December 15, 2005

Strike Watch: hotels and car services filling up

As the city braces for a potential transit strike beginning at midnight, NewYorkology is making calls trying to find out how tourists especially might be impacted. This feature will update during the day.


A spokeswoman for Carmel Car & Limousine Service said this morning she’s already nearly fully booked for Friday, and that rates will be higher than normal. Carmel is booked solid from 4:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. except for the hour between 10:30 and 11:30 a.m., she said.

At Dial 7 car service, the story was the same: "We're booked all day. No cars."



At the city's airports, "we don’t expect any enormous impact," said Port Authority spokesman Pasquale DiFulco, since most of the airport workers don’t live in Manhattan below 96th street, where the toughest travel restrictions will be in place.

AirTrain and the Long Island Rail Road will both be in operation even if there is an MTA strike.

Yet taxis will be in high demand and airport passengers heading to the Manhattan from the airport will be subject to the 4-person HOV restrictions from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. on weekdays, so "that might create a little extra wait time," DiFulco said.



Lisa Hanock-Jasie, spokesperson for the Hilton Family of Hotels in NYC said they are nearly fully booked and "the majority of our existing and soon-to-be arriving hotel guests don't seem worried that the strike will inhibit their plans."

There have been few "if any," cancellations and local companies are also booking rooms for their employees in case of a strike. Each hotel has a contingency plan to transport their own employees to and from work so that the hotel "remains business as usual."



Broadway and all the major museums are expected to open Friday and have their employees in place even if there is a transit strike, according to spokeswoman with NYC & Co., the city's official tourism office. "We have been in contact with all the major players and we haven't heard that anyone's looking to close or anything," she said.

As for getting to the airport in a strike, Newark passengers can use NJ Transit and JFK passengers can use the Long Island Rail Road, though she acknowledged LaGuardia's "the tricky one."



And the Museum of Modern Art e-mails: "MoMA will be open as usual if there is a transit strike. ... Our hours on Friday are 10:30 to 8:00 p.m."



The Metropolitan Museum of Art is on track as well. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art will be open to the public on Friday, December 16, during its regular hours of 9:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., whether or not a Transit Workers Union strike goes into effect.

Earlier: Transit strike links

December 15, 2005 10:48 AM in Transportology

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