BY PHILLIP ENG
At the LIRR, our team has experience handling all types of situations: from hurricanes to power outages to managing massive amounts of infrastructure expansion.
Pandemic? Not so much. But our workforce is rising to the challenge.
As we adapt to this rapidly changing public health crisis, we cannot forget the thousands of transportation workers across the MTA’s agencies — the Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North Railroad and NYC Transit — who are working hard each day to keep our system open and safe for those who need to use it.
Our workforce is on the frontlines, playing a key role in the response to this pandemic. We are making sure we are here for the heroes of this crisis, which include our own employees, as well as the nurses, the doctors, the police and first responders, the grocery store, pharmacy and transportation workers, and so many others who are helping us live.
Together with our labor partners, we’re ensuring that employees and customers alike remain safe, as we maintain an aggressive, ramped-up cleaning schedule, disinfecting stations across the system twice daily, and getting to each one of our train cars (more than 1,000) at least once every 72 hours.
Our courageous workforce is doing what public servants do. They are not just doing a job; they are doing a true service to their fellow New Yorkers. I simply can’t thank them enough.
They continue to make me proud to be a part of this railroad family. Every day, 24/7, they demonstrate commitment through their heroic efforts to provide these essential services.
With that, I ask that you please continue to practice good hygiene. Social distancing is key. We cannot express enough the importance of flattening the curve and what it will mean to the recovery of New York, New Yorkers, and the rest of our country.
We are here for you, but we all need to participate in preventing the spread of this virus, while our workforce gets the job done.
Stay well. We will get through this, one day at a time, together.
Eng is president of the Long Island Rail Road.
