lirr42

22 hours ago, QM1to6Ave said:

Which railroad companies besides for the MTA run on the LIRR and/or MNRR tracks? I know Amtrak and CSX are on there, but are there any others? And how does that work--do the companies pay the MTA a fee to use the tracks? Or does the MTA not even own some of the trackage?

Norfolk Southern owns the Port Jervis line and leases it to Metro-North on a long term basis.

The M-9 option cars (the first 110 car option) are late too, now those won't be completed until April 2022--13 months later than previously announced.

13 minutes ago, jaf0519 said:

You also completely missed the reason why there is bus stigma. It is not because the routes are poorly designed and slow. The majority of people who take the bus in Nassau are poorer than their counterparts who take the LIRR. You putting a u-shaped route in the North Hills or buses to Old Westbury Gardens will not get people in those areas to take the bus. They will still drive to where they catch the train. There is a decent chance that they moved there to be away from the bus, specifically the “types of people” the bus would bring to their areas. Your plan has 5 routes terminating at the Floral Park LIRR Station. Combined these 5 routes would have almost 20 buses an hour serving Floral Park. Do you know why there are ZERO now? Because they don’t want any bus service bringing people who “don’t belong” into their neighborhood. They were against the MTA extending the N2 to the LIRR station and it ran once every 45-60 minutes.

10 minutes ago, B35 via Church said:

The masses in suburbia view ANYONE that utilizes public buses as that of being "less than" in society & that is putting it mildly.... As the saying goes, image is everything & that's the pervasive portrait that's been painted - for ages... Nobody's saying it has to remain stagnant until kingdom come, but honestly, let's not sit up here & act like the whole keeping up with the Jones' mentality isn't persistent out there..... Let's not act like the (poor) quality of the current bus system is keeping a plethora of people from abstaining from using buses out there... Rome wasn't built in a day - you have to change the mentality of the people, before you can try to shove a million & one bus routes down their throats... That goes for NICE bus, any other transit provider, you, or any other enthusiast that believes the contrary..... Point blank period.

Yes, when a bus network is designed inefficiently with routes that are so slow and infrequent that only the poorest riders are able to tolerate them, this is what happens.

Why is everyone so keen on keeping it this way??

The idea is not to get 100% of people to switch to the buses...but by building a bus network that is actually useful to most people (instead of a largely duplicative system for poor people) and is frequent enough so that every train or nearly every train has a timed bus connection, coupled with increases in parking charges (to reflect the value of downtown, adjacent land and to fund these bus improvements) will lead to a gradual shift from the drive-and-park model to taking the feeder buses...thus, allowing for downtown parking land to be reduced and repurposed for housing so more people can live in our communities and more commercial space so Long Island can court higher-paying jobs.  "Rome wasn't built in a day" ... ok, so we shouldn't even bother trying at all on Long Island?

2 hours ago, RtrainBlues said:

This is the worst idea I have ever seen.

Huge amounts of people ride the N24, N22/N22x, N4/N4x and N6/N6x from Long Island into Jamaica.  The reason why they do it is since they can't afford the LIRR, even at off-peak fares.  They transfer to Queens local buses at major transfer points or to the E/F/J train.  Much cheaper to get from Freeport to Midtown Manhattan for $2.75 rather than $14.00 peak on the LIRR.

If NICE bus can't go to the subways, they might as well shut down.  The Queens buses would be overwhelmed if they had 50+ people attempting to board them at their first stop in easternmost Queens.

For the third time, the redesign is meant to be viewed in the context of an overall improvement and modernization of LI's transportation, including reduced LIRR fares.  We should not be encouraging people to spend 2+ hours sitting on slow buses and subways when we have a perfectly good railroad right across the street that could do the trip in less than half the time.  Long Island's transportation network is clearly segregated...I, for the life of me, can't understand why everyone here is so insistent on keeping it that way.

If anyone has any substantive feedback or comments other than why aren't we going to allow people to sit in slow Queens traffic while trains whizz past them a few thousand feet away?, or why we are not keeping an existing slow, circuitous route that serves 12 people every hour just because it's what we have now?...I would be interested to hear that and welcome it.

3 hours ago, B35 via Church said:

Even if I ignore the decision to not have buses running into the city, you're not going to get people that are currently park & riding to railroad stations into taking buses to railroad stations.... You can make the bus network as extensive as you want to in Nassau County it's not going to change the mindsets of suburbanites that negatively stigmatize public buses.... It would be nothing short of naive to believe that the totality of what's being proposed in all of this can be sold as being more efficient than the current network.... Sure, there are inefficiencies with the current network, but yours exacerbates it - it's the epitome of inefficiency.... People, en masse, will continue to drive to get around.... People, large in part, don't move to the suburbs for the sake of taking public transportation to get around within that, or other suburban areas.... It is what it is.....

For a plan like this to be as efficient as you may believe it will, you'd have to get way too many people to give up their cars....

...the idea that you're going to get people more willing to taking buses within Nassau & Suffolk counties.... Nobody's arguing that the current network doesn't have holes in the system.....

These are the same tired arguments, again.  Why do you think there is a bus stigma?  Because the bus network is infrequent, poorly designed, slow, and unreliable (since so many of the routes are way too long and circuitous).  When you design a inefficient, duplicative bus network that only the poorest riders who don't have any other options can tolerate, it's no wonder so many Long Islanders think of the buses in the way they do.  And nothing's going to change if we keep clinging to status quo (including inefficiently wasting resources having buses inching through traffic in Queens) as if there was no better option, like you keep insisting.  The point for suburban transit is not to get people to give up their cars completely, but to build a strong, frequent network that people can use as much as possible, reducing traffic volume and parking demand in downtown areas during the peak periods so street space and parking land can be dedicated to supporting denser development and more job growth in transit-adjacent areas.

3 hours ago, B35 via Church said:

In an earlier post, you mention (seeking to) maximize the total amount of transit accessible trips....  Apparently, you're exponentially exaggerating the amount of potential passengers there are in Nassau county - especially if you honestly believe that you could garner a justifiable amount of patronage in more sparsely populated areas.....

You mention only 3% of Nassau residents utilize buses on a given weekday... Alright, so with this breathtakingly, revolutionary, state-of-the-art, progressive bus system you're proposing, just how much of a percent increase do you envision there being?

Again, the point of refocusing resources and taking buses out of traffic in Queens is to dedicate them to increasing frequency in Nassau and Suffolk counties.  What use are the buses at all if they only come once an hour or, at best, half-hourly, and then take forever to get you to where you want to go?  

Right now Long Island has just about 6 frequent bus routes (service every 20-25 minutes or better during rush hours).   Only 156,000 employed Nassau and Suffolk County residents currently live within 0.5 miles of a frequent bus route.

Under the network in the map...which requires the same number of vehicles in service and only represents a modest increase in total service hours (because the routes are more efficient):

• The number of frequent bus routes (service every 20-25 minutes or better) increases from 6 to 113. 
• The amount of transit-accessible area increases by 932% from 53 square miles to 543 square miles
• The amount of employed Nassau/Suffolk residents living within 0.5 miles of a frequent bus route increases by 451% from 156,090 workers to 860,307 workers
• The percentage of Nassau/Suffolk residents living within 0.5 miles of a frequent bus route increases from 15% to 79%
• The number of jobs located within 0.5 miles of a frequent bus route increases by 283% from 229,812 jobs to 881,134 jobs
• The percentage of jobs located within 0.5 miles of a frequent bus route increases from 23% to 87%

I think we can do a little better than 3% of residents taking the bus with a network like that.  And if one of the 12 people spending an hour on a bus winding through Nassau County has to transfer an extra time, or someone has to walk across the street to the train at Hempstead, then so be it.  The point of a bus network redesign is not to retain one-seat rides for 100% of existing trips.  As the saying goes, you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs...

8 hours ago, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

I should have been more specific with it, but when I meant hubs, I was referring to Jamaica and Flushing. But even then, the Hempstead Branch is not a suitable replacement for the n6 even for intra county travel, as they're nowhere close enough to each other to even make the walkable argument. Neither is the Babylon branch suitable for the n4, because stations are spread out and not walkable from one another. Routes like the n4 and n6 have quite a bit of intra-county ridership themselves, on top of inter-county ridership.  

I cannot agree with the mentality of having the LIRR operating like a subway (at least in this version). Yes more affordable fares are good (and I would encourage it), but not at the expense of bus service. If you need siphon riders off the bus system to make your LIRR plan work, then that just shows that you aren't confident enough in the overall plan. The bus and the LIRR do not serve the same clientele, and they have different purposes. Also, Nassau residents do use the bus to get to/from the subway as well, it's not just city folks. 

The problem is that for people not going to areas served by the LIRR (which means use of subways), now you're making them transfer again, so it is an inconvenience. Imagine taking the subway in order to take a bus ride out to the city line, and then a bus. I don't see people wanting to do that on the regular. 

You say that you're not eliminating the n6, but you're splitting it into multiple different segments that make it unusable for those who are trying to get across Hempstead Turnpike. Those replacements are not adequate replacements. Imagine having to transfer twice within Nassau to transfer again at the City Line (to then transfer AGAIN to the subway). I don't see this as an overall net improvement. Not only are you going to kill bus ridership in half (at least), but a lot of these new routes are going to carry air (I'd say the vast majority). I'm all for having coverage and all, but some of these routings (and headways) to me are a poor allocation of resources (N61, seriously?).

On top of that, you're also splitting up the busier bus lines within Nassau county too, so how exactly is this an improvement for riders on those lines? I see you're splitting the n27, and having that souther split from Greenvale LIRR head straight down Glen Cove Road to Old County Road, not even serve Roosevelt Field, and head to Mineola. That bus will be carrying very few people, if not air for the majority of the day. And all this at the expense of gutting Willis Avenue service. You're replacing the n22 portion east of RFM which go places no one is going to, and now you're making it difficult to transfer to other routes in the area. RFM has a lot of businesses which people there use to get to/from work and shopping. The vast majority of the n15 has been basically eliminated (and partially replaced from Oceanside to Long Beach). Again, where's the benefit in all of this?

 

All of these are arguments for why we should continue propping up the status quo, not focusing on where the greatest demand could be with a properly designed, frequent feeder network.  The point is not to continue to provide a one seat ride for every existing route that carries a dozen riders per bus with only hourly service, but rather to deliver an overall improvement in service to all potential passengers (both existing riders AND those that currently drive).  Buses should collect riders from more sparsely populated areas and feed them to faster and more frequent rail/light rail/BRT routes.

In 2017, only about 3% of Nassau County residents traveled by bus on an average weekday.  The current system is clearly not designed properly to serve the vast majority of residents.  Think bigger.

1 hour ago, jaf0519 said:

I have to agree with @N6 Limited and @BM5 via Woodhaven on this one. Even if the LIRR was cheaper, which would be amazing, the purpose of the routes are to connect across county lines and within the counties themselves. Honestly, this makes inter county commuting so much worse. This map makes it easier to take the LIRR to Flushing, bus to Jamaica, and LIRR to Lynbrook, than taking a bus like the N25.

Just looking at this, that current one bus trip looks to become the:

• N53 from Great Neck to LIJ
• N88 from LIJ to NHP LIRR since it doesn’t go north of Northern Blvd/Macy’s
• N81 from NHP to Herricks Rd
• Searingtown Light Rail to Mineola
• Franklin Light Rail to Hempstead
• H80 from HTC to Lynbrook

I might as well walk.

A bus network redesign should seek to maximize the total number of transit-accessible trips Island-wide, not just be a copy-paste job of the existing route network.  

In this example, the commuting demand from Great Neck to Lynbrook is near-zero.  According to the US Census, a grand total of 7 people live in Great Neck and work in Lynbrook (26 do the reverse).  It would be wasteful to plan a bus route around that.  And even today's n25 is barely time competitive with taking the LIRR via Woodside if the connections line up reasonably well...

That said, I do see a need for better north-south connections closer to the city line based on your point...there's probably a way to extend or combine some of these routes to make that a ~2 seat ride.

Try using this link if you are not able to access the map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1U586sl6xydXvAKOJAiXvDh7uwfMnNo13

1 hour ago, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

I have to agree with @N6 Limited on this one. Having the current Queens route outside Flushing and Jamaica would kill ridership. A good chunk of riders using the inter-county routes.

I have to stress again the point is to increase service within Nassau and Suffolk Counties and make mass transit more accessible and usable there (where there is not duplicating LIRR and NYC bus services) rather than waste resources having buses sitting in traffic inching along Northern Boulevard or Hillside Avenue.  Just because the current duplicative routes are the busiest doesn't mean those riders can't be handled in a better way.

Roughly half of NICE's weekday service hours are dedicated to routes that are almost entirely duplicative of the railroad.  Cutting those back to the city line would free up a significant amount of resources that could be dedicated towards increasing frequency on LI routes or expanding bus service to people who have no options now.

1 hour ago, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

Saying the LIRR goes into Queens is not a good enough argument either. Many people coming from the hubs are coming from other modes (subway or other buses), so to have then somehow get to Jamaica LIRR (which can be tedious for some), to then transfer again, people might not make the trip altogether, or they might reluctantly start paying the higher LIRR fares and have people pick them up if they can. 

...and on top of that, a lot of NICE bus riders take the bus over the railroad because they can't afford it. LIRR prices from Jamaica into Nassau (zones 3 or 4) are not worth it, IMO.

I'm not sure what I see the issue to is...if you're transferring in Hempstead, Freeport, or Great Neck, you walk a few hundred feet more and get on a train.  If you're coming from Manhattan, you get on the train there.  If you're coming from the subway, you take the E train or transfer at Forest Hills...not sure how that's any more tedious than taking the F train and sitting in traffic for 50+ minutes to get to Hempstead.

And, again, as mentioned at the beginning, this should be viewed as part of a holistic overhaul of LI's transportation network, including more frequent service and more affordable fares on LIRR.  

1 hour ago, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

Another thing is that not everybody is going to/from Manhattan. People from parts of Brooklyn or Queens with no LIRR service nearby would be greatly affected, Also, LIRR stations are not as closely spaced together as you make them be, and they are more distant from the NICE bus routes then you're making them to be. I don't consider most of Hillside Avenue, Northern Boulevard (in Nassau)  or Hempstead Turnpike within walkable distance to an LIRR station. The closest stops along Merrick Boulevard and Jamaica Avenue are served infrequently, and on top of that are still relatively far apart. 

NICE doesn't do anything to help people get to Brooklyn or western Queens.  If you are going to a local destination east of Jamaica within Queens, you can transfer to a NYCT Bus around the city line.

You may not have been able to see the map, but I'm not suggesting eliminating routes like the n6 entirely, just refocusing their resources to improve service at Nassau stops, and diverting passengers to either Floral Park or Belmont Park/Elmont to complete their trips to Jamaica or New York in a fraction of the time.

34 minutes ago, N6 Limited said:

I noticed that none of the routes go into Queens, that would kill ridership.

The LIRR goes into Queens... 

And either the Queens/Nassau routes could be extended one or two stops over the city line to allow the small handful of passengers who travel locally within Queens to make connections (Q17/Q87/Q34 to Great Neck, Q67 to Floral Park, Q38 to Belmont Park, Q42 to Valley Stream, etc.).  We should not be spending resources inefficiently ferry people to the subway when the railroad does exactly the same thing.

In a similar vein with the local bus network redesigns currently underway in the city, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to work out some ideas for redesigning the NICE/SCT/HART bus networks on Long Island.  I am curious if anyone here has any comments or thoughts...  The map below shows (roughly) the realigned routes and the particulars about frequency, connections, etc. shown in the descriptions.

DRAFT LI Bus Redesign (v3)

The draft network was imagined as a "clean slate", starting over from scratch with a much greater focus towards feeding the LIRR (instead of running largely duplicative routes), connecting rail lines to existing job hubs, and filling in the gas in the rail network (e.g. frequent north-south routes), along with an overall eye towards increasing frequency and decreasing the length of runs to improve reliability and save on down-time.  The redesigned network is meant to be viewed holistically and as part of a larger modernization effort for LI transit (including increasing frequency/speed and standardizing service patterns on the LIRR, and reducing fares to more affordable levels).  In other words, it shouldn't be thought of only in the context of existing routes, where there is demand for bus ridership now, etc.

I'm curious to hear your thoughts and suggestions... Thanks

Full fare integration is a worthy goal, but we are a long way from that being practical in NYC.  The New York metro area is a lot more expansive, with more people living out in the suburbs than most comparable cities.  Metro/rapid transit coverage also typically extends to cover more of the population, so the suburban railways have to fill smaller gaps.  Comparable systems also tend to be a lot more competently managed, adopting modern operating practices that helps bring down operating costs and makes those lower fares financially sustainable. 

In NY, high rail fares for intra-city travel is definitely a problem...but it is also a significant problem out in the suburbs as well.  Overhauling the railroad fare structures to standardize fares at express bus-levels should be a good initial starting point, and then work downwards from there as the railroads adopt modern operating practices and increase capacity.

On 12/10/2019 at 5:11 PM, paulrivera said:

MNRR's ticket vending machines were just upgraded with contactless readers, so I don't expect any radical changes with fare collection anytime soon.

Those contactless readers were installed as part of the EMV upgrade to the ticket vending machines, which the MTA is four years late to the game on.  It is not related to OMNY.

All of the ticket machines on LIRR and Metro-North will be replaced with "Configurable Vending Machines" as part of OMNY around 2023.  The MTA's maintenance contract for the TVM's expires in 2022, at which point the machines will be about 10 years beyond their design life.

The UniTickets should just be flashed to the bus driver.  There is an endorsement on the front of the ticket that differentiates it from a normal ticket....where you see the printed "MTA" logo on the face of the tickets is replaced with a block with text in it, like this:

I'm not surprised nobody seemed to know anything about the UniTickets, with such poor coordination between trains and buses, hardly anybody uses them.  Just 422 monthly NYCT/MTA Bus UniTickets were sold in all of 2018.

That's great! Why hadn't they done that before?

Because it's a large expense for a very small amount of riders.

Are there still a handful of M2's, M4's, and M6's on the New Haven Line?

There's 91.

Its going to cold next winter and next winter there will be broken rails again. If you have a better idea to maintain the tracks or better materials that can used , tell the commuters committee. They would like to know your method. That's the problem with armchair quarterbacks who think they know it all but don't have a clue. Signal problems I give you that, Equipment problems I give you that also as well as trains that come in a car or two short or even cancelled. But broken rails is a seasonal issue. Its nearly impossible to stop nature from having an effect on any material in extreme weather.

I'll ask against what material shall be used since this steel the LIRR uses is not standard. Also please stop with the tracks not being maintained properly bs. You don't have a clue how the tracks are maintained. If they wasn't maintained well we would be having track issues all year long but we don't do we? What time of year are the most track issues , winter. When do all RR's expect the most track problems, winter. I ask you again what material should be used if the one used now is not up to your standards in the winter time?

I don't have to know about the specifics as to how the tracks maintained, and I don't have to figure out what material they should be using--I pay the LIRR to do that for me.  All I care about are the results, and the results (≥18 broken rails) are not satisfactory.  Perhaps they should research what materials railroads in Europe and Asia use, since you don't tend to hear too many cases of the cold making more than two thirds of their passengers late to work...

And if track issues were exclusively a thing that happened during the winter, that would be one thing, but they're not.  They happen all year long.  30 seconds of Googling brings up two news articles about broken rails that were found in May and in October, not exactly the height of winter...

What is there to improve?

This is a question that should be asked seriously, not sarcastically.  And the answer is that there is always something to improve.  Always.  They can start by figuring out a way to not have as many broken rails anymore (it's going to be just as cold next winter...).

When you come with steel that is % 100 proof against any element known to man let me know or better yet let the MTA know. Because surely you would become a rich man.

And speaking of trend look up the FRA reports on broken rails and tell me where the LIRR stands compared to other carriers. You would be surprised.

You don't have to have steel that is 100% unbreakable, you just have to find better manufacturing and installation methods that make it fail less often that it currently does (improving...).  I've looked at the FRA's statistics, and none of the railroads are averaging two broken rails per week.

And past statistics tend to offer little justification for present failures.  If the George Washington Bridge falls into the Hudson River one morning taking a whole bunch of cars with it, "Well, it never failed like that before!" is not going to be an acceptable explanation.  At the end of the day, these are failures that can have serious consequences and should be taken seriously.  From the passengers' point of view, the railroad has not demonstrated that they are committed to taking this seriously...

Ah it flew over your head as usual. I mention nothing about repair or material used.I was mentioning what winter time does to city streets to begin with. What other season effects the streets in the city? Its no secret that the DOT repairing methods suck. But this is when they are the most busiest just as the track dept around this time is busy at "all" the carriers. Don't you have a express bus to catch. Lol

Perhaps his post flew over your head?  Things that are built with inferior materials or maintained with inferior methods are likely to fail more often.  If the rails the railroad uses aren't being manufactured properly, aren't installed properly, or they aren't being maintained properly, then they are more likely to fail.  If the materials the DOT uses to pave the streets aren't being manufactured properly, aren't being installed properly, or aren't being maintained properly, more potholes will result.

Wait a minute how do you know nobody is willing to look into why these broken rails are happening. Are you in the track engineering dept because last I look doc you wasn't so stop with the assuming. Around this time of year , broken rails do happened. Instead of complaining on why they are happening , shouldn't you be more relieved that they are caught in the first place. I agree you have your right to gripe and tell your frustrations about the service just like any other tax paying customer, but your different and your agenda is different. Believe me I read your comments in the past in the other forum .

There is a difference between looking into why they are happening, and showing their customers that they are investigating this and showing they are looking to improve.  They aren't doing this.  At the February MTA Board LIRR Committee Meeting Nowakowki did not indicate that they were taking a serious look into why so many broken rails were happening.  He did not demonstrate that the LIRR was concerned about this trend and looking to improve.  His attitude was that broken rails are pretty much a consequence of it being cold outside, which is the easy answer. Just chalking things up to the weather is how nothing changes and how nothing improves.

I should not just be happy that they found and fixed an issue before I or other commuters were injured or killed, I should be wondering why on earth the defect happened in the first place...

LIRR42 I know you have a personal gripe with LIRR especially the workers from the other forum.But you have to believe safety is first in any course of operation. I'm not here defending all LIRR foul ups because management make moves during daily operations that make their own employees shake their head. Alot of text book managers now no more experienced RR which is trying to be phased out. Believe they make alot of decisions I don't agree and I feel for the commuters alot . But broken rails is not something to be played around with or even taken lightly. Alot of us don't like when disruptions happened but an instance like broken rails , they rather see disruptions instead of an mass disaster.

I have no personal gripe with anything.  I do not fell that the railroad is currently meeting the expectations that I and a vast majority of the 334,099 other people who pay to take the LIRR daily have.  This is a service people pay money for; this is an organization that a lot of people's tax dollars go to; we have a right to have expectations on how that service should be delivered, a right to have expectations on how we passengers should be treated, and a right to say something when we feel our expectations are not being met. 

But you have to believe safety is first in any course of operation.  But broken rails is not something to be played around with or even taken lightly. Alot of us don't like when disruptions happened but an instance like broken rails , they rather see disruptions instead of an mass disaster.

I do not like the service disruptions that result from broken rails, but do you know what I don't like even more?  Broken rails in the first place.  I don't know if anyone noticed this, but if you don't have any broken rails, you won't have to have any service disruptions to fix the broken rails.

Broken rails are pretty much the exact opposite of safe.  The NTSB found that one of the primary causes of the Bridgeport collision that injured 72 people was a broken rail.  The LIRR has had 17 18 broken rails so far this year; that is 18 possible instances where the LIRR could have had a derailment or collision that was just as bad or worse than the Bridgeport collision.  When broken rails are so frequent on the LIRR and there seems to be nobody willing to look into why they are happening so frequently, it really makes me question whether or not saftey is the top priority...

I would say usage also plays a huge part in the broken rails as well with the cold. None of the territory you mention system is as busy as the LIRR as far as round the clock trains running.

Usage is something that can (and should) be taken into account in the design process, so that's not really an excuse.  Nevertheless, I don't believe that's universally the case.  There are segments of track (like between New York, Secaucus, and Newark on NJT or between Grand Central, Mott Haven, and Wakefield on Metro-North) that likely see a greater number of trains pass over their tracks over the course of a day, and they manage to do that without experiencing a large number of broken rails.

Additionally, several of the locations where some of the seventeen broken rails have occurred (Greenlawn, Central Islip, Central Islip, Islip, Bay Shore, Central Islip) don't see an incredible amount of trains over the course of the day, and certainly a lot less than some of the busier segments on Metro-North and NJT...

It's apparently the coldest February on record in the city since the 1930s, so it's not particularly ridiculous.

Was it only the coldest February on Long Island and warm and tropical in the Hudson Valley, New Jersey, Boston, and Chicago?  Last time I checked, the weather outside in Metro-North and NJTransit territory was remarkably similar to the weather that LIRR trains have to operate through, and neither of those railroads have come anywhere close to having 17 broken rails so far in 2015...

Five broken rails.  (Westbury, Babylon, Bay Shore, Great Neck, and Westbury). 

Which is ridiculous.  You would think it never got cold here before...

Interesting. Can Atlantic Terminal handle double decker cars as well?

No.

Question about the ConnDOT Bombardier push pull cars: Why did they remove the Metro North decals and use Shore Line East style graphics instead?

Because they are owned by the Connecticut Department of Transportation.  They made a half-heated effort to consolidate their two rail services under a more unified "Connecticut Commuter Rail" banner a while back.

What does it mean when I hear the conductor tell the crew "two apiece - Hicksville collectors in cars X and Y" over the speakers?  This was on a Port Jeff train headed west.

I also hear split is a, b, and c #cars a piece on some trains. Wondering what that means

If there's a conductor, an assistant conductor, and two collectors on the train (i..e 4 total crew members), then they will each lift tickets from a certain number of cars.  That's announced if collectors board or alight along the way so nobody tries to lift tickets through a car twice.

Ok is a drivers license required for this job? I don't have one right now but I don't have any dwi or dui's.

I got the email yesterday to come on the 10th of February .

Just finished my probation at transit. And the drivers license issue wasn't a real big deal as long as I had no dwi dui's .

Can't believe I got the call!

Yes you need a valid driving licence. [sic]

In order to be considered for employment in the United States, you have to establish your identity and work eligibility.

There are some documents that establish both identity and employment authorization (i.e. passport, passport card, perminent resident card, etc.)  These items are typically defined as "List A".

If you don't have one of those items, you could also present two separate items, one that establishes identity (driver's license, state ID, school ID, voter's registration card, US Military Card, Military Dependent's ID, Native American tribal document, Canadian Drivers License; "List B") and one that establishes employment authorization (i.e. social security card, certificate of birth abroad issued by the DoS, certificate of Report of Birth issued by the DoS, an original or certified copy of your birth bearing an official seal, a Native American tribal document, a US Citizen ID Card; "List C")

You either have to have one thing from List A, or one thing from List B and List C to be considered for employment.  The most common method people prove this is by presenting their driver's license and social security card, so unless it explicitly states that you must have a driver's license in the listing, you just have to present a document that establishes identity and employment authorization.

Hey, does anyone remember what the the starting pay is for Trainee? And what it goes up to and when? Can't find anything on this position, not even a CBA or contract for BLE and the engineers online, to see what the pay/salary is and job protections. And I can't check the job posting on BSC, since it's closed.

Here is the current BLE&T agreement: 3.thelirrtoday.com/uploads/2/9/2/5/29251715/ble03074-22-10.pdf

The BLE&T recently reached a tentative deal on a new agreement, but it has yet to be approved by the MTA Board.