Get ready for what could be a long slog, railroad riders.
The MTA’s labor negotiator conceded Monday that hopes of a quick agreement in the Long Island Rail Road strike may have been “overly optimistic,” leaving commuters alarmed at the prospect of a prolonged shutdown.
Gary Dellaverson, the transportation authority’s labor counsel, laid out the possibility of a drawn-out strike on the country’s largest commuter railroad during a break in talks with union leaders on the first weekday without LIRR service.
“We continue to have optimism that we can get this done, but it’s not at the same level,” Dellaverson said outside MTA headquarters in Lower Manhattan. “I think that the unions have shown us that they have no sense of urgency of getting this resolved.”
The strike over a pay dispute involving 3,500 LIRR employees crippled service for close to 300,000 riders at 126 stations on Long Island, in Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Representatives for the five unions on strike — including the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen, the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers — did not make any public comment Monday.
The coalition had previously accused Janno Lieber, MTA chairperson and chief executive, of “a series of whoppers” in raising the potential for larger-than-projected fare increases if the workers’ terms were met.
While officials had urged commuters to work remotely, not everyone can. Those who trekked between the city and Long Island said they were dreading the prospect of having to rely for long on shuttle-bus trips between the subway and six rail hubs in Nassau and Suffolk counties.
Commuters board a shuttle bus on Hillside Avenue during the LIRR strike, May 18, 2026. Credit: Jose Martinez/THE CITY
“It’s too much headache for us,” said Karm Kaur, 25, who was trying to guide her mom, Saewinder Kaur, to her job in Dix Hills from the F line’s 179 Street terminal in Queens. “By taking LIRR, it’s so much easier for her because she knows where she is going.”
The National Mediation Board brought the dueling parties back into negotiations Sunday for the first round since the strike began at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.
But those talks failed to resolve longstanding differences on worker pay, frustrating commuters who waited Monday evening for shuttle buses to Long Island.
Buses lined up along Hillside Avenue, with MTA staffers barking, “Bus to Huntington, bus to Huntington!” as sometimes-confused commuters emerged from the subway.
Riders could catch free shuttle buses from Jamaica to Huntington and Ronkonkoma that run from 3 to 7 p.m. during the evening commute and from 4:30 to 9 a.m.
Shuttle buses were also available between four other LIRR stations on Long Island and the Howard Beach-JFK Airport stop on the A line.
Luis Espinosa, who was trying to get to Freeport from Jamaica, said the first weekday of the strike had been “a pain in the ass, man, a pain in the ass.”
“To be quite honest with you, I didn’t know what to do — I’m just so used to the train,” said Espinosa, who lives in Wantagh. “If this keeps up, I’ll have to drive in and get monthly parking, because this is not the way.”
Jacob Romero, who is in final exams this week at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan, groaned when he heard the update about labor talks that had seemingly not advanced much.
“I had to wake up really f—— early to get here,” Romero said. “This 5 a.m. thing is just really annoying.”
“I just want my $300 back,” said Romero, who lives in Hicksville. “I bought my monthly ticket already and it’s going to waste.”
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