldi told reporters at the railroad’s busy Jamaica station, which has seen much of the crowding and confusion since Monday. “We’re trying to make adjustments to give customers a better experience than they’ve had this week. They have not had a good experience this week. We recognize that."

Rinaldi said the railroad has already begun adding cars to some of its busiest trains, and will do so more extensively beginning Monday. Before this week, LIRR trains consisted of as many as 12 cars, but were reduced to as few as six, so the railroad could create more trains to increase service by 41%.

The railroad will lengthen more trains next week, focusing on the most heavily-utilized branches, including Huntington, Ronkonkoma, Babylon and Port Washington. Some trains will return to having as many as 10 cars.

Adding cars to some trains will mean taking them away from others, said Rinaldi, adding that those decisions will be made using ridership data.

Rinaldi acknowledged that the car shortage has been made worse by the fact that the railroad is still waiting on the arrival of 50 new "M9" train cars, which are running three years behind schedule. Every extra car, Rinaldi said, can hold about another 100 passengers.

To bolster its stretched-out fleet, the railroad has resurrected 100 1980s-era "M3" train cars, which had been parked for nearly three years.

Rinaldi also acknowledged that the railroad’s projections for rider demand at Grand Central Madison have been off.

“The service plan was based, basically, on a 60-40 split” with the majority of riders expected to go to Penn, she said. “We’re seeing 70-30 now. Will it stay 70-30? I don’t know.”

Gerard Bringmann, chairman of the LIRR Commuter Council, and a nonvoting MTA board member, said there is “no excuse” for the kind of crowding passengers have endured this week, especially given that LIRR ridership remains more than 30% below pre-COVID levels, and the LIRR added 271 daily trains to its schedule on Monday.

“We should not have standing room only. So something went wrong somewhere with the schedule," said Bringmann, who likened the railroad's service plan to a baseball team that "on paper" looked like a lock to win the World Series.

"And they don't even make it to the playoffs," Bringmann quipped.

The LIRR is also taking steps to address complaints about its new shuttle service to and from Atlantic Terminal. As of Monday, most Brooklyn riders have to transfer at Jamaica to a platform dedicated to the shuttles. But riders have said the shuttle trains have operated too infrequently, resulting in long waits in the cold, and packed conditions on the trains and platforms.

Rinaldi said the LIRR will add another train on the Brooklyn branch next week, increasing the frequency of the shuttles, and allowing riders to wait on board a train at Jamaica, instead of outside.

Brooklyn-bound commuter Robin Effron, of Garden City, just missed a shuttle Thursday morning and was forced to wait several minutes with her baby in a stroller for the next train.

“It seems like a real loss to be able to go directly there and have a little bit of seamless commute that way,” Effron said.

The LIRR has also made some routing changes at Jamaica, to expedite trains through the busy junction. Rinaldi said more changes could be on the way.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, at an event on Long Island, said she had confidence in Rinaldi and Lieber.

"This is a temporary situation, any new dramatic change like this, the first train station opened in over 100 years," she said. "It's gonna take a little bit, but it is very temporary. We are working very hard to get it right as soon as possible.”

Wantagh commuter Jackie Dowling doubts that any of the planned tweaks will make much of a difference to the crowding caused by the railroad doing away with timed connections at Jamaica, and direct transfers across station platforms. The changes have resulted in a dangerous free-for-all among riders, she said.

“It’s going to going to take a catastrophic event, when somebody is pushed onto those tracks, for them to think of the crowding on the platform," Dowling, 60, who commutes to Atlantic Terminal, said. "It seems inconceivable to me that this makes sense."

With John Asbury

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.