LIRR Commuters Sue LIRR & MTA Over Deplorable & Dangerous Conditions

Via Garibaldi 8 · June 12, 2017

Penn Station commuters file lawsuit against MTA, LIRR

June 11, 2017 | 1:30am

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Meredith Jacobs Edmund J. Coppa

Next stop, court.

Fed-up Penn Station commuters facing a “summer of hell” launched the first class-action lawsuit against the MTA, Long Island Rail Road and NYC Transit on Saturday over the chaos, cancellations and delays at the nation’s busiest rail hub.

“We want the word out,” a furious Meredith Jacobs, one of two plaintiffs in the suit, told The Post.

“We want change, accountability, visibility and, quite frankly, we want what we pay for — and if we don’t get it, we want our money back!”

Jacobs, 48, of Wantagh, LI, has been commuting to Manhattan for 24 years. The sales executive coughs up $297 a month for the privilege of riding the rickety rails.

“This has been going on for four years, but the last two have been really bad. We got two fare increases in two years, and service is at an all-time low,” she said.

Uniondale, LI, resident Fred Lee, 31, is the other named plaintiff in the action.

The suit charges infliction of emotional distress, negligence and breach of “contract of carriage.”

Aside from the two named plaintiffs, it is being brought on “behalf of . . . all other individuals who regularly ride the Long Island Rail Road,” according to papers filed Saturday in Nassau County Supreme Court.

“There are thousands of commuters who want to join this suit” and once the court “certifies the action, everybody can join in,” said Manhattan attorney and Long Island resident Paul Liggieri, who filed the suit.

“Penn Station is a mess, and we hope this lawsuit is the first step in cleaning it up,” he said.

Amtrak owns the troubled tracks at Penn Station, a hub for NJ Transit and LIRR railroads serving more than 600,000 daily weekday riders.

The legal salvo came a day after NJ Transit released its summer game plan to deal with Amtrak’s overhaul of the dilapidated rails in and around Penn Station.

The MTA, which operates the LIRR and NYC Transit, had hoped to unveil its pain remedy by June 1 but has yet to offer a light at the end of the tunnel to Long Island riders.

Starting next month, construction will take place every day of the week, with some tracks out of service 24/7, Amtrak has said. Sources said Amtrak would take on only four of the station’s 21 tracks at a time, but the company would not “make any guarantees about disruptions.”

‘While the MTA LIRR cries foul and passes blame onto Amtrak, the MTA LIRR has done absolutely nothing to improve railroad and safety conditions for passengers to whom they owe a duty of reasonable care.’

The need for the overhaul became clear after two slow-speed derailments on Penn Station tracks in late March and early April. The MTA blamed Amtrak for a “series of unacceptable infrastructure failures” in the accidents that caused chaos for tens of thousands of riders.

“The increasing frequency of these failures leaves the clear impression that Amtrak is not aggressively maintaining its track, switches and related equipment at Penn Station and that repairs have not happened as swiftly as needed,” MTA execs wrote in a letter to Amtrak.

The two-page letter noted “four equipment failures and accidents that have resulted in major delays” on Amtrak-owned tracks used by the commuter trains.

But the plaintiffs are weary of the blame game.

“While the MTA LIRR cries foul and passes blame onto Amtrak, the MTA LIRR has done absolutely nothing to improve railroad and safety conditions for passengers to whom they owe a duty of reasonable care,” their suit charges.

The suit also takes on NYC Transit, because the Penn Station mess has LIRR riders “spilling onto the 2, 3, and A, C, E,” Liggieri said.

The suit points to the Penn Station nightmare of May 10, when LIRR commuters were “subjected to catastrophic service disruptions” as nearly 80 trains were scrapped during the height of the evening rush, leaving thousands stranded.

“The cancellations not only disrupted passengers’ travel plans, they also became the catalyst for dangerous overcrowding at Penn Station, on the train platforms, and onboard the few trains still running,” the suit says, noting that the fiasco came after “two days of widespread cancellations.”

The complaint alleges that delays and cancellations have resulted in:

Dangerous overcrowding on trains and platforms, where commuters are forced to stand “on the very edge . . . mere inches away from incoming trains.” Some have complained that “they have almost fallen onto the train tracks.”
Riders relegated to “standing shoulder-to-shoulder amongst dozens of other riders packed into the middle of the train car’s vestibule.”
“Begrudged” passengers forced to stand “in the train car’s unsanitary and untreated bathrooms. The floors of these bathroom areas are consistently covered in visible layers of urine and the toilets are regularly overflowing with human waste.”
Riders suffering everything from “discipline at work, loss of job interviews, loss of enjoyment of life” to “physical and emotional distress” due to chronic delays.

The suit says the outrageous conditions “should not be tolerated in a civilized society.”

It points to a study released last week that said cancellations and delays on LIRR trains are worse than they have been in a decade.

And while NJ Transit and the LIRR have blamed Amtrak for many of the delays, an analysis by The Wall Street Journal found that Penn Station infrastructure issues were responsible for only 21 percent of the 10,000 trains that were canceled or delayed through the first five months of this year.

Cuomo said last month that the impending track repairs at Penn Station would mean a “summer of hell” for commuters.

The suit seeks unspecified damages, attorneys’ fees and reimbursement of monthly LIRR train passes for May.

Liggieri could not estimate the number of passes involved, but said, “We’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

“In New York, common carriers owe a duty to provide reasonable ‘comfort and safety’ in delivering passengers to their destinations without reasonable delay or detention,” the suit says, citing case law.

“The LIRR has unquestionably breached the duty of care owed to passengers by forcing them to ride trains in dangerous and unsanitary conditions,” the suit says.

Source: http://nypost.com/2017/06/11/penn-station-commuters-file-lawsuit-against-mta-lirr/

Around the Horn · June 12, 2017

I'll bet these are the same passengers who threw a fit a while back when LIRR tried to reduce service for preventive maintenance...

You can't have it both ways.

Via Garibaldi 8 · June 12, 2017

I'll bet these are the same passengers who threw a fit a while back when LIRR tried to reduce service for preventive maintenance...

You can't have it both ways.

There is no both ways. The LIRR hasn't been forthcoming with a plan. You can't have people paying money for a service and not knowing when or IF they will get to work. People are spending 2 - 3 hours in some cases one way just to get home. It's absurd. I've heard countless stories of people extra aside from having their LIRR pass just to get to and from work, so they're basically paying for nothing because the service is constantly knocked out. The (MTA) should not be allowed to hide behind some stupid rule where they don't have to compensate/reimburse riders for countless problems.

I've said this for years now... The services provided by the (MTA) are just that... A service... If people aren't getting the service they're paying for, they should be reimbursed accordingly, just like you are for any other service you pay for. What is happening right now is, we're seeing people paying to use the rails and subways, and some people are even being fired because they can't get to work on time. This is a very serious situation, and the (MTA) hopefully will be forced to take action and be held accountable legally. Their solution seems to be blame it on Amtrak... Blame it on a lack of funding... Anything but taking responsibility and coming up with a real solution short term at a minimum. If I were an LIRR rider, I would be fuming, and if I were a regular subway commuter, I would also be fuming. I would like to see litigation for the subway riders too, and for bus riders as well quite frankly. The status quo simply can't continue, especially with more and more fare hikes coming up and nothing in return.

Around the Horn · June 12, 2017

The LIRR, Amtrak and NJT had a plan a while back and the NJT and LIRR customers revolted and it got cancelled.

Via Garibaldi 8 · June 12, 2017

The LIRR, Amtrak and NJT had a plan a while back and the NJT and LIRR customers revolted and it got cancelled.

I can't blame them. Having 15+ trains cancelled during rush hour basically every day one way, and having two trains worth of people pack into one is simply unacceptable and downright dangerous. As was noted, this situation just didn't start out of the blue. It's been ongoing for years with the LIRR. They make every effort to maximize fares and provide as little service as possible. There needs to a serious shake up with management, starting with the president and going from there. The governor for NJ has attempted to provide some monetary relief for commuters, but nothing yet from the (MTA) or Cuomo.

DaTransitMan4608 · June 13, 2017

I can't blame them. Having 15+ trains cancelled during rush hour basically every day one way, and having two trains worth of people pack into one is simply unacceptable and downright dangerous. As was noted, this situation just didn't start out of the blue. It's been ongoing for years with the LIRR. They make every effort to maximize fares and provide as little service as possible. There needs to a serious shake up with management, starting with the president and going from there. The governor for NJ has attempted to provide some monetary relief for commuters, but nothing yet from the or Cuomo.

Well if they don't make the repairs, the delays are gonna get much worse. That's what he means when he says 'you can't have it both ways'. You can't demand a fix on rail infrastructure, then get mad when the repairs are obviously gonna alter your commute. I agree, it would be ideal if they did provide some monetary relief to them, and I don't know why they aren't doing it. The way I see it, in the grand scheme of things, the inconvenience will be worth it. Less track conditions = Less delays.

Via Garibaldi 8 · June 13, 2017

Well if they don't make the repairs, the delays are gonna get much worse. That's what he means when he says 'you can't have it both ways'. You can't demand a fix on rail infrastructure, then get mad when the repairs are obviously gonna alter your commute. I agree, it would be ideal if they did provide some monetary relief to them, and I don't know why they aren't doing it. The way I see it, in the grand scheme of things, the inconvenience will be worth it. Less track conditions = Less delays.

You're looking at this from a very simplistic way. Repairs are needed. The issue is how they are being done and the lack of aggressiveness for future work.

CenSin · June 13, 2017

Redundant tracks would mitigate delays caused by repairs. Of course, no railroad-adjacent resident wants any extra tracks running by their backyard. Therefore, the railroads can only decay until there is nothing left to use.

46Dover · June 15, 2017

I guess Atlantic Terminal as an alternative is out of the question, what with the possibility of the (B) (D) (N) (Q) (R) (2) (3) (4) (5) getting packed beyond capacity...