With Long Island Rail Road service suspended because of a worker strike, New York transit officials have arranged other travel options for commuters who cannot work from home, but officials warned that this contingency plan could not accommodate all the passengers who rely on the railroad.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is providing free shuttle bus service beginning Monday morning from six locations on Long Island to two subway stations in Queens, and in the other direction during the evening rush.
Buses from the Bay Shore, Hicksville and Mineola L.I.R.R. stations, as well as Hempstead Lake State Park near the Lakeview station, are shuttling riders to the A train at Howard Beach-JFK Airport.
And buses from Huntington and Ronkonkoma are taking riders to the F train at Jamaica-179 Street.
The buses to Queens are scheduled to run every 10 minutes from 4:30 a.m. to 9 a.m., and afternoon shuttles back to Long Island will run from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
There will be limited buses running in the non-peak direction (that is, away from the city in the morning and toward the city in the evening) at some stations in Suffolk County.
Riders in Nassau County can take the regular Nassau County bus service, known as NICE, to the No. 7 train in Flushing, one of the busiest subway stations in the city, or to the Jamaica Bus Terminal to catch an F train.
It is unclear if NICE bus drivers — who are not permitted to strike, but can refuse to work overtime — will fully cooperate with the plans. John Samuelsen, the international president of the Transport Workers Union, which represents the bus drivers, encouraged the workers not to change their bus routes to accommodate alternative service.
“Don’t let the bosses bully you into undermining your friends and neighbors working on the railroad,” he wrote on social media.
Also starting Monday, riders can park their cars at Citi Field in Queens for $6 and board the No. 7 train at Mets-Willets Point.
This plan leaves many gaps across the railroad’s 126 stations. The shuttle buses can only carry about 13,000 riders in either direction (the railroad carries more than 270,000 riders a day), and the M.T.A. has said the service should be reserved for workers with no other means of travel.
The M.T.A. anticipates that many people will drive or be dropped off at subway stations in Queens and Brooklyn, but said that additional parking would not be provided at those stations.
Transit officials warned that the lack of rail service could lead to more congestion on the Long Island Expressway and the Northern State and Southern State Parkways.
The M.T.A. said it would issue refunds to riders with monthly rail passes for business days without train service.
Stefanos Chen is a Times reporter covering New York City’s transit system.
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