The shutdown of the Long Island Rail Road, North America’s largest commuter rail system, continued into a second day on Sunday after unionized workers went on strike a day earlier for the first time in three decades.
The railroad, which serves New York City and its eastern suburbs, ceased operations just after midnight Friday after five unions representing about half its workforce walked off the job.
Kathy Hochul, the New York governor, said at a Sunday news conference: “Let me be clear, I did not want a strike.”
Hochul defended the MTA’s negotiations, saying: “The MTA has put fair offers on the table, in fact, many of them. And so, despite that, for the first time in 30 years, hundreds of thousands of people that rely on the LIRR are without service because of a strike.”