Patrick Nowakowski out as President of the LIRR

Patrick Nowakowski the 39th LIRR President will resign effective Friday 4/13 as 2017 was the LIRRs worst on time performance in 18 years according to newsdays report. I have provided the link for everyone.
https://www.newsday.com/long-island/tra ... 1.17988316" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Everyone: 4/12

News 12 LI is reporting this morning about LIRR President Pat Nowakowski's decision to resign at
the end of this week. This report video is available to Optimum subscribers in all other regions that
are served by Cablevision by way of channel 612 interactive. The Newsday report is subject to the
usual paywall that blocks non-subscribers from viewing their articles.

http://longisland.news12.com/story/3793 ... own-friday" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There were comments by NYS Senator Todd Kaminsky about the LIRR's recent performance in the
News 12 report by Logan Crawford. This is likely a political move to force LIRR leadership changes.

Hopefully a new LIRR President is a career railroader who understands the problems of the LIRR.

MACTRAXX

According to his bio, he was "a career railroad professional with broad experience in operations, engineering, infrastructure and planning."

http://www.mta.info/news-lirr-nowakowsk ... -president" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I am available (at the right price)

Commuter X

As an everyday commuter who, like many, struggles to understand why the LIRR can't seem to get even the simplest things right (such as basic and regular communications), I would hope the MTA considers a new President who comes with a much stronger and more modern/progressive management background. Meaning, a leader who doesn't just view their job as "keeping the trains running on time" (which, ironically, the resigning LIRR President failed to do) but someone who views their job as more important than that, which is to build customer trust and loyalty.

Let's face it, the LIRR has a major credibility problem with its customers. That isn't the fault of any one group or factor, but a number of issues that have arisen over the years. Until the LIRR tackles its credibility problem, no amount of management deck shuffling is going to be sufficient because commuters will still view the LIRR as they do now. And all too often, that view (whether right or wrong) is as an overly expensive service that often doesn't do what it sets out to do, which is to get people from Point A to Point B at the times it says it will do so.

This isn't meant to be a critique (though I'm sure some on here will view it as such) but rather a simple statement that the LIRR's problem doesn't seem to be with its managers understanding how a railroad operates but rather something even more pernicious, which is its managers either not understanding in today's world, customer trust and loyalty is paramount and, right now, the LIRR has lost much of both.

I've been watching LIRR presidents come and go for almost fifty years now and the situation today is pretty much the same as it was in the early 1970's when I was a young daily commuter riding the then brand new M-1's and hating the LIRR the same as today's commuters do and pretty much for the same reasons.

Each new president lasts a few years until there is some major seasonal crisis such as a major blizzard stranding people on trains or an especially hot summer with major air conditioning failures on the trains or an excessive number of mechanical breakdowns.

The one LIRR president I remember who was highly regarded by the riding public was Charles Hoppe about twenty-five years ago. He inspired public confidence by actually riding rush-hour trains and chatting with and listening to commuters concerns as he walked down the aisles. But as always, that lasted only a few years until a major snowstorm crippled the LIRR and it turned out that the President was at home in Maryland trying to run the Railroad by phone with his subordinates in New York. And when the media got wind of that, even this well regarded LIRR President went down in flames too.

And so it goes...........

In retrospect Hoppe is still regarded as a great RR president. Good for the passengers and the employees liked him as well. He fell victim to the politics of the job.

As for Nowakowski, he had the knowledge and ability to tackle the issues of running a nearly 200 year old railroad and did a decent job. He wasnt to visible to employees and passengers alike, but that was his MO. Helena had the people skills, but not the railroad skills. Hopefully, this new guy will have both.

Nowakowski (I believe) was brought in to specifically oust Helena, and told to sit tight, and be quiet. He was derided by the public for not being visible during major incidents, but I think he may have been given those instructions. Think about who you saw in the public eye all the time.

The Late Charles Hoppe was tolerated, but not exactly well liked.....................and he was not "great".

Along with former MTA Chairman Richard Kiley, Hoppe had his MTA Pensions "front" loaded" and taken in one lump sum, still unheard of to this day.

Worst OTP in 20 years + election year = New Boss

Some content redacted by an Administrator.

I think the new president needs to be able to communicate, run the railroad, and do some culture-changing. Current LIRR management has their heads waaaaaay up their own a$$es, which makes it extremely hard for them to implement anything that isn't 'the way we do things here.' Times are changing. The RR needs to catch up.

Have used LIRR myself for years sporadically going to various stations.

Changes have been implenented in the system over time such as Jamaica station modernization, newer train cars, JFK Air Train, and improvements over at Atlantic Terminal just to name some big ones. Signal work at Harold interlocking will be done soon as its still in testing which will be another big milestone. The double track project will be completed this year and the main line track project will be more fully underway soon. They even did expansion to Belmort Park I believe it was.

I don’t think Patrick Nowakowski was horrible considering all that has been done for the system during his tenure, but I will admit that trains were at times somewhat delayed from schedule. The M9 deliveries and PTC and Harold interlocking signals and the like will definitely improve on time arrivals as well as newer higher speed swirches at Jamaica which were also announced. I would be happy if at Jamaica Station, trains would not slow up or stop waiting to get to the station, even at timss when there were no other trains at Jamaica and yet the train still was slowed up or stopping getting to the station. They fixed the waiting issue at Atlantic Terminal when they did work at Atlantic Yard where trains would get delayed.

I think the best days of LIRR are ahead of us right now as the M9 deliveries and other projects are brought to completion.

The biggest issues to me specifically would be fixing the Jamaica slowdown issue where trains can be slow on approach, making trains on time, replacing M3 trains wih M9 which also allow for continued power thru the tunnels and eliminate redundent employees who wind up slowing down travel times amongst other improvements, Positive Train Control implementation. The East Side access project had enormous potential but has been so delayed and will likely be more delayed. Money could have been reallocated elsewhere and to me it has been a failed project.