Grand Central Madison train service causes LIRR commuter headaches

Behold the mad dash to transfer at Jamaica Station [FORWARD TO A FRIEND]( [VIEW IN BROWSER]( [DONATE]( [WNYC Politics Brief] Grand Central Madison train service causes LIRR commuter headaches Plus: MTA jobs remain a track to generational wealth for Black transit workers. The MTA urges social media platforms to remove subway surfing videos. And the city's bike lane snow sweepers finally got some use. --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- [a LIRR train] Lev Radin/Pacific Press/Shutterstock The MTA launched its full service for Grand Central Madison this week, bringing up to 24 trains per hour into the new station on Manhattan’s East Side set deep beneath Grand Central Terminal. [But a problem has emerged]( Some trains that used to service Penn Station or Atlantic Terminal are now going to the new station, forcing some passengers to transfer at Jamaica. And, depending on train timing, that transfer window can be brutally short. "We have two minutes to get all the way over to track 12, which is four tracks over," said Tracey Chavis, a commuter trying to get home from Jamaica on Tuesday afternoon. "Instead of the track being on the next platform, where we can walk to it, we actually have to run up the escalators or the steps to get to the train, which gives us about two minutes to get there before the doors close."​​​​​​​ [a video of people rushing from one platform to another to catch a train]( Ken Lieber, a teacher who used to take the LIRR from Oceanside directly into Atlantic Terminal to get to his school in Carroll Gardens, is another commuter who has to do the mad-dash transfer at Jamaica Station every morning. "I can do it, but I think about other people who might not necessarily be able to do it," he said. "Older people, people with any type of disability." The MTA said even though the new schedules have disrupted some commuters' previous habits, the opening of Grand Central Madison has enabled an overall 40% service boost for the LIRR on weekdays. "I think people will accustom themselves to these differences," said Catherine Rinaldi, president of the Metro-North Railroad and interim president of the LIRR, during an interview with WCBS 880 on Monday. "We’ll find the trips that work for them." — [Reporting by Catalina Gonella and Clayton Guse]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- MTA jobs are a track to generational wealth for Black New Yorkers — but executives remain predominantly white [a close-up of Donald Yates] Stephen Nessen/Gothamist MTA statistics show the agency has [an exceptionally diverse workforce]( — roughly 40% of its 71,000 employees are Black. And for many Black transit workers, a major appeal has been the opportunity to enter the middle class. "You can buy a home with Transit, you can earn the money, you can save the money and creditors will give you the credit to purchase your home because you work for Transit," said Donald Yates, a second-generation MTA bus driver. "They know it's a guaranteed payment, so they're gonna loan you the money to buy a home." Yates, whose father earned enough money driving buses to move their family out of Mitchell Lama housing and into a house in Queens, now has his own house in the borough, ten minutes away from his dad's place. The younger Yates has also risen higher in his career, becoming a Transport Workers Union Local 100 vice president representing bus drivers in the Bronx and Manhattan. But within the MTA's ranks, Black transit workers have long hit a ceiling that persists into the present. Only 17% of New York City Transit executives are Black, according to agency stats, and there's never been a Black MTA chair. [Read more here](. — [Reporting by Stephen Nessen]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- Here's what else is happening After a 15-year-old died while riding atop a J train crossing the Williamsburg Bridge last week, the MTA said it'll ask social media platforms to remove subway surfing videos. MTA Chair Janno Lieber said an agency analysis found that subway surfing videos surged by 160% between 2019 and 2022. ([Gothamist]( A new City Council report says nearly 10% of the MTA's subway station elevators are out of service at any given time. The Council's Policy Task Force also found that elevators maintained by third-party contractors — which are often at station entrances connected to private buildings — take an average of three times as long to get fixed when compared to elevators maintained by the MTA. ([AM New York]( This week's dusting of snow finally gave the Department of Transportation an occasion to use its little bike lane sweepers. One cyclist's review of the Tuesday morning commute from Windsor Terrace to Lower Manhattan: Other than a few spots where parked cars got in the way, the DOT's compact snow plow trucks did a great job immediately clearing the bike lanes. ([Streetsblog]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- And Finally: A few more reviews of the LIRR Jamaica transfer [LIRR commuters transferring at Jamaica Station]( [@TimMcNicholas/Twitter]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- Support WNYC + Gothamist Make a donation to support local, independent journalism. Your contributions are our largest source of funding and pays for essential election coverage and more. [DONATE]( [Facebook]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [Instagram]( [WNYC]( [WQXR]( [NJPR]( [GOTHAMIST]( [WNYC STUDIOS]( [THE GREENE SPACE]( Copyright © New York Public Radio. 160 Varick Street, New York, NY 10013 All rights reserved. [Terms of Use.]( Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your [preferences]( or [unsubscribe]( from this list