We are suing the The Long Island Rail Road because they have failed to comply with the Freedom Of Information Law, rejecting our request for their schedule data in a digital table format. Three times we have asked for LIRR's schedule information in this format, and three times they have denied our request. For such a simple and easy request their obstinance is confounding. So now my lawyers (David Rankin and Mark Taylor) and I are taking them to court to MAKE them give it to us.

This summer we filed a FOIL request with several MTA public transportation agencies seeking schedule data in a digital table format; only the Long Island Rail Road has denied our request. I want to use the data to enhance the subway map on this site. We have received schedule data in the format we requested from NYC Transit, Metro North, and Long Island Bus. They all understood perfectly clearly what we were requesting and answered the FOIL. Only LIRR seems confused about what I am after.

Our first communication from LIRR actually seemed reasonable. They asked for clarification about what data we were looking for. We had received a similar request from NYC Transit, who asked what time period we were looking for. We wrote back to LIRR that we were only asking for the current year's schedules. This is when the insulting behavior began.

LIRR responded to our follow up letter by denying they have any data matching our request. This made no sense. They of course have schedule data, and they of course maintain it electronically. We also know they keep it in some sort of table format because the MTA runs a trip planner which requires the schedule data is stored in a database. Not only that, we know that trip planner was built and is maintained by Trips123.com and according to someone in Trips123 they maintain the data as well. LIRR definitely has there the schedule data in the format we requested. They don't maintain it with crayons on a napkin. Naturally we appealed the denial.

In their third letter to us, LIRR did not this time deny they have the information. Instead they said we changed our request and invited us to file a new FOIL request, and then they mailed us 45 paper schedules. These:



This is rather insulting actually. Of course we did not change our request on appeal; I can't even imagine how we would change our request. NYC Transit, Long Island Bus, and Metro North had no problem understanding what we were after. And, our request was actually far more detailed than described in this story; we spelled out several ways in which the data tables might be structured, and we also asked that the agency provide us with a description of how they structure the data if we got the request completely wrong. In their denials LIRR never provided that either.

It is shameful that a public agency thinks it can treat an average citizen this way, while its parent agency cuts deals to provide this publicly paid for information to private companies like Trips123 and Google. On a whole this is all silly, all MTA agencies should simply make their schedule data publicly available, without requiring anyone to even file a FOIL request. There is no pleasure in filing this lawsuit, it a hassle and so far its cost ~$700 in legal fees, never the less we will prevail.