LIRR drops second ticket check on westbound trains

For decades the LIRR has checked tickets on most trains twice—once before Jamaica and once after Jamaica.  Even for a railroad in many ways suffocated by an archaic ticket collection system, this practice of checking tickets multiple times on the same train is pretty uncommon among the legacy commuter rail carriers across the country.  The LIRR has employed this practice over the years due to the large volume of passengers changing trains at Jamaica.  By checking all tickets both before and after Jamaica, train crews wouldn't have to keep track of who got off, who got on, and who needs to change trains.  And so passengers have been disturbed, woken up, or otherwise asked for their ticket a second time on most trains that stop at Jamaica.

But the LIRR is doing away with the second ticket check, on westbound trains.  Under a new policy—which I've noticed in place on trains over the last few weeks, have heard from conductors, and has been confirmed in recent MTA budget documents—the LIRR is no longer requiring train crews to perform a second ticket check after Jamaica on westbound trains.  This means that train crews will now normally punch your ticket through and not ask for it again after Jamaica.

A seatcheck punched for zone 3 (Photo: The LIRR Today)

The LIRR has included this as one of their operating efficiencies that each agency was challenged to come up with as part of last year's MTA operating budget.  The LIRR says that eliminating the second ticket check on westbound trains will allow them to position train crews more efficiently (meaning they don't need to swarm busier trains with collectors between Jamaica and the city terminals) improving fare collection rates elsewhere on the railroad.  LIRR estimates that this measure will save $1.1 million per year starting next year (page 25).

Under the new procedures:

• If a passenger is travelling through Jamaica (e.g. they present a ticket to Penn Station on a train to NY-Penn Station) then the conductor punches the 5, 6, and 7 blocks on one-way tickets (or the E, #, and W blocks on a ten-trip ticket) to fully cancel the ticket.  The conductor punches the top box in a seat check and puts that (along with one-way tickets) in the seat check clip.
• If a passenger needs to change at Jamaica (e.g. they present a ticket to Grand Central on a train to NY-Penn Station), then the conductor punches the 6 and 7 blocks on one-way ticket (or the E and # blocks on a ten-trip ticket) and returns the ticket to the rider.  The conductor then punches the zone 3 block on a seat check, rips off the top portion of the seat check (to signal it's a short/intermediate rider) and puts that in the seat check clip.
• If a passenger wishes to transfer at a station other than Jamaica (e.g. dropping back to a later train at Wantagh, Hicksville, Bayside, etc.) then the conductor punches the 7 block on one-way tickets (or the E block on a ten-trip ticket) and returns the ticket to the rider.  The conductor then punches the zone where the rider will transfer on a seat check, rips off the top portion of the seat check (to signal it's a short/intermediate rider) and puts the seat check in the clip.  On the next train, the conductor would punch the 6 block (and the 5 block if they are travelling through Jamaica) and repeat the process above.

After Jamaica, train crews are supposed to lift any seat checks punched to zone 1 (and not ask through riders for their ticket again) and ask any passengers without a seat check for a valid ticket (any seat checks punched for short/intermediate rides are supposed to be lifted before Jamaica).  As far as I can tell, there are no changes to how things work for mobile ticket users—if a conductor scans your ticket east of Jamaica it will still scan as valid on a different train west of Jamaica so long as it's within the activation period (but if you are travelling through, you won't have to show your ticket again, or worry about your battery dying enroute).

With this change, it's especially important to take note of where you are travelling and let the conductor know if you are looking to travel to a destination other than what's printed on your ticket before handing over your one-way or ten-trip ticket, that way they don't inadvertently punch your ticket through and leave you without a valid ticket for the rest of your trip.

The new policy also only applies on westbound trains.  Train crews are still supposed to do a second ticket check after Jamaica on eastbound trains, and should not be punching tickets through.  If the conductor punches all three blocks of your ticket before Jamaica, you should demand that they correct the error or issue you a replacement ticket before they walk away, even if you are staying onboard—that way you won't have an issue if you change cars, a different collector boards east of Jamaica, or there is a service disruption and you need to change trains.

Dropping the second ticket check is a good and long overdue move.  The policy never really made any sense—on most trains, there isn't a tremendous amount of turnover at Jamaica (even since the start of East Side Access service) that they can't keep track of who is staying on and who is transferring with seatchecks.  NJTransit seatchecks through Newark even though the turnover there is often more than what LIRR sees at Jamaica (a significant number of people ride NJT between NY-Penn Station and Newark or Newark-Broad Street since the fares are pretty low, and a substantial number of people board at Newark since they are connecting from PATH or work in the area).  The risk of losing fare revenue is pretty slim—someone would have to have a monthly, weekly, or mobile ticket to zone 1, not tell the conductor they will change trains, and then someone would have to board at Jamaica without a valid ticket and sit in the same seat where there was a zone 1 seat check left behind.

A partially punched ticket and seatcheck for zone 3
(Photo: The LIRR Today)

The new procedure also formalizes a practice that has been employed by the LIRR's lazier train crews for many years—and quite pervasively since the COIVD-19 pandemic.  Ever since ridership dropped off during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the wide majority of conductors do not make a serious attempt at checking tickets again after Jamaica (it got a little better right after East Side Access opened and a lot more people were transferring, but most have since slipped back into bad habits).  Instead, they would just breeze through their cars again (just in case anyone was watching) to pick up any canceled tickets left in the seat clips and to take the tickets of anyone who volunteers their ticket again.  I would estimate that conductors fail to check all tickets again a second time after Jamaia on 60%-80% of trains I've taken (and I have ten-trip tickets with multiple partially punched trips to show).  If you were a die-hard penny pincher, you could in theory buy a ticket for your next journey only as far as Jamaica (e.g. from Hicksville to Jamaica or NY-Penn Station to Jamaica) and then reuse your partially punched paper ticket again after Jamaica on your next trip as long as you were travelling in the same direction.

The new process may actually improve ticket collection a bit.  Under the old rules, the LIRR forbid train crews from seatchecking through Jamaica—therefore conductors would lift all of the seatchecks before Jamaica so they wouldn't get in trouble if someone was standing on the platform at Jamaica and saw a bunch of seat checks still up.  But this meant that conductors—who were still punching tickets through—now had no idea of whose ticket they took already and who boarded at Jamaica or elsewhere along the line, so most would just meander through the cars again after Jamaica missing most transfer passengers.

With the new procedures, LIRR's ticket collection practices are now pretty solid on westbound trains, but the railroad continues to have significant trouble getting train crews to do their jobs and check tickets on eastbound trains.  Collection of intermediate/intra-Island tickets on eastbound trains has been a problem on the LIRR for 20 years with most train crews not bothering to check tickets of these short riders.  And since more and more train crews have not been checking tickets a second time again after Jamaica on eastbound trains, train crews are often failing to check the tickets of people who board at Jamaica (or even Woodside/Forest Hills/Kew Gardens).  Most train crews (especially on PM Peak trains with light transfer traffic and evening trains) will make one pass through the train immediately after departing the city terminal, and then go back and hang out in the cab for the rest of the ride.  Maybe they will make a perfunctory pass again after Jamaica to pull up any canceled tickets left in the seat clips, but unless you volunteer your ticket conductors will usually not bother to ask you for it again after Jamaica.  When I board post-rush hour eastbound trains at Woodside, I can make it all the way to Ronkonkoma without getting my ticket checked more than half of the time.

LIRR train crews rarely use seat checks on eastbound trains—therefore after they have made their first pass after departing the city terminal, they have no way of knowing who has boarded at intermediate stops like Woodside, Forest Hills, or Kew Gardens.  And after their second check east of Jamaica (if they even do one) where they cancel and lift tickets, they don't know who has been riding since Jamaica and got their ticket taken, or who has boarded at an intermediate stop like Mineola, Hicksville, Rockville Centre, etc.  Therefore, unless you happen to board at the door where a conductor was physically standing or have some sort of glaring attribute (like you are among a group of kids or travelling with a bike), most conductors won't bother challenging you for a ticket.  The more ambitious conductors will amble through the cars mumbling "Mineola tickets? Mineola tickets?" to see if anyone volunteers a ticket; most others will just hang out in the cab.  It's rare to see a conductor gung-ho about his or her job and annoyingly keen on tracking down every intra-Island riders' ticket, but you see it now and then, maybe one out of every 50 trips.  LIRR's poor attempts at fare collection for intra-Island trips likely explains why 87% of intra-Island trips are taken using daily tickets—if the train crews fails to collect your one-way ticket, you can use it again the next time you ride, often times reusing the same ticket a dozen or more times on eastbound trains before it gets collected or expires.

It's good that the LIRR is normalizing some of its ticket collection practices on westbound trains—but the most effective and efficient manner of ticket collection would be to get rid of all systematic ticket checks and replace conductors with a proof of payment system, where riders activate their tickets using validators prior to boarding, and are subject to only random checks onboard trains.  This would significantly reduce operating costs, allowing the LIRR to run more service—especially during off-peak hours.

The MTA and LIRR try to characterize these phenomena as fare evasion (trying to brand people who reuse tickets because LIRR's train crews fail to do their jobs and collect tickets as "opportunistic fare evaders"), but it's an inevitable artifact of the archaic system of relying on conductors to manually check every ticket onboard trains—and especially so when those conductors are not held accountable to properly do their jobs and collect all tickets.  Using conductors to manually check all tickets is not only incredibly expensive, but most conductors are really bad at it...  LIRR's collection failure and incorrect fare collected rates are absurd, and well above and beyond what is seen on modern proof of payment systems elsewhere in the world.  Before the MTA stopped reporting this data in mid-2022, the LIRR would routinely have a fare collection failure rate between 5% and 9% (meaning an auditor observed a conductor in the car but they failed to collect tickets) and an incorrect fare collected rate ranging between 10% and 20% (meaning a conductor failed to collect the proper fare, e.g. accepted an expired ticket, did not charge a step-up or extension of ride fare, etc.):

In Denver, where a proof of payment system is used and commuter rail trains do not have conductors responsible for manually checking every fare, fare evasion rates average less than 0.2% on commuter rail and less than 2% on light rail (and RTD's light rail trains are true one-person train operations).

MTA and LIRR officials have tried to argue that human ticket collection is the fastest way to check tickets onboard trains—but the reality is that it's also the least accurate (and most expensive) way of checking tickets.  So long as the LIRR and Metro-North are uninterested in adopting best practices to reduce costs and improve service, there will continue to be ways for clever riders to skirt paying the full fare, and the MTA and the railroads are barking up the wrong tree.  As the saying goes, when you point a finger at someone, there are three more pointing back at you.