"No service this evening"

This past Thursday night, as I was settling in to the coveted 'next to the door' spot on the 6:39PM train, I heard the announcement all commuters dread. As usual, its timing was perfection. Two minutes prior to that train's departure, a garbled statement was blurted out over the PA system, "There is no service to Forest Hills and Kew Gardens this evening." That was all it said, and with it, I knew that an adventure was about to begin.

As I left the train, I braced myself for the common scene of Crazy White Guy & Old Lady tag-teaming the conductor. I was not disappointed. As the Crazy White Guy railed on about unrelated grievances of years past, the Old Lady demanded why the LIRR didn't tell everyone sooner. Apparently, a recently disabled train prevented all other trains from stopping at the two stations. Eastbound? Westbound? No one knew. But the fact that the conductor could not explain that the LIRR could not have ever predicted to the Old Lady in advance that this was going to happen, made the situation explosive. As Old Lady kept the majority of the crew tied up, Crazy White Guy was at his finest. Perched on his mental soapbox and clearly enraged, he began screaming and spitting while staring at no one in particular. At this point, I decided to jump in.

Using soft yet stern talk of logic and common sense, I temporarily calmed the Crazy White Guy, which gave me just enough time to ask the conductor if we can take a train to Jamaica in order to take another one westbound to KG or FH. The conductor disappeared into her cabin to communicate with the dispatcher, but in doing so, abruptly shut her window to block the noise. Unfortunately, that gave Crazy White Guy a second wind, in which he demanded that she be fired while getting the rest of the commuters riled up. Again, I calmed him using everything short of dangling shiny objects in his eyes. That gave us just enough time for the conductor to come back with good news: another train was adding stops to accomodate KG and FH customers. Whew! The LIRR came through! However, this could have been handled much better.

I do not work for the LIRR, but I can bet that this was not a unique event. One would think that there are procedures in place that all but automate the response to such a situation, including coaching the crew on what to say and how to say it. Thinking from a commuters point of view, particularly one who lives on eastern Long Island, an announcement like that is tantamount to saying "you're screwed, find a hotel." How about saying, "Attention passengers for Forest Hills and Kew Gardens, due to a disabled train, the 6:39 will not be stopping at those stations. Please standby on the main level for further instructions, which will be announced shortly." Announcing that there is "no service" without any possible recourse puts people in panic mode.

I forgot to mention that while all this went down, a fellow commuter asked me what was going on. When I told him that the train was not stopping at FH or KG, he replied with a look that pretty much said, "Suckers". I'm sure that asshole lives off of exit 900 on the LIE and should have been more considerate. You know who you are.

Lessons learned for the LIRR: coach your staff on the 'what, when, and how' to communicate with customers. Most people understand that problems happen, but commuters that are wound up after a long day, with only one way to get home, react very badly to poorly worded announcements.

Our mission

The mission of LIRRSUCKS.com is to be the voice of all the hardcore NYC commuters that suffer twice daily at the hands of the Long Island Railroad. Or, this could be a way for a crank like me to vent frustrations while being a thorn in the side of our MTA.

Just in case it was not made clear in my introduction, yes, this will be a rant at times, but my intentions are not completely selfish. Indeed, the ultimate purpose of this site is to get the MTA to acknowledge certain shortcomings in the LIRR system and to implement what I think are obviuous solutions. Oh, and did I mention that I will rant at times? With that said, let the fun begin and feel free to comment!