Jonathan Gordon

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Sep 24, 2026, 12:12 PM

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Updated

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The Long Island Rail Road is taking steps to prepare ahead of this weekend's nor'easter.

Long Island Rail Road President Rob Free said they are opening their operations command center and will have extra staffing on hand.

"From what we're seeing right now with the weather, a little more severe on the East End, so we'll position more crews on the East End to respond to any type of incidents," Free said.

Concern from some riders grew about how public transit would be affected in strong wind and heavy rain after a pair of PSEG high-voltage lines crashed onto the railroad tracks west of Bethpage Wednesday afternoon.

The incident shuttered service on that part of the Ronkonkoma branch throughout the night.

"You're talking about 80-foot poles, one leaning across the tracks, one literally hanging above our tracks," Free said. "It caused damage to our running rails, it caused some damage to our third rail and actually some of our high-tension wires."

MTA and PSEG crews worked together to remove the poles and fix the damage. Repairs were done around 11 p.m. yesterday and full service through that area resumed just before 4 a.m. today.

Riders this morning at the Hicksville station were grateful that the morning rush went smoother than their ride home the night before.

"It was terrible," Jericho resident Mirsky said. "I had to take an Uber."

PSEG said the exact cause of the poles coming down is still under investigation, but noted it was "quite windy" when News 12 asked.

Long Islanders said they're already seeing the impact of increased wind this week ahead of what is expected to be even worse conditions through the weekend.

"This morning, I lost power twice," Hicksville resident Kevin Walsh said. "It went out, and it came back, and it went out a second time just as I was making my coffee, so you could imagine how I felt about that."

Free said the transit agency is planning to run full service all weekend.