The next time you find yourself sitting on a Long Island Rail Road platform during a train delay with some time to kill, be sure to genuflect to the Metropolitan Transporation Authority’s leaders — for without those six-figure salaried credits to humankind, you might be faced with the boredom of an uneventful and on-time commute.
As negotiations between the authority and unions prove more laborious by the day, the approximately 300,000 weekday riders of the nation’s busiest railroad prepare to find an alternative passage to Manhattan. We think this might be the perfect time to take a vacation; as long as that vacation destination isn’t the Hamptons, as throngs of beachgoers may also find themselves without a ride.
Union leaders are asking for a 17 percent raise over six years, as well as health care cost coverage and other concessions. The transportation authority insists it has already laid a generous offer on the table, just as it insists it is doing all it can and more to keep delays to a minimum and avoid fare hikes.
The MTA needs to watch the gap between what they say and what we commuters see.
