Add The New York Post on Google Just call them LIARRS.
Real New Yorkers are calling “baloney” on one unsettled issue with the Long Island Rail Road — the annoying habit by some on the East End to insist on calling the transit agency the “Lurr.”
“You’re probably not from New York if you call it the ‘LURR,'” said commuter King Law, who rides the rails from Massapequa to Midtown. “You might be from a different state or different place in the country.
“I roll my eyes that people think LURR is a thing,” she said. “I’ve never heard it said out loud. It’s definitely not New York.”
“Horses–t,” said Kevin, a straphanger and Queens native who declined to share his last name. “I grew up in Woodside and I’ve been taking Long Island Rail Road my whole life. Nobody calls it LURR. I’ve never heard that. Not once.”
The correct way to say it, he said, is “The L-I double-R.”
The recently settled LIRR strike had folks throughout the New York metropolitan area talking about the massive railroad — and exposed the hidden tendency by some on the island to pronounce the acronym as a mono-syllabic word.
While a handful of folks who grew up with the habit told The Post that it’s the right call, the vast majority of metro area commuters thought it was just plain silly.
“Calling the L-I-R-R ‘LURR’ is like auditioning for ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ on the Oyster Bay branch,” Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino chimed in. “At that point, your monthly pass should come with a parrot and a bottle of rum.”
Bayside resident Margaret, who grew up in Flushing, said LURR “sounds made up.
“Have you found anyone who said they’ve heard that before?” she asked a reporter. “I say train. Most people just say Long Island Rail Road.”
Of the 17 commuters interviewed at the Bayside train station, none had ever heard someone use LURR before, and only one of 15 quizzed at the Mineola station knew the debate existed at all.
The sole dissent came from Emilio Onolfi, a Long Island native.
“Of course, I’ve heard it forever,” Onolfi claimed to The Post. “I live in Manhattan now but I grew up on the South Shore and that’s how I’ve always heard it. I still here LURR.”
Uday Sekhon, an LIRR ticket agent at the Mineola station who lives in Queens said he’s heard it all, and said he also hears the railroad called “LEER” a lot, adding fuel to the controversy.
“I think LURR is definitely picking up steam, especially online,” he said. “People from Nassau [County] don’t really say it, but I feel like a lot more people from the city are saying it.
“There’s been a lot of arguments online, a lot of people getting bashed during the last week, during the strike,” Sekhon added. “I’ve seen more debate online this past week than every about LURR.
“But yeah, it’s real. I say LURR. Lots of people do.”
