Combo Ticket sales

As New Yorkers travel over the river and through the woods on one of the busiest travel days of the year, the MTA's $12 billion East Side Access project makes regional connections between the LIRR and Metro-North at NY-Grand Central fairly easy.  The MTA introduced the "Combo Ticket" in 2023 for riders making these sorts of cross-railroad journeys, but ticket sales data shows that not many riders have been availing of the Combo Ticket.

On paper, the new link seems like it should be quite synergistic.  Long Island's social and economic connections to the Bronx and the Hudson Valley are fairly close, and there are three bridges conveying cars back and forth, filled bumper-to-bumper most hours of the day.  Before East Side Access, getting between Long Island and the Hudson Valley using mass transit was a chore, requiring one to either walk between NY-Penn Station and NY-Grand Central or take the Subway. 

But despite the new connection allowing riders to go between the railroads in the same building and a first-of-its-kind ticket allowing travel across the two railroads, there has not been a flood of riders purchasing them.  In a little less than two years from the opening of East Side Access through the end of 2024, the MTA sold 224,238 total Combo Tickets across both railroads.  While uptake was slow initially, Combo Ticket sales leveled off in the summer 2024.  The best month last year for Combo Ticket sales was October, where the two railroads together sold 15,479.  But most months, the LIRR and Metro-North barely broke 14,000 tickets per month together.

Combo Tickets are priced at the one-way off-peak fare for the railroad who is selling it, plus a flat $8 surcharge that allows travel to any destination on the other railroad (for Metro-North, this includes the Hudson, Harlem, and New Haven Lines only, but not the West of Hudson or other CTrail lines).  It is valid for a one-way trip on the day of sale only (and expires at 4:00am the next morning).

LIRR generally sells about 25% more Combo Tickets than Metro-North, meaning more people are starting their trips on Long Island and heading northward than the other way around.  When you look at the station-by-station breakdown below, it's not hard to see what is driving that.

Combo Ticket sales have likely been as week as they are because they are quite expensive.  Despite the LIRR and Metro-North using the same ticket stock and the same ticketing systems (both for paper tickets and mobile ticketing), the MTA is not selling point-to-point tickets across the two railroads that could be priced according to the actual distance traveled.  For example, you cannot buy a ticket from White Plains to Woodmere...instead, Combo Tickets are sold only to NY-Grand Central, and then there is a flat $8 surcharge that is good to any destination on the other railroad.  That means you can use the Combo Ticket to travel to Woodmere...or Woodside...or Westhampton.  Because of the very wide variety of possible trips, the MTA attempted to shoot for someplace in the middle.  But they overshot.

While there is a risk people use these tickets for very long joy rides out to the East End or to the upper ends of Dutchess County, Census data shows that the wide majority of cross-CBD trips are only going a short distance on the other side (for example, from Long Island to the Bronx, or the Hudson Valley to Queens, or even shorter from Queens to the Bronx).

Of all of the commuters between LIRR territory (Queens, Nassau, Suffolk counties) and Metro-North territory (Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, Fairfield, New Haven counties) that would benefit from East Side Access and the Combo Ticket, more than 70% of those trips begin or end in New York City.  There are only about 80,000 supercommuters between Long Island and the Hudson Valley/CT.

Because the wide majority of cross-railroad trips begin or end in New York City, the flat $8 surcharge means that the Combo Tickets wind up being more expensive than buying two one-way tickets, since if you are travelling to/from a New York City station, you can buy a one-way CityTicket for $5 or $7, which is less than the $8 Combo Ticket surcharge.  For example, if you are travelling from White Plains to Jamaica, it is cheaper to buy a regular one-way Metro-North ticket from White Plains to NY-Grand Central, then a LIRR CityTicket from NY-Grand Central to Jamaica ($9.75 + $5.00 = $14.75) is cheaper than buying a Combo Ticket ($17.75).

Because of how complicated the MTA's fare structures are on LIRR and Metro-North (and the fact that the railroads don't even have the same rules...for example, Metro-North charges fares on outbound AM reverse-peak trains while LIRR does not), the number of different fare combinations is incredibly confusing, and probably a big barrier that is stifling how many people are actually travelling across the two railroads.

When you look at who is actually purchasing Combo Tickets (since all Combo Tickets are sold to/from NY-Penn Station, we can only see the origin station on the railroad the rider is purchasing the ticket from, not the final destination on the other railroad), there are generally two patterns:

1. people purchasing tickets to/from Jamaica for travel to/from JFK Airport, likely being bamboozled into paying more with a Combo Ticket than they would if they bought a $5/$7 CityTicket for LIRR, then a one-way Metro-North ticket
2. much longer trips from the extremities of the LIRR and Metro-North system, where the difference between peak and off-peak fares waters down the penalty of the flat $8 surcharge...these origins tend to be big college towns, so the primary users are likely college students travelling back home

The table below shows the number of one-way tickets sold from that station through the end of 2024:

Station   Name	Tickets		Station Name	Tickets
Jamaica	25,083		New Haven	7,456
Ronkonkoma	6,647		White Plains	7,119
Hicksville	5,184		Poughkeepsie	6,583
Stony Brook	4,276		Fordham	5,650
Forest Hills	4,004		Stamford	4,438
Mineola	3,675		Yankees-E 153rd St	4,405
Woodside	2,898		Beacon	4,334
Huntington Station	2,835		New Rochelle	3,953
Babylon	2,339		Bridgeport	3,341
Kew Gardens	2,250		Tarrytown	3,010
Valley Stream	2,167		Yonkers	2,579
Deer Park	2,020		Ardsley-on-Hudson	1,550
Rockville Centre	1,986		Woodlawn	1,451
Long Beach	1,921		Fairfield	1,420
Farmingdale	1,883		Croton-Harmon	1,302
Lynbrook	1,800		West Haven	1,262
Hempstead	1,660		South Norwalk	1,260
Freeport	1,590		Mount Vernon East	1,254
Baldwin	1,484		Ossining	1,219
Queens Village	1,322		Peekskill	1,190
Flushing-Main Street	1,312		Bronxville	1,072
Merrick	1,288		Brewster	1,057
Great Neck	1,273		Fairfield-Black Rock	1,034
Rosedale	1,216		Fleetwood	995
Port Washington	1,206		Scarsdale	984
Mets-Willets Point	1,180		Pelham	971
Laurelton	1,149		Tremont	964
Elmont-UBS Arena	1,119		Pleasantville	940
Locust Manor	1,103		Greenwich	913
New Hyde Park	1,100		Rye	911
Manhasset	1,062		Southeast	887
Floral Park	1,050		Mamaroneck	875
Westbury	1,026		North White Plains	852
Massapequa	1,025		Westport	823
Wyandanch	1,005		Botanical Garden	769
Far Rockaway	1,004		New Hamburg	746
Syosset	1,001		Port Chester	736
Bayside	997		Cold Spring	716
GC-Nassau Boulevard	965		Mount Vernon West	707
Bellmore	951		Larchmont	701
Wantagh	896		Williams Bridge	648
Bethpage	863		Dobbs Ferry	645
Lindenhurst	814		Katonah	642
Massapequa Park	757		Milford	632
St. Albans	745		Riverdale	617
Brentwood	729		Marble Hill	610
Hollis	706		Harrison	593
East New York	672		Spuyten Duyvil	588
Bay Shore	656		Darien	583
Seaford	648		Stratford	563
Amityville	627		Waterbury	560
Central Islip	600		Melrose	552
Cold Spring Harbor	584		Garrison	550
Brklyn-Atlantic Term	581		Mount Kisco	542
Flushing-Auburndale	580		Tuckahoe	533
Port Jefferson Station	565		Crestwood	523
Flushing-Broadway	538		Irvington	518
Copiague	522		Hastings-on-Hudson	493
GC-Merillon Avenue	506		Hawthorne	482
East Hampton	505		Golden's Bridge	444
Flushing-Murray Hill	471		Hartsdale	443
Little Neck	448		Chappaqua	441
Oceanside	409		Wassaic	402
Carle Place	404		Wakefield	341
GC-Central Station	369		Greystone	338
Stewart Manor	352		Croton Falls	295
Sayville	343		Ludlow	272
Bellerose	340		Danbury	269
Patchogue	339		Noroton Heights	269
Montauk	331		Bedford Hills	248
Kings Park	325		Morris Heights	244
Southampton	323		Cortlandt	219
Island Park	322		Cos Cob	218
Northport	319		Old Greenwich	205
Hewlett	298		New Canaan	203
Nostrand Avenue	297		Glenwood	198
Bridgehampton	285		East Norwalk	185
Lawrence	254		Valhalla	163
E Rockaway-Ocean Av	251		Purdy's	155
Cedarhurst	247		Bethel	138
Mastic-Shirley	237		Derby-Shelton	131
Douglaston	228		Dover Plains	131
Woodmere	208		Riverside	127
Lakeview	185		Scarborough	121
West Hempstead	183		Harlem Valley-Wingdale	111
Gibson	182		Springdale	109
GC-Country Life Press	178		New Haven-State Street	96
Locust Valley	171		Philipse Manor	92
Inwood	167		Pawling	87
Amagansett	164		Rowayton	87
Islip	161		Green's Farms	80
Westwood	157		University Heights	73
Westhampton	153		Norwalk-Merritt 7	62
Smithtown	148		Naugatuck	56
Speonk	143		Glenbrook	47
Plandome	139		Branchville	44
Hampton Bays	139		Tenmile River	44
Glen Cove	138		Southport	41
Greenvale	135		Ansonia	30
Hempstead Gardens	128		Patterson	23
Malverne	124		Wilton	22
Sea Cliff	123		Seymour	21
St. James	108		Cannondale	20
E Rockaway-Centre Av	105		Manitou	16
Bellport	99		Talmadge Hill	12
Glen Head	97		Breakneck Ridge	11
Riverhead	88		Redding	9
East Williston	80		Beacon Falls	5
Greenlawn	76		Appalachian Trail	2
Oyster Bay	72		Mount Pleasant	0
Glen Street	69		Highbridge Facility	0
Great River	69		Stamford Yard	0
Roslyn Heights	66		Bridgeport East Yard	0
Oakdale	64		Reeve's Crossing	0
Greenport	57		NY-Grand Central	0
Southold	38		Harlem-125th Street	0
Belmont Park	24		Pearl River	0
Albertson	22		Nanuet	0
Mattituck	14		Spring Valley	0
Pinelawn	12		Sloatsburg	0
Medford	6		Tuxedo	0
Yaphank	6		Harriman	0
NY-Penn Station	4		Salisbury Mills-Cornwall	0
Rail Hudson Valley	1		Campbell Hall	0
Long Island City	0		Middletown-T of Walkill	0
Hunterspoint Avenue	0		Otisville	0
NY-Grand Central	0		Port Jervis	0
Shinnecock Hills	0		Rail Long Island	0
Hillside Facility	0
Boland's Landing	0
Meadowlands	0
Yankee Stadium	0

On the LIRR side, Combo Ticket sales are driven heavily by Jamaica.  Again, this is presumably JFK Airport passengers being tricked into thinking this is a better deal than buying two one-way tickets (theory #1).  After that, the list generally follows the list of LIRR's busiest stations, interspersed with the local Main Line stations in Queens (which have a fair number of people commuting up to the Hudson Valley) and Stony Brook (which has a lot of college students, theory #2).  What is not high up on the list are Mets-Willets Point and Elmont-UBS Arena, suggesting that not many Hudson Valley sports fans are using Combo Tickets to take the train to the game.

On the Metro-North side, I was frankly surprised to see the top Combo Ticket trip generators were so far on the outer extents of the Metro-North system (New Haven, Poughkeepsie, Beacon).  All three of these stations are also big hubs for people driving from even further away in Upstate New York or northern or eastern Connecticut, suggesting that maybe these are even longer trips from places like Ulster County, the Capitol District, Hartford, etc.  White Plains and Stamford are major job centers, so it's not surprising to see them on the list (I would wager that White Plains and Stamford are the top destinations for LIers using Combo Tickets). Many of the other top origins are college towns: New Haven, Poughkeepsie, Fordham, New Rochelle, Bridgeport, Fairfield. 

My big takeaway from the numbers is that Combo Tickets aren't being used by people making trips on a regular basis, and certainly not cross-CBD commuters.  The Combo Ticket only proves to be worthwhile for more longer-haul trips, like going to or from college on the opposite side of the region, that people aren't doing on a regular basis.

If you wave off the weak Combo Ticket sales as a consequence of MTA's sloppy job pricing the tickets, are there other indicators that show this new, incredibly expensive connection between LIRR and Metro-North is being well used?  Not really...  As part of MTA's Customers Count survey, the MTA collects origin and destination information, including how riders get to their origin station.

Weighting by trip frequency, less than 0.2% of LIRR riders say they connect from Metro-North, a very small figure.  More riders say they connect to LIRR from non-MTA rail services like NJTransit or PATH than connect from Metro-North.

LIRR7: How do you usually travel from home to the LIRR station?	Percent
Walk only	39.2%
Personal vehicle you drove yourself (car, truck, van, or motorcycle)	26.8%
MTA Subway (including SIR)	13.4%
Dropped off by a friend / family member	5.6%
Other (specify)	4.5%
For hire vehicle (taxi, car service, dollar van, Uber, etc.)	3.0%
Picked up by a friend / family member	1.7%
Bicycle / Bicycle sharing, scooter	1.6%
MTA Local, Limited, or Select bus (Bx, B, M, Q, S and SBS routes)	1.5%
Non-MTA bus or jitney	1.2%
Non-MTA rail (NJ Transit, PATH, Amtrak, Hartford Line, Shore Line East)	1.0%
MTA Metro-North Railroad	0.2%
MTA Express bus (BxM, BM, QM, SIM and X routes)	0.1%
MTA Access-A-Ride	0.0%

Is this likely to grow over time?  With the MTA's current level of effort, probably not.

At present, fares for these cross-CBD trips are just way too expensive.  The Combo Ticket is expensive on its own, and often not cheaper than buying two individual tickets (which are priced at the first and second most expensive rail fares in the western hemisphere). The MTA, outrageously, does not allow LIRR monthly tickets to be used for an equivalent distance on Metro-North and vice-versa.  So if you want to commute from Mineola to White Plains, you have to buy two Combo Tickets per day ($35.50 per day, $745.50 total for a month) or buy two monthly tickets ($513.00 total).  That's incredibly expensive and it is certainly cheaper to drive.

Maybe more people would take the two railroads for these trips if it was faster than driving.  But even with rush hour traffic and the bridges, the 2+ trains are rarely faster.  This is made worse, of course, by digging the LIRR terminal deep in a cavern below Grand Central.  It can take over 6 minutes to walk from the LIRR tracks to the Metro-North tracks at NY-Grand Central.  And with Grand Central North now closed on weeknights and all weekend, it can take over 10 minutes to walk between the two railroads.  That's not much faster than just walking or taking the Subway from NY-Penn Station!  Couple that with the pared down off-peak service to GCT (which means long connections at GCT and even longer connections at Jamaica if you're going to a busier branch), the MTA is just not really trying to be competitive on travel times.

There is not much the MTA can do at this point to solve the travel time issue, but they can make cross-CBD travel much more competitive on price by overhauling and improving the Combo Ticket.  There are a few things that need to happen:

• MTA should sell point-to-point Combo Tickets, pricing for the total distance of the journey (with a steep discount).  The MTA's new rail ticket vending machines can sell tickets for both railroads (meaning you can buy a Metro-North ticket from a LIRR machine and vice-versa).  But they are still not selling tickets across the two railroads.
• If MTA is going to keep the flat Combo Ticket pricing, then the $8 surcharge should be reduced considerably, probably to $5.  If a few small handful of people take advantage of that to take long joy rides out to Montauk or Wassaic, then so be it.  Most of the unserved demand is clearly for shorter-haul trips.
• LIRR and Metro-North should reciprocally accept each other's monthly tickets to travel an equivalent distance on the other railroad, that way taking the train actually becomes a feasible option for daily commuters (and it would make it much easier for sports fans to use the connection, since a regular commuter on one railroad could use their monthly for an occasional trip on the other railroad to Yankee Stadium, Willets Point, UBS Arena, etc. instead of having to buy a full-priced, separate ticket).  All other cities that use zone systems allow riders to use their passes for an equal number of zones on the other side of the CBD.

Again, we see how fare pricing has the opportunity to fuel or suffocate ridership growth, especially for these new types of markets and connections that have been made possible thanks to the tremendous investment of public money in projects like East Side Access.  But again the MTA is not really putting in enough thought to leverage these investments as much as possible.

The MTA did not respond to questions about whether they have plans to improve the Combo Ticket, or use the new ticket machines to sell point-to-point tickets.  The Combo Ticket did not get even a mention in the latest round of MTA's very aggressive fare policy changes, so likely it will remain the status quo for at least a while longer.