Long Island Rail Road President Phil Eng appeared on WALK 97.5 FM with Anna and Raven to discuss the LIRR's ongoing response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). 

A transcript of the interview appears below. 

ANNA: Phil Eng is the president of MTA Long Island Rail Road. It's Anna and Raven.   

RAVEN: Phil, we know even though ridership is down, the work continues at Long Island Rail Road.  

PHIL ENG: Well, we are delivering on critical state-of-good-repair work, we're supporting major modernization projects that will support, not only during the service now, but support us in the future. And that's what we're looking for. We need to make sure that everything we've done to date, we don't fall backwards, because as the State starts to look to gradually reopen, we want to make sure that Long Island Rail Road is here, as it's always been, to support Long Island's economy. It's a very critical time, we know that people are very anxious to get back to some sense of normalcy. And, at the same time, we were appreciative of everyone being patient. 

RAVEN: Phil, what do you think it will look like? I mean, what are you seeing now in your preliminary plan, you're most concerned about, and the thing that you feel like we've most got to allocate resources or time thinking about how it will be like this?  

ENG: Well, I think a lot of this is, as you've been hearing the Governor talk about, the importance for people to stay the course, the new habits that we've developed with regards to social distancing, to wearing masks and staying at home if you're not feeling well, and that goes for our workforce here and my managers as well. It's important that we protect everybody moving forward. We're looking at several different plans in terms of ramping up service, as ridership returns. It will probably be gradual at first as they look to Upstate first, is my understanding, perhaps other areas where the virus has not been as widespread as Downstate New York has been. But we need to be there for that part, and a lot of the things that we've been doing for the virus in terms of fighting it, the sanitization of our trains, sanitization of our stations will continue. The protective gear, face masks and hand sanitizers and gloves will be vital to the workforce. Because as we ramp up, we need to make sure we keep the workplace safe. And then the other key part will be the communication with our riders so they know what to expect. That communication will be very robust as we've been doing. There's so much uncertainty going on, so we want to make anyone that needs to use Long Island Rail Road feel less stressful for their trip.  

RAVEN: Phil Eng is the President of MTA Long Island Rail Road.  

ANNA: Phil, I know you had mentioned that the ridership has been down about 97 percent. And you had mentioned something about, that struck a chord with me, because we received a few messages from people and even a good friend of mine who commutes into Manhattan and she's scared. She's scared to get back on the train and she's nervous about it. What message can we share to reassure all those that are going to be commuting again?  

ENG: Well, I can say this to your friend and to others, I ride the train daily. I know that we are sanitizing, as I mentioned, every 72 hours at minimum. Our workforce has been fantastic.  They've been sanitizing even more frequently than that and getting to them daily. So, the effort that we started, probably almost two months ago, we found ways to improve sanitation efforts to make them much more frequent and much more quick. The original thought was using sanitizing wipes, wiping down the trains, and I think we've demonstrated about a month ago the use of these foggers, and literally we can through a train car in five minutes. And that will enable our workforce to stay robust, and that will enable a workforce to really get through the cars much quicker. Whether you're riding the railroad, whether you're picking up groceries for your family, or even receiving groceries at home by delivery, or filling up the gas tank. I think all of the habits that we took for granted before, I think we need to just practice those good habits. And face coverings, I think, will be part of the norm for a while, minimizing the spread, perhaps, even if they have something or don't have any symptoms, or anyone else that they're traveling with. We want to possibly field those concerns and make sure we're talking to our customers.  

ANNA: Well, Phil, thank you for taking the time this morning. We applaud all the hard work you and all the staff is doing to keep us safe and keep everybody moving.  

ENG: Anna, thank you very much. Raven, thank you. I hope the two of you remain safe and well and all of your listeners too. Thank you for the support from Long Island and New York. It's been phenomenal. And the Long Island Rail Road is working very hard, our workforce, to provide them the service they need both now, and in the future.