A Long Island travel odyssey: Daylong journey spans the transit options

On an island set within one of the most populated and dynamic metropolitan regions on the planet, it takes more than just an expressway to move people around.

Each day, millions of people move onto, off of and around Long Island using a range of transportation options. They include the busiest commuter railroad in North America, a pair of county-operated bus systems that, collectively, carry nearly 100,000 passengers a day, a regional airport with destinations all over the United States and ferries linking Long Islanders to destinations across the water.

Long Islanders piece together the last miles of their journeys using taxis,  ride-hailing services, bicycles and their own two feet. Together, the multiple modes of transportation make up a complex and delicate transportation network that can be both a lifeline for Long Islanders and, sometimes, the bane of their existence.

What would it be like to experience all of those modes of transportation in a single day? I decided to try it, and along the way met several New Yorkers all too familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of Long Island’s transportation network.

Leg 1 — Valley Stream to Ronkonkoma

To avoid the hassle of circling the station for 20 minutes looking for a parking spot, I often ride my bike when traveling from the Valley Stream LIRR station, which is about a mile from home. But there was sure to be plenty of parking this time, as the sun hadn't even come up, and relatively few people getting on the 6:05 a.m. train to Atlantic Terminal.

Living on Nassau’s South Shore means traveling west to the LIRR’s busy Jamaica junction to travel on the LIRR's Main Line. In the time it took to get from Track 2, up the escalator, across, and down to Track 8, the 6:22 a.m. to Ronkonkoma pulled away without me on it. It would be a 16-minute wait for the next train.

For years, LIRR officials and Long Island planners have talked about the growing role of "reverse commuters" who travel against the rush hour tide onto Long Island every morning. Sure enough, several dozen riders poured into the 6:38 train from Jamaica to Ronkonkoma.

One of them, Preston Ligond, relies on public transportation to get him from his Cambria Heights, Queens, home to his 8 a.m. class at Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood each day.

"It’s peaceful ... I just go on my phone and go on social media and stuff like that, or go on my computer," said Ligond, who wakes up at 5 a.m. each day to catch a bus to the LIRR and typically doesn’t return home until 5 p.m. "I catch some sleep on the way back home."

Leg 2 — To and from Long Island MacArthur Airport

Despite Ronkonkoma being the LIRR’s busiest Suffolk County station, and just a mile from the airport, there’s no transit link between the two transportation hubs, although Suffolk County Transit does have plans to roll out new on-demand bus service in the area later this year. Thankfully, Ronkonkoma is among the dwindling number of LIRR stops that still have a working taxi stand.

MacArthur Deputy Commissioner Kara Welling provided a quick tour of the airport, which she noted transports about 1.6 million travelers each year, many of them lured by the relatively short security lines and plentiful parking. USA Today recently ranked MacArthur as the best small airport in the country.

Headed to the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint in their Disney- emblazoned outfits were Andy and Debbie Epifane, of West Babylon, who were flying to Orlando, Florida, for a family wedding.

"It’s so much easier. No hassle. You don’t have to wait," Debbie Epifane said.

Next I tried to grab a bus but left the airport just in time to see one leave me behind. Thankfully, the county’s 2024 redesign of its transit system meant it wasn't that long before the next SCT 1 bus, which runs from the Walt Whitman Shops in Huntington all the way to my next destination, the Patchogue LIRR station.

Casey Jordan climbed aboard a few miles later for the relatively short ride from her Bohemia neighborhood to her job at an awning business in Holbrook.

"I could walk, but I choose to take the bus ... They’re usually on time. They’re pretty good. All the bus drivers are really nice. And it’s affordable — a lot cheaper than car insurance in New York," said Jordan, who gets around "pretty easily" without a car. "It just sucks when you have to go heavy shopping, like food store shopping."

Leg 3 — To Ocean Beach and back 

Having already mi ssed a train and a bus, making the 10:29 westbound train out of Patchogue was critical, because the next one stopping at Bay Shore wouldn’t come for nearly three hours. Thankfully, among Suffolk’s top priorities in redesigning its bus system was to better align with LIRR train times. The bus arrived at the train station with six minutes to spare.

Like much of Suffolk, Patchogue is located in what’s known as the LIRR’s "diesel territory," where tracks are not electrified. The downside is service is less frequent, and diesel trains are less reliable. The upside is, with two levels of seating, the LIRR’s double-decker diesels are pretty spacious.

Gazing out a window as the train pulled away was Maria Eugenia Torres, of Mastic, who was on her way to do some shopping in Manhattan.

"It’s a lovely service, tranquil," Torres said in Spanish.

Asked how the LIRR compares with  public transportation options in her native Ecuador, she said it doesn’t. "They’re so different. Everything here is so big and beautiful."

A taxi from the Bay Shore LIRR station made it to the ferry terminal a few minutes too late to catch the ferry to Ocean Beach.

With the busy summer season having come to a close, it meant waiting more than two hours for the next departure. Waiting alongside me was Harvey Levine, owner of the Blue Waters Hotel, who lives on Ocean Beach year-round and has been riding the ferry several times a week for more than two decades.

"I go back and forth to shop, to bank, to see my accountant. I’ve never seen the boat break down," Levine said. "It’s always leaving on time. There’s no cancellation because there’s only five people on the boat. They go, no matter what."

With last month’s nor’easter on the horizon, the 30-minute ride across the Great South Bay was much windier and rougher than expected on the top deck. So, for the return trip, I opted for the indoor lower deck, where I met John Hayes, who, along with his wife Kathy, were visiting from West Virginia for a family reunion at the Ocean Beach cottage his grandparents bought in 1917. He noted that while cars may be king on the mainland, they are never almost seen on Fire Island.

"Not at all. It’s wonderful," Hayes, 77, said. "You get on a bike and go wherever you want."

Leg 4 — To and from Farmingdale State College

I hoped to ride a bicycle on Fire Island, but it would have meant missing my return trip and waiting nearly three hours for the next one. There was an alternative biking opportunity but it meant rushing to get to Farmingdale State College by 4 p.m.

From there, I hoped to take a westbound train from nearby Farmingdale station. But, alas, on my way there I learned a pair of PSEG poles had fallen on the tracks near Hicksville, knocking out service as far east as Farmingdale, so any traveling on the LIRR's Main Line was out.

After a quick transfer at Babylon, the train arrived at Amityville, where I boarded my second Suffolk County Transit bus of the day — this one a newer hybrid diesel-electric bus with USB ports at every row, allowing me to charge my phone. The bus traveled up Route 110 and then turned onto the college campus, which recently implemented one of the growing number of bike share programs on Long Island.

Under the Ram Rides program, which aims to promote environmentally friendly transportation, students can borrow a bicycle to use on and around campus at no charge. Although I surely couldn’t pass as an undergrad, I borrowed a bike and rode it around campus to find out how students get around.

Freshman Salvador Elias commutes two hours each way to and from his home in South Hempstead via NICE Bus. He gets around the college’s 380-acre campus by foot, but has seen others use bikes, skateboards and, recently, a hoverboard.

"I was like, I haven’t seen that since, like 2016," Elias said. "It’s creative."

Not willing to risk missing my train while waiting for the next bus to arrive on campus, I did something I’ve never done before — I ordered an Uber. Ride-hailing services have become an increasingly important part of Long Island’s transportation system in recent years, especially for those who don’t drive.

When a black Tesla pulled up 10 minutes later, I confirmed this was my ride with the driver, or rather — the guy sitting in the driver’s seat. I just happened to hail a self-driving vehicle.

The car’s owner, who asked not to be identified, made sure I was comfortable with the arrangement and assured me he could, at any time, manually override the self-driving feature, for which he paid an extra $12,000. He sat with both hands on his lap and his feet away from the pedals as we navigated rush hour traffic on the Route 110 corridor.

Our robo-ride delivered me to the Amityville LIRR station in one piece and just in time to catch the 5:29 train.

Leg 5 — Heading home

Stepping off the train with me at Lynbrook a half-hour later was Pee Wee Castro, lugging his Loonfat electric bike, which he uses each day to complete his commute between his home in Far Rockaway and his job at a Lindenhurst factory.

"If I waited for the bus now, it would probably take like an hour and 15 minutes to get home. With this, I’ll get there in 20 minutes," said Castro, 49, who acknowledged regularly dealing with hostility from both drivers and pedestrians. "It is what it is. I don’t listen to them ... Obviously, I know what I’m doing. I’m not going to hit them with the bike."

Getting to my bus stop meant walking north to Merrick Road and across Lynbrook’s notoriously hectic Five Corners intersection. In the time it took to wait to safely cross, I watched one N4 pass me by.

While waiting at the busy bus stop for the next N4, I met Damian Weaver, who commutes each day between his Jamaica home and his job at a New Hyde Park grocery store. When it’s warm out, he prefers to ride his bicycle — a souped-up stretch cruiser that he showed me on his phone with the pride of a father showing baby pictures.

On nippy days like this one, he opts for a NICE Bus — the privately operated bus service Nassau launched in 2012 after a falling out with the county’s previous transit provider, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

"I would rather be on the bus than to drive. It gives me time to just be with myself, mellow down before I get to work," Weaver, 54, said. "Driving, I’ve got to be worried about the people that’s driving with me, what other drivers are doing."

As the evening rush bus was bursting at the seams with riders, I was forced to strap hang beside a seated passenger playing and singing along to gospel music while gently hitting his head with a judge’s gavel.

I squeezed my way off the bus at Franklin Avenue in Valley Stream and headed back to my awaiting car at the LIRR station lot.

I pulled up in front of my house as the sun was setting around 7 p.m. — more than 13 hours after I pulled out. The total cost for me and a photographer was $229.04.