Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials are at stations across Long Island listening to commuters’ opinions and complaints about the railroad.

LIRR officials and MTA officers are looking to hear from the community and held a “connect with us" event this morning in Merrick to listen to concerns or complaints from riders and answer any questions.

The event comes at a time when we are seeing an increase in crime on the railroad.

It was recently announced that 60 MTA officers will now ride on peak trains in the new year in an effort to control that.

News 12 recently looked into the numbers. So far this year, there have been 154 major crimes on the trains - already surpassing all of 2021.

There were 22 major felonies in August alone. That includes assaults, grand larcenies and robberies.

Metro-North and interim LIRR President Catherine Rinaldi says along with the added police, they're making some other changes to keep people safe.

“We are refreshing announcements just to remind people to take their stuff with them and don't leave their stuff when they go to the bathroom. Unfortunately, that's just the world that we live in, we just have to be careful that there are not those opportunities for people to take your stuff. We want to eliminate those crimes of opportunity,” says Rinaldi.

The MTA and LIRR hold events like today’s every few months at different stations in hopes of bettering service for commuters.

The interim LIRR president says people are coming back to the trains and that they saw a post pandemic record high last week.