What Happened
Newsday reported on November 5, 2026, that LIRR riders have had a harder time than usual finding an open restroom. Riders and railroad officials told the outlet that stepped-up maintenance has taken train and station restrooms out of service more often.
LIRR President Rob Free told Newsday that heightened cleaning and maintenance have meant more frequent closures. “I think we’re doing it a little more frequently and maybe a little bit longer to give it a little more thorough cleaning to give it a boost,” Free said of closures at Penn Station. He said he believes the effort is “being well-received by our customers.”
Newsday described a recent Tuesday afternoon when the women’s restroom on the LIRR’s Penn Station concourse was gated off. Newsday reported that the Penn concourse has a lone set of restrooms, next to the railroad’s customer waiting room.
Riders’ views of the cleaning were mixed, according to Newsday:
- A Valley Stream commuter gave the Penn facilities a passing grade.
- A Smithtown rider said they are “just really dirty.”
- A Bethpage commuter said she has recently found train bathrooms locked, some occupied by fare evaders hiding from ticket collectors. She said conductors have told her to try a different car.
Free told Newsday that train crews sometimes keep an on-board restroom closed when there is a problem with it, such as a stopped-up sink or an overflowing toilet. “Even if we unfortunately have to lock one bathroom out, there’s plenty of other bathrooms on a train,” he said. He also urged riders to report illegal activity to MTA Police, including to officers stationed just outside the Penn Station bathrooms.
Newsday reported that the chair of the LIRR Commuter Council praised the railroad for stepping up maintenance, even though it takes bathrooms out of service more often. According to Newsday, the chair also pointed to rider complaints about:
- The scarcity of facilities at Jamaica Station.
- Insufficient restroom hours at some Nassau and Suffolk stations.
Railroad’s Restroom Program
According to Newsday, Free became LIRR president in April 2024. One of his earliest initiatives was inviting riders to report restroom conditions by scanning QR codes.
The MTA announced the program in a June 24, 2024 press release. The release said posters with a QR code unique to each station would be placed inside station bathrooms. Scanning the code opens a survey that riders can use to report a bathroom’s condition in real time. The release said each submitted survey generates an alert to the cleaning team for that location.
In an October 28, 2024 release, the MTA said riders had submitted more than 230 surveys since the program started in July. The release said the QR codes would be posted in the bathrooms on every LIRR train by the end of 2024.
The MTA’s fall 2024 survey results, released January 27, 2025, reported the following satisfaction with restroom cleanliness:
- Station restrooms: 73%, up four points.
- On-board restrooms: 45%, up four points.
Free told Newsday that satisfaction with bathroom cleanliness has improved by 10% in rider surveys since the QR program launched.
Newsday also reported that overall LIRR customer satisfaction hit a two-year low in the railroad’s most recent survey, which was taken in the spring. According to Newsday, about 18% of respondents said cleaner on-board restrooms would raise their overall satisfaction.
What we don’t know yet: The LIRR has not disclosed how many station or on-board restrooms have been closed at any one time, or how long a typical cleaning-related closure lasts.