Mta

LIRR still suspended; MTA website sluggish

The Long Island Rail Road passenger service was still suspended in both directions Monday morning as the nation's busiest commuter rail system worked to clear snow from its tracks.

"Right now, we have no estimate of when service will resume," spokesman Sam Zambuto said. "We're continuing to work at clearing the third rail and switches."

When service does resume, Zambuto said it would operate on a holiday schedule. Service was still suspended as of 9 a.m. Monday.

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Transit Authority's website was experiencing heavy traffic and loading slowly or not at all for commuters trying to get the latest updates.

As much as 16 inches of snow fell in some parts of Long Island, as both Nassau and Suffolk counties were under a blizzard warning until 6 p.m. Monday night.

The rail service said that NY City Transit is honoring LIRR tickets for subway service at Penn, Atlantic Terminal and Jamaica.

In addition to the heavy snow, high winds that blew drifts onto the tracks also was a problem.

LIRR spokesman Joe Calderone said eleven trains did not reach their destination at about 10:30 p.m. Sunday and were stranded at stations across Long Island. Calderone said ten of those trains were moving "slowly" back to their origination and making all local stops.

"If it started from Ronkonkoma and is in Bethpage, they are moving back to Ronkonkoma," Calderone said.

Passengers on a train stuck at Hillside support facility will be taken by bus to Jamaica station.

There were also an unspecified number of people waiting at Penn Station. "We're working up a contingency plan right now," Calderone said.

"What we don't want is a train stuck between stations," he said. The railroad will continue to operate equipment trains through the night in an effort to clear the tracks.

Many of the regular trains have been outfitted with scraper shoes that scrape ice off the third rail, and the railroad has dispatched several pieces of heavy-duty snow-clearing equipment, including jet-powered snowblowers, hot-air jets, and "snow brooms" that operate on the rails, spokesman Sam Zambuto said.

About 400 LIRR employees are working on keeping the tracks clear and the trains running, Calderone said earlier in the evening. Officials had said that some branches would be closed if accumulations reached 10 to 13 inches.