Riders navigate the first weekday of a strike that has shut down the largest US commuter rail system

NEW YORK — Commuters in New York City's suburbs navigated a gauntlet of car, bus and subway routes to get to work Monday as a strike on the Long Island Rail Road that shut down the nation's busiest commuter rail system entered its third day.

Unions representing rail workers and the Metropolitan Transportation Agency, which runs the railroad, negotiated for much of Sunday, wrapping their talks around 1 a.m. Monday.

But they failed to reach an agreement despite pressure from the National Mediation Board and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. The two sides returned to the bargaining table Monday.

Katie Dolgow, who teaches first graders in Manhattan, said it had already taken her an hour just to travel from Long Island to Queens as more commuters turned to the region's already notoriously gridlocked roads. But her big concern was going home.

“I have to get my son at daycare by 5:30. It's going to take me longer getting home. I'm a teacher, I'm going to have to leave work at 1:30,” she said.

Unionized workers were out early picketing in front of major LIRR hubs, chanting slogans and holding up signs that read: “No contract. No work,” and “Equal work. Equal pay.”

“We're just asking for a reasonable cost of living adjustment on our wages,” Byron Lee, a locomotive engineer, said outside Penn Station in midtown Manhattan. “People think that we don't deserve it.”

‘Just trying to keep their heads above water’

The LIRR serves hundreds of thousands of commuters who live along a 118-mile-long (190-kilometer-long) land mass that includes Brooklyn and Queens in New York City and the Hamptons, a summertime playground for the rich and famous. Most of its riders live outside New York City in two Long Island counties populated by nearly three million people.

The strike started at 12:01 a.m. Saturday after five unions representing about half the rail system's workforce walked off the job for the first time since a two-day strike in 1994.

The unions, which represent locomotive engineers, machinists, signalmen and others, have said more substantial raises are warranted to help workers keep up with inflation and rising living costs. The MTA has said the unions’ initial demands to raise salaries would result in large fare increases and be disproportionate to other unionized workers’ pay.

“With the rate of inflation nationally, and especially in this New York area, everybody feels it,” said James Louis, vice president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, on Monday. “We’re just trying to keep their heads above water. We’re not asking for anything outrageous.”

Workers have gone years without a new contract

The unions and the MTA have been negotiating a new contract since 2023, but talks have stalled over salaries and healthcare.

The Trump administration got involved in September after the unions asked for the appointment of a panel of experts. The move temporarily averted a strike, but months still passed without a deal.

Hochul said Sunday that workers would lose every dollar they would gain with a new contract by remaining on strike.

MTA Chairman Janno Lieber also urged a fast resolution, saying LIRR service could resume as soon as Tuesday if a deal is reached Monday.

“We are headed in a positive direction, but we have to get it finished,” Lieber told WABC-TV, even as union officials, suggested talks Monday were progressing slowly.

Quiet Monday morning rush hour

Roughly 250,000 riders normally use the train system each weekday. Officials had pleaded with them to work from home rather than commute into the city.

Ridership has been lighter than expected on the free but limited shuttle buses the MTA provided from a handful of locations on Long Island to New York City subway stations.

During the morning commute, more than 2,000 people took advantage of the service, the agency said. It had prepared for about 13,000 riders.

The buses are also being offered for the evening rush hour and are geared toward essential workers and those who can't telecommute.

College graduations hit

Molloy University and Stony Brook University on Long Island are both set to hold commencements Monday.

Officials at Stony Brook urged graduates and guests to carpool where possible as the state university's ceremony was slated to start during the afternoon rush hour.

The first impacts of the walkout were felt over the weekend as baseball fans had to find other ways to get to Citi Field in Queens to see the New York Mets take on their crosstown rivals the New York Yankees.

If the strike stretches into Tuesday, basketball fans looking to catch the New York Knicks continue their playoff run could also run into problems. Madison Square Garden, where the Knicks play their home games, is located directly above the railroad’s Penn Station hub in Manhattan.

Hochul and Trump trade blame

Hochul stopped by MTA headquarters in lower Manhattan on Monday morning as negotiations were underway, according to her office. The governor was briefed on the status of talks as well as the morning commute.

“She is pleased that the unions accepted her invitation to return to the table and encourages both parties to continue negotiating in good faith,” said Sean Butler, a Hochul spokesperson.

The Democrat, who is up for reelection this year, has blamed President Donald Trump’s administration for cutting mediation short in September and pushing the unions toward a strike.

But the Republican president, on his Truth Social platform, said he had nothing to do with it and blamed Hochul instead.

Federal law makes it extremely difficult for rail workers to walk out and even allows Congress to block a strike. Lawmakers have so far not intervened as they did with the nation's freight railroads in 2022. ___

McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press writers Ted Shaffrey and Joseph Frederick in New York contributed.

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