Transportation

Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray lambastes LIRR

With strike looming, supervisor wants railroad to rethink plans

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Town of Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray came to the Bellmore Long Island Rail Road station on Tuesday to call on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to rethink a plan to bus train commuters from six depots in Nassau and Suffolk counties to Queens subway stations in the event of an LIRR strike in July.

The six stations that would act as staging areas include three on the South Shore –– Seaford, Bellmore and Freeport. Among the other stations would be Hicksville, Deer Park and Ronkonkoma; Nassau Community College, in Garden City, would also be involved.

Murray called the MTA’s plan “unworkable and ill-conceived” and said that MTA and LIRR officials had to come up with an alternate plan to better accommodate the roughly 38,000 commuters who ride the Babylon branch daily if a strike were to happen. The supervisor noted that the Seaford, Bellmore and Freeport stations have a total of 3,775 parking spots.

“Attempting to cram the 38,000 commuters from the Babylon line, along with tens of thousands of riders from other train lines, would wreak havoc in downtown Freeport, Bellmore and Seaford,” Murray said.

“This is a recipe for disaster,” added Town Councilwoman Angie Cullin, whose district includes all three communities.

In a prepared statement, MTA officials said on Tuesday that they would “continue to work closely with local government partners on Long Island to develop a strike contingency plan, which we will release when the plan has been finalized. Realistically, there is no way to replace the Long Island Rail Road and the service it provides... . Our top priority is reaching a fair and reasonable settlement to avoid a traffic nightmare that would paralyze Long Island.”

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