'Listen, nobody likes to have their routine changed and loyal Long Island Rail Road commuters have their trains, they have their people that they've traveled with, they have conductors that they know. Lieber said the MTA is bracing for negative feedback from some riders. But the origin and destination information suggests about half of the commuters would have a faster and more convenient commute if they went to the east side, to Grand Central.' 'There are going to be some folks who are accustomed to certain commutes who may not change it at the outset. Lieber said he does not 'absolutely know' how many people will use Grand Central Madison, but the MTA believes roughly half of riders can now shorten their commutes by switching to the station. The new station at Grand Central Terminal opened earlier this month for a shuttle service, but the expanded LIRR schedule brings the long-awaited station to its full potential.

They say the schedules, the first major change in recent memory, recalibrated to accommodate post-pandemic work patterns, remain a work in progress. The MTA maintains there will be a 41% increase in service and a 51% increase in service to Mineola. And I hope that over time, people will start to realize that those Mineola connections, one after another, are going to be a plus. 'So again, the goal is for everybody to get a little bit more. It's got one-track territory, some other constraints,' Leiber said. 'The Oyster Bay Branch and folks know this, have got some constraints on it physically. In fact, in Port Washington, the much loved 38-minute express train is now gone in the evening commute.Īnd in its place are slightly longer express trains and some that have transfers at Bayside. And we are excited about how we think the Atlantic Terminal piece of our network is going to benefit from the way we are structuring things now,' said Janno Leiber, MTA Chair and CEO.Ĭommuters on the Port Washington and Oyster Bay branches voiced concerns about the changes during public hearings last summer, but their schedules got relatively few revisions. 'The bottom line is Atlantic Terminal is going from 116 trains a day to 155 trains a day, it's going to have more frequent service in the peak, instead of having a train every 15 to 18 minutes, it's going to have a train every 12 minutes.

Nj transit train times