A St. Patrick's Day That Wasn't All That Bad

This Monday was every passenger railroad conductor's favorite holiday (well, maybe second favorite): St. Patrick's Day.   In the past, things didn't always go all that smoothly on this day, with lots of disorderly conduct, passengers in need of medical assistance, police activity, and cascading delays resulting from those.

However, it appeared that the LIRR was able to make it through St. Patrick's Day this year without too much trouble, at least from an operational standpoint.  The regularly scheduled trains as well as the extras and Holiday eve extras were able to run pretty close to schedule for the entire day.  Short of a train with equipment problems in each of the rush hours causing congestion around Jamaica, there weren't any other substantial delays or disruptions.  Looking strictly the day from an operations point of view, it was just a normal run-in-the-mill day for the LIRR.

While the trains may have been running on-time, the conditions onboard the actual trains may have been a tiny bit disorderly at times.  Alcohol was banned for the entire day on LIRR trains, station platforms, and waiting areas, but without multiple MTA Police officers onboard very train it would be difficult to enforce such a policy.  There were even reports on the internet (though, you can't believe everything you read on the internet), that they were selling alcohol on the platforms in Penn Station just like they do on a normal day.  Penn Station is not a LIRR station, so it's technically not subject to the ban, but who knows why they were out there anyways.  While disorderly passengers on the train might not allow for the most peaceful commute home, the trains were kept moving, so the LIRR seemed to keep everything that they had within their control on track.

The only real incident happened on Monday was a police activity incident in Valley Stream towards the very end of the night.  A couple trains were held up, but this was practically the only holiday-related incident that happened the entire day.

I plugged "LIRR" into the search bar on Twitter Monday night and read through some of the tweets that people had posted over the course of the day on Monday.  Some of the "highlights" are included below:

If any day should be crowned "Worst Day to Ride the LIRR," today would be the day. Annually.
— Becca Lader (@beccaLader) March 17, 2014

What would the St Patrick's Day be without a bunch of obnoxious drunk high schoolers on the LIRR?
— lyss (@lyssdell) March 17, 2014

Celebrating Saint Patrick's in a crowded LIRR train to Manhattan http://t.co/OSFT1net0l
— Dimitri Vorris (@dimitrivorris) March 17, 2014

I am irish too but I am NOT lying on the floor of the LIRR right now
— bridget (@bridgetnix) March 17, 2014

LIRR conductor: "Hopefully there will be car cleaners waiting at Jamaica to take care of the situation." #SaintPatricksDaySadness
— Brian Tracey (@brian_tracey) March 17, 2014

Just when I thought I'd escaped the horrors of the #LIRR on #StPatricksDay this happened: http://t.co/qqQUdDcjUA #commuting #sartre
— Kara Rozansky (@RandomRozansky) March 18, 2014

So, all things considered, the LIRR was able to make it through this rough holiday pretty well this year.  I personally had no issues on the trains I rode Monday.  A couple of durnks in the afternoon, but they managed to sit there and ride quietly.  If every St. Patrick's Day went like this, the LIRR would be pretty lucky.