Must Be Nice to Be a Long Island Commuter

There's no more catered-to constituency than the Long Island mass transit commuter. 

Is your nice rail line experiencing some delays? No problem, we'll add a few more tracks for you, at a cost of $2.5 billion. Is the transfer you have to make from Penn Station to the subway to backtrack to the East Side a bit too long for your tastes? Here's a massive new underground terminal, for $11.6 billion. 

Oh wait—you actually don't want that? Don't worry, we're on it!

It must be nice to be a Long Island commuter, relentlessly looked-out for by New York's governors, who sometimes claim to not control the MTA, unless it involves our precious Long Island Rail Road users. Then they definitely control the MTA. 

Since Grand Central Madison opened for full service to and from Long Island last week, things have not been going well. Overcrowded platforms. Delayed trains. Missed connections. Long waits for the next train. Sprinting to jam into an overcrowded train for fear of having to wait a half hour for the next one. Does this all sound familiar? Does it, perhaps, sound like the experience of taking the subway (which, by the way, averages 3.5 million riders each day versus LIRR's 226,100 riders)?

But unlike the mole people of New York City, whose issues with the subways are constantly waved off by MTA leadership, and who are now being told they might have to pay even more money for the same service (or soon, maybe even worse service), riders on Long Island are being given full emergency-mode care. Governor Kathy Hochul almost immediately issued a new schedule meant to alleviate week-old problems, and last week, the head of the MTA expressed deep contrition, something rarely ever done for long-suffering subway riders. The media is offering round-the-clock coverage of the indignities facing Long Island commuters. 

This is not at all to bash those on Long Island or deep Queens who choose to do the right thing and take the train to the city. Nor is it to inveigh against projects that aim to increase capacity along rail lines (which is much-needed to support the tons of housing we'll definitely be building out on Long Island). 

It is simply to point out a very clear double-standard that runs along socioeconomic lines, where subway riders are constantly treated with hostile indifference, and those who take a commuter line from a wealthier place are being told that help is on the way, no matter the expense. 

In a just world, we'd all be Long Island commuters, seen as a key driver of the state's economic engine (who else will buy $15 salads in Midtown!), and treated with urgency and attention.

Instead, last week, the head of the very same MTA—the agency in charge of instituting congestion pricing in Manhattan to alleviate traffic in the city, reduce pollution, and pay for those projects needed to make the subways better—belittled the urgency of congestion pricing in front of the state legislature. It'll maybe happen late next year. 

Some links to start your day as you meditate on intra-county comity: 

• Speaking of Long Island commuters—do you want to speedily climb out of the MTA's cavernous new station? Just walk really, really fast.
• In other fast news, fast fashion is all about...UPSTATE NEW YORK CITY???
• That riot unit filled with officers with tons of misconduct cases that's currently being sued? And which the NYPD is lying about in its reasons for not wanting to testify in front of the City Council? Doing a great job, says Mayor Eric Adams. 
• And America's mayor is going on a goodwill tour across the country for President Biden. We're sure this will go great. 
• Meanwhile, Adams says that the official NYC policy is now that you must expose yourself to COVID-19 or you're a criminal. 
• Do you have what it takes to be New York's new top judge? Qualifications appear to be limited to "not Hector LaSalle."
• The state's prison system is just blatantly ignoring state law regarding solitary confinement. 
• The trust meant to help save NYCHA has no board and no start date.
• Coney Island is now joining the fight against proposed casinos.
• Have you heard the one about George Santos and the pet fish? 
• New York's undocumented workers shut down the Manhattan Bridge yesterday, demanding funding for an unemployment program their taxes help pay for that they can actually use. 
• And finally, let's check in on Hell Gate abroad! Here's Adlan Jackson over at the New Yorker, writing about Black Panther ephemera. Esther Wang spoke with Ukrainians in NYC who are watching the war back home for New York magazine. And Max Rivlin-Nadler talked with Al-Jazeera's "The Take" about Eric Adams's plan to hide the homeless.