For the primary time in 32 years, tens of hundreds of New Yorkers are bracing to start the workweek with out the Lengthy Island Rail Highway (LIRR) after employees on the busiest commuter railroad in North America went on strike over the weekend.
Greater than 300,000 day by day commuters depend on the LIRR to get from Lengthy Island to New York Metropolis. State and native officers have been scrambling over the weekend to get contingency plans in place, however warned commuters to anticipate New York Metropolis buses and subways to be crowded on Monday.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards told WABC in New York that he’s anticipating his borough to be a bottleneck on Monday because the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is planning to make use of shuttle buses to move important employees from Lengthy Island to subway stations in Queens.
Hanging Lengthy Island Rail Highway (LIRR) picket in entrance of Penn Station in New York Metropolis, Might 17, 2026.
Charly Triballeau/AFP by way of Getty Photos
“That is not sufficient when our buses are overcrowded,” Richards stated of the shuttle bus plan.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul stated on Sunday that commuters can even be allowed to park within the Citi Subject parking zone, which is inside strolling distance to the 7 prepare on the New York Metropolis subway system.
New York Metropolis Mayor Zohran Mamdani requested subway riders to be affected person, however cautioned them to “put together for heavier-than-usual site visitors, crowded transit choices and extra journey time.”
Visitors on the westbound Lengthy Island Expressway close to Lake Success, New York, Might 16, 2026. An indication reads, “LIRR Strike Plan Forward.”
Newsday Llc/Newsday by way of Getty Photos
LIRR trains got here to a halt at midnight on Saturday after the union representing hundreds of rail employees and the MTA failed to succeed in an settlement on a brand new contract.
Kevin Sexton, the nationwide vice chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), one of many 5 unions representing LIRR employees, advised reporters that he and different leaders couldn’t come to an settlement over wage will increase and well being care prices earlier than the negotiation deadline ended.
Lengthy Island Rail Highway (LIRR) hanging employees picket outdoors of Penn Station in New York Metropolis, Might 16, 2026.
Bloomberg by way of Getty Photos
“We’re far aside at this level and we really feel it is pointless as a result of we went by means of the method,” Sexton stated of the strike.
MTA CEO Janno Leiber stated throughout a Sunday press convention with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul that what the unions have requested for would pressure riders to “pay the price of a labor settlement that blew up the MTA finances.”
“We stated proper as much as the deadline that the unions had imposed, ‘Let’s speak, let’s maintain speaking,’ and we sat there within the hallway, so that they could not even keep away from seeing us, that we have been obtainable to speak to them proper as much as and thru the deadline,” Leiber stated.
A Lengthy Island Rail Highway (LIRR) prepare at Penn Station in New York Metropolis, Might 15, 2026.
Adam Grey/Getty Photos
Leiber stated the unions selected to “stroll out” on the negotiations.
The LIRR unions known as the job motion an “open-ended strike,” telling ABC Information that, regardless of claims from Leiber and Hochul, MTA officers had not reached out to them about negotiations.
It was unclear on Sunday afternoon whether or not any new negotiations are scheduled.
In line with the union assertion, talks broke down when the MTA added “healthcare takeaways and different concessionary points to the desk actually within the eleventh hour earlier than a midnight strike deadline. These regressive administration calls for had by no means been raised beforehand.”
However in an interview on Sunday with ABC New York Metropolis station WABC, Leiber denied the unions’ assertion {that a} disagreement over medical insurance prompted the strike, calling it “full nonsense.”
The ticketing and customer support counter through the suspension of Lengthy Island Rail Highway (LIRR) service as a result of a strike, at Penn Station in New York, US, on Saturday, Might 16, 2026.
Bloomberg by way of Getty Photos
Lieber stated the rail employees’ unions “rejected each single concept that we placed on the desk, and there have been many.”
The unions are demanding wage will increase of 14.5% over 4 years, WABC reviews, whereas MTA officers have supplied barely smaller will increase and a lump-sum fee within the contract’s fourth yr to make up the distinction. The proposed pay bumps are largely according to contracts accepted by the LIRR’s conductors and New York Metropolis Transit employees, WABC reviews.
Might 17, 2026, New York, NY: New York Governor Kathy Hochul delivers remarks on the LIRR briefing at NYCT Command Heart. (Susan Watts/Workplace of Governor Kathy Hochul)
Susan Watts/Workplace of Governor Kathy Hochul/Susan Watts/Workplace of Governor Kathy Hochul
In a press release launched on Saturday, Gov. Hochul stated the unions “characterize the highest-paid employees of any railroad within the nation, but they’re demanding contracts that would increase fares as a lot as 8%, pit employees in opposition to each other, and danger tax hikes for Lengthy Islanders.”
Throughout her information convention on Sunday, Hochul struck a extra conciliatory tone.
“The work you do is completely important. I worth your labor and I imagine that you just deserve honest wages and advantages. However this strike has put all of that in danger,” Hochul stated.
The governor added, “Simply three days of a strike would erase each greenback of extra wage that employees would obtain below a brand new contract.”
