Talks raise hopes of progress in strike at America’s busiest commuter railroad

By Chris Isidore, Hanna Ziady, CNN

New York (CNN) — New Yorkers were dealt travel headaches Monday, as service on the vital Long Island Rail Road remains suspended because of a historic strike, although there is reason to hope that the strike could be a short one.

“It’s much more promising today than it was yesterday,” James Louis, vice president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, told CNN about the state of the talks Monday. The BLET is one of five unions with members on strike.

The strike started early Saturday after 11th-hour talks to avert the walkout failed. Talks between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the railway, and unions representing railroad workers resumed Sunday afternoon and then took a break.

Janno Lieber, CEO of the MTA, also said progress was being made towards a deal.

“I am cautiously optimistic,” he told CNN affiliate WABC-7 news. “The talks yesterday were productive. The folks are working hard. We are headed in a positive direction, but we have to get it finished.”

Talks were ongoing at 8 p.m. ET on Monday night. However, even if a deal is not reached on Monday night, the MTA said that there will not be enough time for the railroad to restart operations for the Tuesday morning commute. It has yet to make a decision on whether service can be resumed in time for the afternoon commute.

A similar strike last year at New Jersey Transit lasted only three days.

The MTA’s latest service alert shows that all branches of the Long Island Rail Road, which carries around 250,000 customers each weekday across 947 trains, remain suspended. It advised commuters to work from home if possible.

The MTA will provide shuttle buses from Long Island into the city starting at 4:30 a.m. ET Monday, according to New York Governor Kathy Hochul. “We have a plan in place to help essential workers get to the city and minimize disruptions as much as possible,” she said on X.

But the MTA has warned that the buses will have a capacity of 13,000 riders for the morning commute and another 13,000 riders in the afternoon, meaning they will have a small fraction of the capacity that normally rides the trains on weekdays.

“The City is preparing for travel disruptions going into the workweek and New Yorkers should, too,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted to X late Sunday, providing an update of the latest developments and advice on how to navigate the service interruption. “New Yorkers should plan for heavier-than-usual traffic and additional travel time,” he added.

The strike by five unions representing 3,500 workers is the first at the railroad since 1994. It comes after the unions failed Friday to reach a deal with management on wages and working conditions. Workers are seeking their first raise since 2022, in the region of 4-5%.

The National Mediation Board, the federal labor agency governing labor relations for railroads and airlines, summoned representatives for both sides to a Sunday afternoon meeting that continued until nearly 1:30 a.m. ET Monday, Louis told CNN.

Unions on strike represent engineers, signalmen and machinists. The conductors are not on strike, but they are union members and honor the picket lines.

“The LIRR is the lifeblood of Long Island. Hundreds of thousands of riders depend on it every day. This strike hurts both the riders who rely on the LIRR and the workers who operate it,” said Hochul, who has condemned the strike as “reckless.”

The union says the strike is the fault of the MTA for not accepting the outline of a deal endorsed by two different federal panels that looked into the bargaining positions of the two sides. Its members have not had a wage increase since 2022, a period that has included high rises in the cost of living in one of the most expensive areas of the country.

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This story has been updated with additional developments.