Brian Lairer on WNYC. If you haven't heard, a Long Island Railroad strike could be heading our way as early as this weekend. What are the issues between the MTA and the unions? If you haven't heard,

President Trump is trying to put his stamp on redevelopment of Penn Station. What would that look like?

Now we turn to some of the latest news in transit, especially on those things, as seen by the

think tank that tries to center the interests of the whole greater New York, New Jersey

region, the Regional Plan Association. Back in April of last year, the Trump administration

took control in a way of the Penn Station rebuild from the MTA, and they assigned Amtrak.

And remember Andy Biford? They assigned Andy Andy Byford. Somehow he's like the political,

everybody loves him, you know, the universal donor of politics. Everybody loves Andy Byford.

Seems like on the left, on the right, the former New York City Transit president, he's leading

the project. A master developer is expected to be chosen this month, some company or another.

The Federal Railroad Administration has commissioned an 18-month service optimization study

on this idea of through-running in order to unlock greater capacity within the

extation footprint. What is through running? Well, instead of having NJ Transit and the LIRR and

at Penn Station and turn around, they would pass through in a new regional system. You could go from, I don't know, miniola to Montclair

without getting off the train. So the Regional Plan Association is a nearly century old non-profit

research and advocacy organization, focused primarily on transportation and infrastructure policy

in the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut metropolitan region. They've been deeply

involved in the Penn Station and Gateway Project debates for years. Their new report lands in a

pretty heated debate between those like Andy Byford, who believe through running is a good idea,

and those like the RPAPA who argue physical expansion is the

key, we'll explain what that means. Meanwhile, the union representing Long Island Railroad employees

and the MTA are set to resume talks to avoid a strike that could affect so many thousands of

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