Long Island Rail Road started running trains at noon Tuesday, with full service to all branches by the afternoon rush hour.
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Negotiators have reached a deal to end a strike that has brought North America's largest commuter rail system to a standstill.
The deal between the Long Island Rail Road and union leaders was announced on Monday. The two sides had bargained for years before the strike began Saturday.
The shutdown forced roughly 250,000 commuters who ride the system each weekday to work from home or find alternate routes to and from the city.
LIRR service started back up beginning Tuesday at noon.
More than a quarter million people ride the LIRR each day.
If there is a strike, the MTA would run free shuttle bus service from a limited number of LIRR stations -- Lakeview, Hicksville, Ronkonkoma, Mineola, and Huntington -- bringing riders to a subway station.
If there is a strike this weekend, it will mark the railroad's first strike in more than 30 years.
The last one happened back in 1994 and shut down service for two days.
Before that, there was a longer LIRR strike in 1987 that lasted 11 days.
Recent strike threats in 2025 were avoided through federal mediation.
Five unions representing 3,500 workers, including engineers, signalmen and trainmen, are threatening to strike on May 16.
The unions and LIRR have agreed to a retroactive 9.5% wage increase covering the last three years. But, the sticking point remains an additional 5% raise the workers want beginning this year.
The MTA says that's too high. The MTA has also pushed back about some of the lucrative penalty pay workers receive when tasked with certain jobs during a shift.
MTA officials say if they give LIRR workers what they are asking for, it could result in a fare hike as high as 8%.
The LIRR unions held a large rally on Saturday at the LIRR station in Massapequa.
They called it a "day of action to protest the MTA's inaction."
