Typical commute for me in my most recent position. Leave house by 6AM to meet the alleged 6:18 train to Penn. Usually departs E Northport between 6:21 and 6:25. Arrives in Penn usually (officially 7:20) 7:23 to 7:30. Rush to the 123 station, guess whether local or express because signage, if working, is usually pure fantasy. Eventually squeeze on a super packed train to go one stop to Times Square. Climb up, try to run to the shuttle, now even harder through the crowd squeezing through the construction. Squeeze on, hold on for dear life, get to GCT. Squeeze again up the stairs and head to the former Pan Am building escalators, hopefully more than one working. Then north to my office a couple blocks farther. Time from house to my breakfast cart across from my office building about 2 hours. Plus, of course, the subway fare added to the railroad fare.
Let's say I transfer at Jamaica. And if we out east get really, really lucky, it will be across the platform and not up and over. Times for train meets seldom match, so there's a wait, then you squeeze onto a badly over crowded train for the ride to Penn or GCT, hanging on again for dear life. Typically rather exhausting. The one good thing, hopefully, is that I hop on an escalator, assuming any of them are working (same company did them for the 2nd Avenue Stubway and they constantly break down). Up to concourse level, then another escalator to the walkways under the Helmsley building, then to an exit on Park or Madison, hopefully with a working escalator. This will save subway fare, of course.
The big question mark is what happens at Jamaica. It's a horrible place, always badly overcrowded, lots of pushing and shoving, and if you are very lucky, a transfer only takes a few minutes. Not so much, 20 minutes and the up and over, praying your connection doesn't pull out in the meantime. Then whatever you connect to in either direction is always overcrowded. Whole point of the DM's was to allow a direct Penn train so you could avoid Jamaica or Hicksville or Huntington transfers. But the PJ line has only 2 direct trains each way daily, and the 2 PM trains are both before rush hour. But so many of us need to go to the east side. So tell me, why should passengers from diesel country be punished, be treated like 2nd class passengers compared to those in electric country? But this is the decision that LIRR made in the mid 1990's that out in diesel country we are just farmers taking an occasional expedition to the city. But hey, as they buy the C5's and new DM's, they COULD finally choose to give us direct, non transfer access to GCT, let alone improve our access to Penn with one or 2 more morning trains, and a choice of eastbound PM rush hour trains. But they won't.
As to Hunterspoint, that horror show needs complete rebuilding. An integrated subway and train station, fully handicapped accessible, not the rotting away train platform with super long stairs rusting away like we have now. But the TA will likely never allow it. And LIC service is a joke. A few trains here and there at a 'station' that's hard to find and not close enough to subways.
So how about you move to the PJ line east of Huntington and see if you still see things the same way. In reality it badly needs double tracking and electrification, and has needed it for years. Now that Ronkonkoma has decent service, we need it too.
Let's say I transfer at Jamaica. And if we out east get really, really lucky, it will be across the platform and not up and over. Times for train meets seldom match, so there's a wait, then you squeeze onto a badly over crowded train for the ride to Penn or GCT, hanging on again for dear life. Typically rather exhausting. The one good thing, hopefully, is that I hop on an escalator, assuming any of them are working (same company did them for the 2nd Avenue Stubway and they constantly break down). Up to concourse level, then another escalator to the walkways under the Helmsley building, then to an exit on Park or Madison, hopefully with a working escalator. This will save subway fare, of course.
The big question mark is what happens at Jamaica. It's a horrible place, always badly overcrowded, lots of pushing and shoving, and if you are very lucky, a transfer only takes a few minutes. Not so much, 20 minutes and the up and over, praying your connection doesn't pull out in the meantime. Then whatever you connect to in either direction is always overcrowded. Whole point of the DM's was to allow a direct Penn train so you could avoid Jamaica or Hicksville or Huntington transfers. But the PJ line has only 2 direct trains each way daily, and the 2 PM trains are both before rush hour. But so many of us need to go to the east side. So tell me, why should passengers from diesel country be punished, be treated like 2nd class passengers compared to those in electric country? But this is the decision that LIRR made in the mid 1990's that out in diesel country we are just farmers taking an occasional expedition to the city. But hey, as they buy the C5's and new DM's, they COULD finally choose to give us direct, non transfer access to GCT, let alone improve our access to Penn with one or 2 more morning trains, and a choice of eastbound PM rush hour trains. But they won't.
As to Hunterspoint, that horror show needs complete rebuilding. An integrated subway and train station, fully handicapped accessible, not the rotting away train platform with super long stairs rusting away like we have now. But the TA will likely never allow it. And LIC service is a joke. A few trains here and there at a 'station' that's hard to find and not close enough to subways.
So how about you move to the PJ line east of Huntington and see if you still see things the same way. In reality it badly needs double tracking and electrification, and has needed it for years. Now that Ronkonkoma has decent service, we need it too.