Beginning January 6, pre-game westbound extra service on the Main Line will be reduced slightly, with the second local train now starting at Hicksville, dropping service at Farmingdale and Bethpage. For games that start past 6:00p, there will no longer be any through service from stations east of Hicksville, with both the Ronkonkoma and Farmingdale extra trains removed and replaced by two local trains starting at Hicksville only.
The LIRR has never had great success with Islanders/Barclays event service. A poorly designed service plan has never made the service all that useful or convenient to use and has led to bad overcrowding conditions on trains at at Atlantic Terminal following the game. The LIRR tried to improve things by adding the fourth extra train (to Ronkonkoma) at the start of the 2016-2017 season, but three and a half years into the Islanders train service, many of the major issues and crowding problems have yet to be addressed.
And the service problems show in the ridership figures. While the LIRR carried an average of 4,639 riders to and from Islanders games during the Islanders' first season in Brooklyn, that number dropped to 3,636 riders per game the next year--a loss of a hair over 1,000 people each way and a 22% decrease. The LIRR has not yet reported ridership figures for the whole 2017-2018 season or anything from the current 2018-2019 season, but anecdotal observations of trains and comments from other riders suggest even fewer have been taking these trains as time goes on.
Whether these reductions are a response to even further declining ridership or something else isn't known. Nothing was mentioned in the MTA's announcement for this timetable change. It certainly is curious--the completion of the Ronkonkoma Double Track project would make one think the LIRR would increase service east of Hicksville to Ronkonkoma, not reduce it. With the project declared complete, there should be no more major work requiring track outages that would impact service, and the Main Line Grade Crossing Elimination Project can't quite be used as an excuse here, since there are still two trains operating west of Hicksville--where the work (and outages) are taking place...
LIRR ridership to/from Islanders games (all available)
| Date | Day of Week | vs. | Remarks | Pax Arriving | Pax Departing | Average Market Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
10/9/2015
|
Fr
|
CHI
|
OT
|
4,559
|
4,198
|
28%
|
10/12/2015
|
Mo
|
WPG
|
3,962
|
3,105
|
32%
| |
10/15/2015
|
Th
|
NSH
|
4,085
|
3,469
|
36%
| |
10/17/2015
|
Sa
|
SJS
|
3,791
|
3,946
|
33%
| |
10/29/2015
|
Th
|
CAR
|
OT
|
3,061
|
3,645
|
29%
|
11/3/2015
|
Tu
|
NJD
|
2xHome
|
2,127
|
3,471
|
23%
|
11/30/2015
|
Mo
|
COL
|
2,121
|
2,071
|
18%
| |
12/2/2015
|
We
|
NYR
|
2xHome SO
|
4,015
|
4,755
|
28%
|
12/27/2015
|
Su
|
TOR
|
5,198
|
4,840
|
32%
| |
1/14/2016
|
Th
|
NYR
|
2xHome
|
5,365
|
6,385
|
37%
|
1/17/2016
|
Su
|
VAN
|
SO
|
4,715
|
4,630
|
30%
|
4/2/2016
|
Sa
|
PIT
|
4,356
|
5,600
|
32%
| |
4/17/2016
|
Su
|
FLA
|
Post1 OT
|
6,119
|
7,056
|
42%
|
4/20/2016
|
We
|
FLA
|
Post1
|
6,026
|
6,445
|
39%
|
4/24/2016
|
Su
|
FLA
|
Post1 2OT
|
5,506
|
5,865
|
36%
|
5/3/2016
|
Tu
|
TBL
|
Post2 OT
|
4,048
|
5,724
|
31%
|
5/6/2016
|
Fr
|
TBL
|
Post2 OT
|
6,845
|
6,621
|
42%
|
10/16/2016
|
Su
|
ANA
|
OT
|
3,675
|
4,420
|
26%
|
10/18/2016
|
Tu
|
SJS
|
2,596
|
3,008
|
26%
| |
10/21/2016
|
Fr
|
ARI
|
4,050
|
4,786
|
34%
| |
10/23/2016
|
Su
|
MIN
|
2,499
|
2,530
|
22%
| |
11/18/2016
|
Fr
|
PIT
|
OT
|
2,589
|
2,919
|
21%
|
12/6/2016
|
Tu
|
NYR
|
2xHome
|
3,385
|
3,575
|
22%
|
12/15/2016
|
Th
|
CHI
|
2,025
|
2,530
|
18%
| |
12/18/2016
|
Su
|
OTT
|
2,990
|
3,185
|
24%
| |
12/23/2016
|
Fr
|
BUF
|
4,497
|
3,834
|
30%
| |
1/21/2017
|
Sa
|
LAK
|
5,830
|
5,590
|
38%
| |
1/22/2017
|
Su
|
PHI
|
OT
|
2,285
|
2,075
|
17%
|
2/16/2017
|
Th
|
NYR
|
2xHome
|
5,525
|
5,925
|
36%
|
3/25/2017
|
Sa
|
BOS
|
4,235
|
3,985
|
26%
| |
11/22/2017
|
We
|
PHI
|
OT
|
3,775
|
4,080
|
32%
|
12/16/2017
|
Sa
|
LAK
|
OT
|
3,670
|
4,090
|
30%
|
2/3/2018
|
Sa
|
CBJ
|
4,080
|
4,250
|
31%
| |
2015-2016
|
Season
|
n = 17
|
4,465
|
4,813
|
32%
| |
2016-2017
|
Season
|
n = 13
|
3,552
|
3,720
|
26%
|
