Instead of calling the transit police to keep the passengers in line, the LIRR should have called the local fire department for a rescue operation.

aren't there emergency exits on those things?

i heard the gov't gonna pass a one hour wait limit for trains stuck anywhere in the US before they have to let the passengers out

Ah, the 2:53 to Ronkonkoma...back in the day when I was still living at home, that was always the "last call" train - you'd better catch that train or you'll be taking the 5-something home. I bet a few bar-crawlers were wishing they had just stayed at the pub and taken the later train, since they would have gotten home at the same time. I bet a few people were passed out for the whole thing.

I'm also wondering why that 2yo was on the train at that hour.

Shoulda called Mr. Plow.

That name again? It's Mr. Plow.

Mr. Plow is a loser (and I think he is a boozer).

So you better give a call to the Plow King.

...not to mention the catchy jingle sung by Linda Ronstadt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoNNllr_gSE&feature=related

yeh frustrating!

Those LIRR locomotives are lemons. Since the first day LIRR got them all they do is break down constantly and then LIRR expects them to work doing a snowstorm?

Funny how this happened on a diesel train, but not electric. If anything it should be the other way around.

The sad thing is those locomotives are actually pretty high tech: the motor is modular so if it breaks down, it can quickly be swapped out for a new one without taking the whole locomotive out of service. The problem: LIRR never bought the crane that would allow them to do that!

Actually, it was both. Electric service had already been suspended because the third rail was becoming buried.

This particular train, the 2:53, left Penn as an electric. The prior train, also electric of course, had left at 1:17. Those passengers were already stranded at Jamaica because their train had been taken out of service there.

When the 2:53 arrived at Jamaica, everybody from both trains was transferred to the diesel.

So that explains the woman's comment in the video "it's 7 AM, it's been six and a half hours," which didn't make sense to me when I first heard it as being said by someone on a 2:53 train. She apparently had originally been on the 1:17 train.

Actually had that a bit wrong, having re-read the article. The 1:17 train made it to Farmingdale before being taken out of service. The 2:53 passengers were transferred to the diesel at Jamaica, then picked up the first group at Farmingdale and continued on... but didn't get much farther; Wyandanch would have been the next stop that time of day.

So that would have been pretty frustrating, waiting at one station for another train to come to "rescue" you, then not even getting to the next station before being stranded again.

In fairness, LIRR has only been in business for 175 years...hardly enough time for them to figure out some best practices for snow storms.

Can't blame the LIRR. How could they have possibly be expected to prepare for snow in these latitudes. That's something that only happens in Canada.

They called the MTA Police to keep passengers in? I just won the tort lottery with my false imprisonment case.

What's the solution? Long Island was experiencing a full-scale blizzard, the railroad attempted to get passengers to their destination in spite of it.

The most obvious alternative is to simply cancel trains when the weather gets that bad. But of course if that had happened, people would have been stuck at Penn and demanding that the LIRR at least try to get through the snow and get them home.

While I'm sure some people had unavoidably important reasons to have traveled into the city that night, the facts are that everyone knew the storm was coming and that most of the people on a 3 AM train to Long Island came into the city to go clubs. In fact, one of the articles mentions women on the train wearing "high heels and cocktail dresses."

Well, probably would have been a good night to choose to home right? The meatpacking district isn't going anywhere.

Perhaps these poor sould went to office parties? It is the holiday season. should they all stay home with sticks up their asses because it is snowing? Calling police to make sure people stay on the train is DISGUSTING. People may have been panicking and or needed to take a fucking shit. Why FAULT THEM? Yes canceling the train would have made the most sense-but if you are supposed to provide a service stop treating the customers like freight. Thr MTA is disgusting. FUCK THEM

The idea that anyone was going to freeze to death is ridiculous - even a 2 year old, unless, of course, no one was dressed warmly enough. You'd think people would do that, but this is New York after all...

It wasn't that cold out that night. We're all made to withstand much higher and lower extremes. Yes, you had a shitty experience. You survived - there was never any doubt that you wouldn't - so relax.

And why was a 2 year old on a train at 2:53 am?