During the week of October 2–8, 2026, the MTA Long Island Rail Road’s service alert feed recorded 54 unplanned alert threads, according to MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) service alert feed (GTFS-realtime), as recorded by Long Island Traffic. That count sits below the average weekly unplanned alert threads of 68.8 for the previous four weeks from the same source. The feed also carried 6 planned-work notices during the same period.
Of the 54 unplanned threads, 39 carried delay as their most serious wording, 9 carried cancellation, 5 carried other wording, and 1 carried suspension, all according to MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) service alert feed (GTFS-realtime), as recorded by Long Island Traffic.
Unplanned alert threads by week
The five-week view shows September 18–24 as the lowest-thread week at 53 threads, and October 2–8 as the second lowest at 54 threads, according to MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) service alert feed (GTFS-realtime), as recorded by Long Island Traffic. September 4–10 produced the highest thread count in the table at 83.
Unplanned LIRR alert threads by week
| Week (ET) | Alert threads | With a suspension | With a cancellation |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 2–8, 2026 | 54 | 1 | 9 |
| September 25–October 1, 2026 | 71 | 3 | 6 |
| September 18–24, 2026 | 53 | 0 | 9 |
| September 11–17, 2026 | 68 | 1 | 8 |
| September 4–10, 2026 | 83 | 0 | 12 |
Port Jefferson and Montauk branches led in alert threads
The Port Jefferson branch carried 14 unplanned alert threads for the week, and the Montauk branch carried 12, according to MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) service alert feed (GTFS-realtime), as recorded by Long Island Traffic. The Montauk branch also recorded 4 cancellation threads, the highest cancellation count for any single branch in the table. The City Terminal Zone carried the week’s 1 suspension thread along with 2 cancellation threads.
Unplanned alert threads by branch (MTA route in the alert)
| Branch | Alert threads | Suspensions | Cancellations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Port Jefferson | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| Montauk | 12 | 0 | 4 |
| Ronkonkoma | 7 | 0 | 1 |
| City Terminal Zone | 5 | 1 | 2 |
| Babylon | 5 | 0 | 1 |
| Long Beach | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| West Hempstead | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Oyster Bay | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Port Washington | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Far Rockaway | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Hempstead | 1 | 0 | 1 |
One suspension: Brooklyn service between Jamaica and Atlantic Terminal
The single suspension thread originated on the City Terminal Zone branch, according to MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) service alert feed (GTFS-realtime), as recorded by Long Island Traffic. The first MTA text Long Island Traffic recorded read: “Train service is suspended in Brooklyn between Jamaica and Atlantic Terminal in both directions due to fire department activity at Atlantic Terminal.”
Suspension alerts this week (first MTA text LIT recorded)
| Branch | Alert text |
|---|---|
| City Terminal Zone | Train service is suspended in Brooklyn between Jamaica and Atlantic Terminal in both directions due to fire department activity at Atlantic Terminal. |
Equipment and signal problems named most often as causes
Equipment or mechanical problems were named in 21 alert threads, and signal or switch problems were named in 12, according to MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) service alert feed (GTFS-realtime), as recorded by Long Island Traffic. Police, medical or emergency activity was named in 11 threads, while 8 threads carried no stated cause in the MTA’s own alert text.
Cause named in the alert text
| Cause (from MTA wording) | Alert threads |
|---|---|
| Equipment or mechanical problem | 21 |
| Signal or switch problem | 12 |
| Police, medical or emergency activity | 11 |
| Not stated in the alert | 8 |
| Track condition or work | 2 |
34 threads first seen during rush windows
Of the 54 unplanned threads, 34 were first seen during weekday-style rush windows — defined as 6–9:59 a.m. or 4–7:59 p.m. Eastern time on any day — according to MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) service alert feed (GTFS-realtime), as recorded by Long Island Traffic. Riders can follow live LIRR status for current service conditions.
How we measured this
- Records: every LIRR alert LIT stored from the MTA’s real-time alert feed between 12:00 a.m. October 2 and 11:59 p.m. October 8 (Eastern).
- An alert thread is one MTA alert and all of its updates. Threads are classed by the most serious wording in any update: suspension, then cancellation, then delay.
- Branch comes from the MTA route in the alert; causes come from keywords in MTA’s own text. Planned-work notices are counted separately.
- Comparison weeks are the four 7-day periods immediately before this one.
Limitations
- This is not an on-time-performance measure. One alert can cover one late train or a whole branch, and the MTA publishes on-time performance separately.
- LIT polls the feed on a schedule, so a short alert posted and withdrawn between polls may be missing, and “first seen” times are LIT’s, not the MTA’s.
- Cause categories rely on the MTA’s wording; alerts that do not name a cause are listed as not stated.