Here's Service Options for LIRR Riders Once Penn Station Repairs Start

"We know that this is going to be a tough couple of months, but it is temporary", Hakim said, noting that riders can sign up for MTA alerts and consult a website created to provide updates to commuters in light of the planned summer work. They say bus tickets will not be on sale at any of the lots. The MTA will tweak service through the eight weeks Amtrak is making repairs.

Lhota said the MTA will have an operation center at agency headquarters and stations Monday to evaluate how well the the alternatives are working. "We put together enough train capacity in the morning equal to the number of riders that we had".

Lhota said the MTA will monitor Amtrak's repairs to make sure they're on track to finish by September 1 as planned. "I would encourage as many people as possible to take the train", he said. "If you take the train now, you should take the train next week as well". We put additional trains in the peak hours and for those existing trains we have, we added two additional cars.

"We will on a daily basis observing what they're doing because we want to hold them to the fact that this will end on September 1", Lhota said. They say buses can still get stuck in traffic on the Long Island Expressway. Take advantage of mass transit. "So we're going through the logistics necessary to make sure that, come Monday morning, we know who to talk to, who to call if we have any situations".

Five days from the beginning of what Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has dubbed "the summer of hell", the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said National Ferry, of Washington D.C., and Manhattan-based New York Cruise Lines will operate the ferry services to be provided from Glen Cove beginning Monday and lasting through around Labor Day. There will be a ferry that will leave for Wall Street at 6:10 a.m. and another at 6:35 a.m., returning at 6:30 p.m. from 34th Street and 4:30 p.m. from Wall Street.

With Amtrak's Penn Station repairs to begin Monday, Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Joe Lhota and Interim Director Ronnie Hakim are asking commuters to stick with mass transit instead of taking a vehicle, but to consider some alternatives being offered by the agency. They said they will spend the weekend trying to figure out their plans. Both Amtrak and NJ Transit are also prepping for similar service interruptions.