No LIRR cuts to the North Fork

The Metropolitan Transit Authority will not be severing service to the North Fork via its Long Island Rail Road Greenport branch.
MTA sources confirmed on Friday that the transit authority would soon be releasing a statement announcing it will not be cutting weekday rail service between Greenport and Ronkonkoma.
The proposed service cuts, which would have stopped LIRR trains from running from Ronkonkoma, except for summer weekends, was pitched as a way to help the transit authority close a $400 million budget shortfall. Officials have said the Greenport line is its least used line, and that the move would have only effected about 200 riders daily, yet save almost $1 million annually .
About 200 people attended an MTA public hearing earlier this month at the Riverhead County Center, with many locals and elected leaders protesting the drastic cuts. The proposal came just months after New York State mandated that all employers in New York City and the surrounding counties, including Suffolk, pay a payroll tax to the cash-strapped transit agency.