glugglug wrote:pineywoodsman wrote:
Agreed here. Some folks have legitimate complaints, but others are just spoiled. On the LIRR's Facebook I notice the most vocal group of complainers are from the Babylon Branch and often whine everytime one of their three stop flyers gets combined with the Freeport Flyers which they have to wait a full 5 minutes later for. They complain a train is packed if there are people standing (those 3 stop flyers usually dont have many standees at all). They complain if the train is too hot, too cold, or if people from other towns are parking at their station. This is the same crowd that left a train on their own a couple of summers ago when it stopped about 100 feet east of Bellmore.
Meanwhile folks on other branches who have their trains cancelled when there is a problem can wait 20-30 minutes for the next train, such as on the Huntington or Ronkonkoma branches, which are much more crowded in general. These Babylon folks get the best service, but they certainly don't deserve it. They got two of their stations remodeled (Massapequa & Seaford) while a third will start soon (Wantagh), all the while Hicksville's platforms are literally falling apart and no work done yet at all, despite probably getting more passengers than those 3 Babylon Branch stations combined.
I don't have a canopy to keep myself dry at Westbury, not even security cameras, or a train every 5-10 min in rush hour. Frequent delays due to aging infrastructure, cars on the tracks, flooding after rain.. Legitimate things to complain about, especially when service goes south and you're standing out there in the elements (or try to squeeze in a packed waiting room). I grew up in Wantagh, back in the 80s and 90s, it's a much different area now full of entitled business ppl from Wall Street with such an attitude about everything. I'm sure the crew of their trains probably don't get paid enough for dealing with these ppl.
Whenever there is a problem, people always seem to take it out on the first face they see, a train crew member. But the blame lies at the top, LIRR's top management. Yet whenever there is a public hearing about fare hikes or service changes, there is rarely a crowd. Lets see if the "wedeservebetter" crowd shows up at the next one...I doubt it.
Going by this rather amazing report put together by Patrick O'Hara compiled from 8 years of MTA data https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=566715f8 ... FslPLdoapA, Babylon line falls almost exactly in the middle of the OTP range for all the lines, not the "best". I was rather shocked to see it do that well! The best is Far Rockaway (which has the A train if things go south), followed closely by Hempstead and West Hempstead, and the worst is Port Jefferson, followed closely by Montauk & Ronkonkoma. I have to say that after subscribing to the twitter feed after this month's issues and seeing how often the Port Jefferson and Ronkonkoma lines are screwed up, I am very glad to NOT be on them. We certainly don't get trains every 5-10 minutes during the rush though! In the evening they are at least close to evenly 20 minutes apart before being cancelled/combined. In the morning there are 3 ~10 minutes apart between 7:30 & 8 am, but that is with a half hour gap before them due to uneven spacing in the schedule. Of those, the 7:32 and the 7:54 @ Merrick are consistently standing room only, even if nothing has gone wrong, so I usually grab the 7:43 to get a seat.
Also, I was on one of the trains behind the one you mentioned that "self-evacuated." We were sitting there with the easternmost car of the train in the Rockville Center station for 2-3 HOURS before they announced that the 3rd rail had been turned off due to people self-evacuating and they let us out the front car onto the platform. For it to be backed up all the way from Bellmore to Rockville Center, who knows how many more hours those people were on the train. It was probably a lunch hour train that finally had enough by the evening!
Well, I'm not saying Babylon is the most reliable, but they do have the best (as in most trains) compared to any other branch, the majority of trains entering & leaving Penn, close to a third, are Babylon Branch trains. Of course Babylon is affected just like any other branch when there are problems at Penn/Tunnels/Jamaica and has trains combined. But because there are more of them, the pain isn't as bad as those on other branches. Yes I am on one of the aformentioned branches, like Huntington/Port Jeff. The Main Line seems to have the least reliability and the an insufficient amount of service. More of our trains are overcrowded on a regular basis. Ronkonkoma has it the worst in that department. There is enough service on the Babylon Line to meet demand, but the Main Line is woefully underserved. I do understand part of it is the two tracks (a third is badly needed), but they could still squeeze a few more in, if they diverted those Montauk Branch trains that run via the Main to the Babylon, it would free up some of that badly needed track space on the Main.
I'm just saying, schedule-wise, Babylon has it better than most. There are some longer gaps, but there's more trains than any other branch of the railroad, which is why the Babylon usually gets the brunt of the cancellations, which is completely fair.
I was in Bellmore and saw that train that was stuck, and it wasn't stuck there for hours. Maybe 20-30 min. Your train got stuck for hours because thats how long service had to be suspended for, to make sure it was safe to run trains again with all the ppl on the tracks.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
— Benjamin Franklin
