LIRR strike serves as reminder: It pays big to work for the MTA – Gothamist

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Long Island can’t function without the railroad. If all the riders on its 700 miles of train tracks got in automobiles, New York would need to build a new 26-lane highway from Montauk to Manhattan (according to an estimate from 1965), at least a couple more Queens-Midtown tunnels, and some of the world’s largest parking garages.

That is the leverage Long Island Rail Road workers had when they went on a three-day strike from Saturday until Monday. On a good day, getting to the city from Nassau or Suffolk counties means either taking the train or slogging through some of the worst gridlock ever created by humankind. Every weekday, nearly 300,000 riders choose the train.

It’s why working for any of New York City’s railroads, subways, bridges or tunnels comes with premium pay. And as five unions shut down the LIRR by going on strike, MTA Chair Janno Lieber was quick to point that out.

“This group of unions are actually the highest paid railroad workers in the country, and it doesn’t make any sense that they’re asking for a better deal than the rest of the folks working at the MTA,” Lieber said during a FOX5 appearance Monday morning. “They’re asking for a special deal.”

In fairness to Lieber, the LIRR’s rank-and-file workforce has not done itself any favors in recent years. Workers on the railroad have been indicted for astronomical overtime fraud, been caught cloning time cards to swipe each other into work — and even vandalized a high-tech “biometric” time clock installed at a train yard to ensure crews were actually showing up.

Labor negotiations are often contentious. Lieber is obligated to protect the MTA’s finances. But his remarks were an instance of the pot calling the kettle black.

The reality is nearly everyone involved in the gargantuan task of moving people into, out of and across New York City is well compensated, including Lieber.

The LIRR’s workers are indeed the best paid railroad workers in the country. Lieber is also one of the best paid transit executives in the country, earning $420,599 in 2024. (MTA officials note transit execs in cities with smaller systems like Boston, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and even Jacksonville, Florida are paid more). Lieber earns far more than his boss, Gov. Kathy Hochul. Many senior MTA officials, including the chief of policy and communications director, earn more than their counterparts in the governor’s office.

MTA spokesperson Mitch Schwartz said the high executive pay “hasn’t stopped this MTA leadership team from delivering record on-time performance and customer satisfaction rates.”

The unions, of course, could say the same thing about LIRR workers.

Union trade laborers and engineering consultants are also well compensated due to the high costs associated with construction projects across the MTA’s system.

The Q line’s 1.5-mile extension into East Harlem costs $7.7 billion, making it one of the world’s most expensive subway extensions on a per-mile basis. MTA officials often pin the agency’s high construction price tags on the United States’ high healthcare costs, fire codes, environmental review and other uniquely American facts of life.

Lieber, who oversees North America’s largest transportation network, can point to construction savings in the billions. He’s succeeded in reforming the agency that was once notorious for inefficiency, blown deadlines and cost overruns.

Still, most of the MTA’s engineering work is contracted to third-party firms, which comes with a premium.

The recent strike highlights how the cost of rank-and-file labor tends to get a lot more scrutiny than other categories.

“I think we very rarely have much insight into inefficiencies from the managerial point of view,” said Joshua Freeman, a labor historian and professor at CUNY. “We tend to look at it from a point of view of, ‘Is labor getting too good a deal?’”

“The MTA consulting contracts on the construction side don’t get nearly as much attention,” he said.

In other words, everyone involved in the business of the MTA is getting paid well. So why shouldn’t LIRR workers get their piece of the pie?

Gov. Hochul and the short-lived LIRR strike. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who was already facing a difficult electoral landscape on Long Island, blunted the potential damage to her re-election bid when she announced a deal to end the Long Island Rail Road strike a few days after it started. Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman said after the tentative deal was announced that Hochul remained at fault for more than $100 million in economic damage caused by the three-day strike.

LaGuardia Airport sinkhole. Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed after workers found a sinkhole near a runway on Wednesday. The runway is expected to remain closed until Saturday morning.

Penn Station fire. Amtrak said the fire that disrupted train service at Penn Station for two days last week was caused by a piece of equipment that fell off a brand new NextGen Acela train car.

Penn Station redesign. Amtrak and the Trump administration have approved a plan to turn Penn Station into a spacious, light-filled train hall without relocating Madison Square Garden.

Penn Station funding. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy testified in the Senate this week that the feds are planning to put up $8 billion for the renovation.

Alleged drunk driver kills two. Prosecutors said a Mercedes driver who’s facing vehicular homicide charges for allegedly killing two pedestrians on the Upper West Side earlier this month had a blood alcohol level one-and-a-half times greater than the legal limit.

Bronx roadwork. Plans to rehabilitate a stretch of the Cross-Bronx Expressway are on hold after years of pushback from Bronx residents and elected officials who argued the state’s proposal would worsen pollution and endanger residents’ health by widening roadways.

The tow truck life. “If you’re tired of being broke, watching TV, watching us in these trucks, watching where we are, hit us up and we’ll get you there,” Queens body shop owner David Borukhov told his 45,000 followers on Instagram as he hopped out of an unlicensed tow truck earlier this month.

Curious Commuter

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Question from Randy in Queens

I always notice these two stickers inside my subway car when I’m commuting. It’s above one of the seats in the train car: One is a star symbol and the other is a triangle. Do they mean anything? I’ve seen them enough to realize it’s an MTA thing and not some sticker graffiti.

Answer

Those are official MTA stickers and they serve an important purpose. An MTA train operator who asked not to be named because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the press said the stickers identify a panel subway crews use in emergencies. The star indicates where crews can access a lever to release a stuck brake. The triangle indicates another lever where crews can manually operate the door for that train car.