One Long Island Rail Road rider who tried to get a refund for unused monthly tickets is feeling outraged over the amount he ended up getting back in his pocket.

Damien Spellman, of Valley Stream, pays $270 for his monthly LIRR ticket, but he's been working from home, so he applied for a prorated refund, expecting to get a majority of it back.

"It came up and said $25," says Spellman. "So I was like, wait what? That's all we get?"

He says he ran some errands and went back into the app to officially accept the refund. But it only got worse from there.

"I go to hit the refund and within 40 minutes my refund went from $25 to 50 cents," he says.

When asked if riders like Spellman would be given full refunds, LIRR President Phillip Eng says he couldn't answer right now, and that, "We are in unprecedented, challenging times and the financial needs are huge. We understand our riders requests."

 

Meanwhile, Eng was at the Hicksville train station Thursday announcing what steps the railroad is taking to stop the spread of coronavirus. He says trains are being sanitized twice a day, cash is no long being accepted on trains or at ticket windows.

Eng also says the LIRR is seeing just under one-third of its regular ridership. When asked if he'd consider reducing service, he would not give specifics, but said the MTA as a whole is looking at contingency plans.