LIRR Regains its title as Busiest Commuter Railroad in the United States

At yesterday's MTA board committee meetings (which I was regrettably unable to attend), the MTA unveiled the 2013 ridership totals for the agency's two railroads.  In 2013, Metro-North's East of Hudson Lines carried 81,802,278 passengers.   West of the Hudson River, the two Metro-North lines carried 1,576,227 riders, giving Metro-North a grand total of 83,378,505 riders for 2013.

In 2013, the Long Island Rail Road carried 83,384,250 riders--which is 5,745 riders more than Metro-North.

The LIRR's figures represent a nearly 2% increase over 2012 totals.  The LIRR's 2013 ridership was the 7th best year in the post-war period. (the LIRR carried 87.4 million passengers in 2008, its best year at the time in 60 years.)

A news release from the MTA put out yesterday cites the following branches as showing notable improvements in ridership numbers  in 2013:

• Port Washington with a 3.0% increase or 351,294 rides
• Port Jefferson with a 2.7% increase or 471,942 rides
• Far Rockaway with a 2.6% increase or 139,808 rides
• Ronkonkoma with a 2.4 increase or 228,366 rides
• Montauk with a 2.8 percent increase or 57,525 rides. 

The Long Beach branch, which is still recovering from Hurricane Sandy, experienced a slight decline (0.8%).

Also, the LIRR reports a nearly 3% jump in the amount of riders who use commutation tickets (monthly or weekly tickets), which shows that more people are taking to the trains on a daily basis.  However, the MTA notes that discretionary travel, the area where the LIRR has the most room for improvement, also improved significantly.  Things like increased service to the Barclays Center on event days, added off-peak service (and other peak restorations too), and a general improvement in the region's economic climate were all cited as factors that influenced discretionary travel growth.

This year's bump in ridership means that the LIRR will regain its previously held title as the busiest commuter railroad in the nation.  Previously, the LIRR had held this title for many years before ceding it to Metro-North a few years ago.  This year, Metro-North's 83.4 million riders, while a record year for Metro-North, wasn't enough to allow it to keep its position.

One can definitely see the LIRR is getting more and more crowded.  During rush hours people are definitely starting to leave the car at home and get on the train, and I can definitely see more and more people taking to the off-peak trains.  Last Sunday I was on one of the midday Babylon local-expresses that only make a few stops on the branch and I was amazed at how busy it was.  Everyone had a seat, but the train definitely was not practically empty as it has been in previous years.

This is all good news for the LIRR.  While the LIRR might not have the infrastructure to handle significantly increased loads now (and the capacity goldmine is still five seven years away), I hope the LIRR will be able to continually build up its ridership (particularly in the off-peak period where they still have wiggle room) in anticipation of the eventual opening of East Side Access.

In the meantime, it would be best if the LIRR turned its focus to the "intra-" markets, namely intra-island and intra-city.  These markets have long been overlooked by the railroad, and there is definitely potential in those markets.  I won't sour the happy occasion talking about the Manhattan-centric ideology the LIRR's adopted as of late, but it is still something that would be nice to see improved.