Long Island Rail Road trains rolling again after strike ends with deal between unions, MTA

Evan Simko-Bednarski, New York Daily News on May 19, 2026

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NEW YORK — Long Island Rail Road service came back online Tuesday with passengers aboard the 12:03 train from Penn Station to Ronkonkoma the first to ride the rails since 3,500 workers walked off the job Saturday morning in the first strike on the nation’s busiest commuter railroad in 32 years.

The three-day strike ended with a handshake deal late Monday between the MTA and the five unions representing the workers. Details of the pact have yet to be released, but sources said a key sticking point in the talks was resolved with a 4.5% raise in 2026. The deal still requires approval by union members.

With the strike over, service was first returned to the system’s four main electric branches: Huntington, Port Washington, Ronkonkoma and Babylon — with trains operating out of both Penn and Grand Central. The system was planning a return to full service in time for the evening rush hour — when ordinarily 300,000 people rely on the LIRR to get them home.

By late afternoon, transit officials said, full service would be restored on all LIRR lines including diesel territory.

Despite Monday night’s deal, the MTA continued shuttle bus service for the Tuesday morning rush, as back-on-the-job transit workers repositioned trains throughout the system. By 12:30, service was due to be restored in both directions on the four main branches.

The three-day strike began in the early hours of Saturday morning, after members of the five unions — the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, and the Transportation Communications Union — walked off the job amid contract negotiations, with the unions demanding a 5% raise for 2026, and the MTA offering to go above 3% only if the unions would give up some overtime rules or increase their healthcare premiums.

A source with knowledge of the deal struck late Monday told the New York Daily News that the unions had secured a 4.5% raise over the next 14 months, paid for in part by an agreement that the union members would no longer be paid for certain mandatory trainings, and that training would no longer count toward overtime.

The deal still needs to be ratified by the unions’ membership.

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