Metro-North ridership hits all time high, but LIRR still busiest

Written by Jenifer Nunez, assistant editor

Ridership increased significantly on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad in 2015, giving a significant boost to the economic health of the regions they serve, said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

 

Metro-North reported all-time record ridership of 86.1 million customers, an increase of 1.6 percent over 2014, while LIRR remained the busiest regional railroad in the nation, carrying 87.6 million customers, a 2.1 percent increase over the prior year and the railroad’s highest total since 1949.

The LIRR’s total breaks the modern record set in 2008, when the railroad carried 87.4 million customers. Metro-North’s total ridership growth means that it has more than doubled the ridership the railroad carried when it was founded, in 1983.

“When ridership set records back in 2008, many said it was because of high gasoline prices and that certainly is one factor,” said MTA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Thomas Prendergast. “But gas prices have sunk to low levels and the trend is continuing. We are seeing the confluence a strengthening regional economy, healthier downtowns around the region, a new generation of millennials who value public transportation and greater productivity on board our trains through the proliferation of smartphones, tablets and laptops. Customers are also responding to improvements we have made, including more frequent trains, improving on-time performance, a fleet of modern new electric cars, expanding availability of real-time information and more channels for customer communication.”

LIRR and Metro-North ridership is positioned for even further growth in the years ahead because of investments included in the MTA’s 2015-19 Capital Program, funded through a record contribution from the state of New York made by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The program will fund the construction of four new Metro-North stations in the Bronx and the expansion of Metro-North’s New Haven Line to Penn Station, a major expansion of the LIRR’s mainline between Floral Park and Hicksville, enabling significant reverse commuting to Long Island for the first time and the construction of new LIRR stations in Queens, in Elmhurst and Sunnyside.

The LIRR’s growth was fueled in equal parts by commuters, who increased 2.1 percent to 50.4 million customers, an increase of 1.04 million riders and non-commuters, who increased 2.0 percent to 37.3 million customers in 2015, an increase of 734,000 riders.

Continuing previous trends, Metro-North’s non-commutation ridership increased faster than its commuters. In 2015, Metro-North non-commutation increased 2.3 percent, while commutation increased 1.0 percent. Metro-North broke ridership records on all three of its mainlines east of the Hudson River; the prior records had been set in 2008 on the Harlem Line and last year on the New Haven Line and Hudson Line.

“We spent 2015 working hard to improve Metro-North’s safety record, to restore confidence in Metro-North’s safety culture and to rebuild our tracks,” said Metro-North President Joseph Giulietti. “We’re delighted to see the increase in ridership because we think it indicates that our attention to safety and improved reliability are encouraging more customers to ride the train.”

 

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