The LIRR has been nearly as spectacular as the NYC subway system of late, which is to say, service is not specifically too good. This is all thanks to Penn Station, whose infrastructure appears to be crumbling before our very eyes, and things are about to get even worse once officials shut down some lines for repairs this summer (and potentially beyond). Luckily, booze very temporarily heals most pain, and one Long Island bar was kind enough to throw an "LIRR Sucks" party so commuters could drink away the power outages.

Last night the Milleridge Inn in Jericho invited LIRR riders to trade in their ticket stub for a drink, to mitigate, at least in a small way, the nightmarish commute that's befallen them over the last few months. "As a former commuter, I know there’s nothing worse than waiting for hours to catch a train, especially after a long work day,” bar owner Boris Yamali said in a press release. "Hundreds of our customers commute every day to and from the city, and they’ve really been feeling the pain."

The deal, which continues tonight, includes a free house cocktail or mixed beverage, though commuters might find themselves needing a couple extra Old Fashioneds to keep from flinging themselves into the ocean. One commuter told Newsday that the incessant delays can make her morning commute as much as three hours long. "It’s only 25 miles away. I could get to Florida faster or fly to the Bahamas," she said.

Ultimately, the cause of LIRR delays can often be traced back to problems at Penn Station. Though Amtrak is currently Penn Station's operator, both Governor Cuomo and NJ Governor Christie penned a letter to Amtrak Wick Moorman CEO yesterday calling for the installation of a private operator at the Station, arguing that the situation there "has gone from bad to worse to intolerable." Per the letter:



Decades of underinvestment by Amtrak have produced the continuing string of infrastructure failures at Penn Station. This is particularly unacceptable given the enormous payments made by our states to Amtrak to assure the state of good repair of Penn Station . It now will require drastic and continuous improvement of these conditions by real experts over a sustained period of time to have the effect of improving commuting conditions for our citizens.



Intense and immediate repairs are clearly necessary but they are not enough: longer term changes in the management of these assets must go hand in glove with the emergency repairs.



"Between New York and New Jersey we pay approximately $150 million a year for our respective use for the facility. As Amtrak's management of Penn Station continues to produce multiple failures, we believe systemic changes cannot wait. A professional, qualified, private station operator must be brought in to take over the repairs and manage this entire process going forward.



"We must have the right to approve any private contractor that Amtrak selects in response to our request and the record of failure causing these problems at Penn Station. The current situation is not tolerable and change cannot wait any longer.

Indeed, the commuter woes on Long Island have gotten so bad that some people are considering moving to the city to take advantage of what Newsday describes as "a more reliable New York City subway system."

Good luck with that.