Via Garibaldi 8

Something else that the is good at doing and that is telling lies. They went in front of the media and claimed that they were making MASSIVE changes to the schedules after admitting that they screwed up (to put it mildly), but in reality, they haven't gone nearly as far as they claimed they were going. I can say in dealing with them that they have instances where they make promises and then change course. I had asked them in a meeting to have some bus stops restored. I was promised that they would look at it and nothing came of it, so in sum they are hoping that people will stop complaining so that they can just leave some of the schedule as is, which still f**** over a chunk of the LIRR ridership. Another major complaint has been last minute track changes and wrong track announcements, which is just inexcusable. I've never had that problem with Metro-North. I check the app, the train runs on that track and if there is a last minute change, they announce it with enough time to make the track change. What the LIRR is putting out is a disgrace.

He's echoing the ridiculous comments made by Catherine Rinaldi (current LIRR & MNRR president), who said that "riders will adjust". To downplay the issues that have been documented with various videos showing people scurrying from one train to try to get another one located on another platform with mere minutes to spare, to people missing their connections entirely at Jamaica because their first train was late and didn't leave enough time to transfer. It's clear incompetence. I don't know who this @xD4nn guy is, but he should stop while he's ahead. The LIRR f**** up royally here and now are trying to backtrack and the schedules are still a mess overall. The transfers are still not coordinated as they should be and there are still too many gaps in service where riders are facing much longer commutes than they did before.

What does that have to do with the overcrowding that is happening at Penn? That's where the majority of the complaints are coming from, so your response makes no sense. The majority of the ridership is still at Penn and that's who is circulating the petitions. The gaps in service are extensive at times, esp. for those who had direct service and now have much longer commutes, but sure, continue slobbering on about GCT and how ridership is still increasing when trains are leaving there empty while Penn sees massive overcrowding. lol

There was a lawsuit started previously by an attorney who uses the LIRR citing massive overcrowding and safety concerns. I don't know what ever happened with that lawsuit because it was started pre-COVID if memory serves me, but I can say from my personal experiences dealing with the I haven't met anyone working there that wasn't capable. I think this is a mix of trying to push people to use Grand Central, arrogance, and also not listening to the needs of riders. I have seen some petitions circulated and people beginning to write elected officials (as they should). When you give riders draft schedules, solicit feedback and then do nothing with that feedback, there is a serious disconnect with leadership.

I'm sure they are trying all sorts of things to keep those fees down. They need all the help they can get because aside from this issue, there are so many OMNY readers that are busted. They're either frozen where they stay on the intro screen, but don't react when anyone tries to tap, "NOT IN SERVICE" or just off. lol To show you how bad it is now, I still find myself getting one or two free rides a month due to busted readers and I only use public transit a few times week or less. This is in addition to me usually paying just $6.75 round trip, as I set up my trips to where I take one express bus in and then walk, run my errands and then take another bus back or whatever or there are times when I don't even bother taking the bus back. I grab an Uber home, as was the case the other day. I wonder how much money they are losing between people not using passes, work-from-home, broken OMNY readers, etc.

I'm pretty sure that the gets charged a lower rate (processing fee rate) for each transaction because of the volume that they do, but if they are processing lots of transactions that are just $1.00 or whatever people are reloading with, that can be cost prohibitive, and eventually you start paying out more than you're taking in. That is something that has to be watched, be it a business or a public agency like the to mitigate overhead costs. There are a few ways to handle this problem: Raise the minimum card transaction to ensure that the processing fees aren't becoming cost prohibitive, or renegotiate the processing fees with the card processors (unlikely if they have an agreement in place) or charge different fees depending on the which payments company is used (the fees vary between say Visa, Mastercard, Discover, Amex, etc. and Amex has generally always charged the highest processing fees, but that is usually offset by the fact the Amex customers tend to spend more money). Some places do just that, or they don't accept say American Express at all since their processing fees are the highest. One thing to keep in mind... There are no passes yet for OMNY, so I am sure that is depressing the amount of the transactions considerably. Maybe they will change the minimum again once OMNY has pass options, but maybe not, since fewer commuters use passes now, meaning each transaction tends to be for a smaller amount compared to pre-COVID.

I needed to reload my card today while I was out and thought it was just because I was using my phone, but yeah, the change must've happened a few days ago. Pretty annoying. I put enough for about six express bus rides. Normally I just put enough for three or so rides, since I only use transit now once or twice a week max. They must be getting too many processing fees from people loading a $dollar or two on the card. $5.50 represents two rides on the local bus or subway.

That they don't know how to tap. I've seen it already. People get on with a credit card that has the chip in it and they try to tap with it. lol A card with a chip is NOT the same thing as a contactless card. People are so dense.

Unfortunately, kids of today are more followers than leaders, which is another problem. I never felt pressured to do anything by my friends. We all did what we did by choice.

Of late they have been sending out tons of surveys asking about service. It doesn't make any sense to send them out if you're not going to listen to what your customers are asking for. Despite claiming that they were making changes to fix the schedules, LIRR riders are still complaining this week about severely late trains, missed transfers and overall chaos, esp. people going to Penn or Atlantic Terminal. You may very well see some people switch to driving if this continues. It makes no sense to pay a premium to constantly have to worry about arriving to work on-time.

What I can say is a number of CP lines already deadhead back and forth from Queens, so if they do it right, it shouldn't impact service too much. We shall see.

I haven't heard about any changes to schedules, but it's possible that more express buses will have to deadhead from Queens. I do wonder if they can store any more express buses at the depot up in Harlem, which is what some Queens express buses do now and then they come down to Midtown and start like that.

There is some truth to what you stated, but some of it is just good old peer pressure, or kids doing whatever they think is cool. I can say from personal experience with the group I hung out with as a teen, we had some people that were rational and others that took things to the extreme.

I can answer that. The answer is yes. It's been reported in the media on a number of occasions that most of the rebound in subway ridership is coming from working class to poor neighborhoods. The wealthier areas are where you have more people that work from home or they work a few days a week and come in later or leave earlier. https://www.thecity.nyc/2022/6/23/23180669/working-class-stations-drive-ridership-recovery Ridership patterns are also different too. In my area, most of it is not covered by the subway, but as ridership has come back on the express bus lines I use, it has mainly been off-peak ridership that has increased because we are working from home, thus more leisure trips.

Yeah to you, but everyone's sense of what is risky and what isn't is quite different. Some people by nature are dare devils or "adventure seekers".

There doesn't have to be anything wrong in a kid's environment for them to do what he was doing. Young people think they're invincible. Everybody has their limits on what they find tolerable and not tolerable. The fact that he was up there with his girlfriend tells me he was doing something he enjoyed, as dangerous and crazy as it was and he didn't think anything would happen, which is why he turned to talk to her in the first place.

Yes, but the last few years they've been releasing it later and that could be one of the reasons why.

Yes, and part of it is they already know that ridership is still around 60% of what it was pre-COVID, so it isn't anything exciting to post per se.

What's with all of this talk about overcrowding when ridership is still only about 60% of what it was pre-pandemic?

That or they just don't feel like checking them. I took MNRR this morning (semi-express train) and my conductor checked. I would say out of the MNRR branches, I find it more common to not be checked on the Harlem line, either because the train is crowded or they just don't care and on the New Haven line, occasionally from points in Westchester down to Fordham.

There was a time when I would ride MNRR to 125th St from GCT and I stopped even buying tickets because they would never check. Now with the LIRR which I have used over the years, I have generally been checked, but I've had a few times where I've rode for free, and this had nothing to do with any train being crowded either. Personally I find the Hudson Line to be ok, provided you are getting on or off where they check. There are a few stops where they still don't, or what some people do is if they get on at say Yankees-153rd or anywhere before Marble Hill, they just hide in the bathroom and then get off at Marble Hill. I've seen that a lot pre-COVID and at first I didn't realize what was going on, but then it all clicked when I kept seeing it. I tend to take semi-express trains now whenever I do use MNRR, such as this morning, so if I get on in Riverdale or Spuyten Duyvil, they will usually check before we get to Harlem-125th. I get a CityTicket anyway, so it doesn't even matter. It's only good for the day, so I just activate it. My use is so minimal now that I'm lucky if I use the railroad a few times a month. lol

Yeah it's very hard to understand ticket collection. lol

This was bound to happen sooner or later, that is someone suing for their kid's reckless behavior. I can picture the settling out of court to put this to rest quietly. Outside of that, I'm not sure what else they're supposed to do. There was a hearing (IIRC) that Janno Lieber recently attended, where he was asked what the planned to do about subway surfing.

That's nice that you know multiple conductors. Still has nothing to do with those who can't collect on the overcrowded trains. Hell I've been on a number of trains where it wasn't crowded and I essentially got a free ride over the years. They've been better on MNRR about collecting them, but depending on where you are going, it is totally possible to ride for free for several weeks at a time.

I've been a railroad commuter for many years, probably longer than you've been around, so save your holier-than-thou attitude for someone else like you need to explain to me how tickets are collected. lol Are you serious with yourself? A number of LIRR commuters have posted that the trains are so crowded that they can't collect tickets, and I can assure you that all of those people aren't using monthly passes either where they just occasionally check them.