Two major service disruptions on the day of the Belmont Stakes in the following two years caused a great number of controllable delays and impacts to service (in 2017, a track foreperson was struck and killed by a train on the tracks near Queens Village, and, in 2018, a signal failure near Queens Village—right next to Belmont Park—caused substantial delays to service).
This year there were no major issues, infrastructure failures, or other incidents. There were some delays, as there usually are (particularly trains leaving Belmont Park later than scheduled after the event), but those, too, were not as bad as what we have seen in some prior years.
The MTA reports a total of 27,109 passengers took the LIRR to and from Belmont Park last Saturday, which is a little over 13,000 riders each way, or roughly 675 passengers per train (for an average load factor of 64%, which means plenty of open seats). That represents a market share of about 24% of the overall paid crowd of 56,217 attendees.
Ridership and the railroad's market share has not quite lived up to the record crowds seen during the 2014 contest. That year, the railroad carried 65,820 passengers to see California Chrome's missed Triple Crown attempt (and that would have been higher had everything gone to plan...many passengers resorted to walking to other stations or seeking alternative transportation due to the railroad's meltdown), amounting to a 32% market share of the record-breaking crowd. In subsequent years, the railroad has carried a declining share of traffic, both during years with and without a triple crown contests. This year, the railroad carried nearly 40,000 fewer passengers than they did during 2014, and about 7,500 fewer passengers than 2016 (which was also a non-Triple Crown year).
The LIRR's market share during 2018 (when Justify won the Triple Crown) and this year were both about 24%—markedly less than what was seen in prior years:
 |
| Note: only overall daily totals were available for 2018 and 2019 (gray bars show half of the total eastbound and westbound). The MTA declined to respond to a request for 2017 ridership data. |
There were very few complaints riders about crowding conditions or delays on the trains to/from Belmont Park itself... What did draw a number of complaints this year, as it does every year, was the LIRR's silly practice of not honoring monthly and weekly commutation tickets on trains to Belmont Park (making riders who already paid for commutation tickets fork over another $13 to get to Belmont Park).
@LIRR why did I have to pay an additional $16 to go to Belmont this weekend? I have a zone 1-10 monthly and Belmont is zone 3? I was told “we don’t take monthlies here” I pay $405 a month.... Does anyone else think that is a bit ridiculous?!— Christina Marie (@o_DOYLE_ruless_) June 9, 2019
While this practice may have been defensible in 2009 or 2010 during the MTA's budget crisis, when the railroad temporarily cut Belmont Park service altogether (except for the Belmont Stakes day itself and the day prior), and immediately following the restoration when NYRA would subsidize operations, there is no reason this practice should continue. Today, roughly 60% of monthly ticket holders are paying more than $300 per month—they should not be expected to fork over even more money to travel to a station within the zones they already paid for. As another jab to loyal monthly ticket holders, the railroad also canceled its Summer Saturdays program this past weekend (which allows monthly ticket holders to use their passes systemwide for no additional charge, and bring up to 4 additional riders for $1 each)...while it would have been ok to not accept the $1 companion fares to/from Belmont Park itself, there was no reason to suspend it everywhere else on the system, encouraging more people to drive on a day when there are already enough traffic headaches.
The LIRR loses major points for adversely impacting Hempstead Branch service, by reducing service on the entire branch from hourly to bi-hourly in the afternoon, and bypassing Hollis and Queens Village stations all day (adding up to 1 hour, 40 minutes to travel times). The railroad's outright reduction in service was very lazy service planning, and resulted in service gaps that exceeded the maximum vehicle headway required for several stations on this branch under the railroad’s Title VI service standards. The railroad also did not make any attempt to mitigate the service reductions at all, for example, by adjusting departure times so trains can single track and keep hourly service, or even taking the very simple step of having Huntington trains stop at Hollis, Queens Village, and Floral Park to maintain frequency at those stations. The Belmont Stakes is not the only thing that happens on this weekend, and blindly slashing service to make it more convenient for the railroad to run trains for special event riders needlessly impacts the surrounding communities who could have benefited from the increased activity (or used the railroad to avoid the substantial traffic jams that often accompany the Belmont Stakes).
@LIRR are you kidding?! If anything service on the Hempstead branch should be INCREASED during that time so people can come to Floral Park, enjoy our stores our restaurants and our bars ... take a cab or an Uber to the track and spend time and $$ in town! Typical idiocy #dumb https://t.co/hAY5zjzSVO— David J. Fernandez (@FPFD480) June 6, 2019
While it was good to see the improved performance this year, the unnecessary adverse impacts to passengers on other parts of the system earns the railroad a failing grade overall. Providing enough capacity to accommodate expected crowds at special events is important, but the railroad must put more effort into maintaining service for its regular passengers. After all, the LIRR's mission is to serve all of Long Island, not just the little parts with golf tournaments or horse races that day.
