Friday travel still much lighter on LIRR

As we have gone through many phases of return to office, one trend that has stuck around is fewer people commuting into work on Fridays.  While the busiest days of the week for LIRR ridership tend to be Wednesdays and Tuesdays, ridership on Fridays remains much quieter, especially at the peak of the peak during the morning and evening rush hours.

LIRR stations and trains tend to be quieter on Fridays
(Photo: The LIRR Today)

The figures below are derived from the LIRR's live passenger loading data, which estimate the number of passengers in each car or on each train based on load weigh data, automated passenger counters, or screenshots from the CCTV system.  These live loading conditions are displayed on TrainTime and on AVPS displays.  The results are modestly more representative of day-to-day conditions than the daily and monthly ridership figures that the MTA publishes (which are based on ticket sales and outdated assumptions, and indicate when people are purchasing their tickets, not necessarily riding trains).  Though the live loading data has other drawbacks—it is not that precise, quantifiable numbers are only available for electric MU trains, and some trains do not report ridership figures if the train number is entered wrong, the data isn't communicating, or there is some other issue. 

The figure below shows the average total passengers on LIRR electric trains by the day of the week through the first three quarters of this year.  Because of some of the shortcomings I mentioned above, especially that it only considers electric trains and ridership at the peak load point (which could be east or west of Jamaica, resulting in passengers being double counted), I wouldn't read too much into the numbers you see on the charts—but rather the relative difference between the different days of the week.

Overall, the busiest day of the week for LIRR travel is on Wednesdays, followed closely by Tuesdays (when ridership is about 1% lighter), then Thursdays (about 4% lighter than Wednesdays), and Mondays (about 12% lighter than Wednesdays).  Ridership on Fridays is considerably lower, about 19% fewer total passengers than Wednesdays.

But what is really interesting is how much lighter traffic is during the peak hours on Fridays.  When you look at the average total passengers based on the hour the train arrives or departs its western terminal, the data shows ridership patterns on Fridays are quite different from the other days of the week.  While there is still a pronounced peak going westbound in the morning peak and eastbound in the evening peak, those peaks are considerably less extreme than the other days of the week:

While overall ridership on Fridays is only about 19% lower than Wednesdays, ridership on Fridays during the peak of the morning peak (arriving city terminals between 8:00a and 9:00a) is just about half of what it is on Wednesdays.  In the evening, the trend is similar: between 5:00p and 6:00p ridership on Fridays is also about half of what it is on Wednesdays.

Earlier in the peak periods, when you tend to see more tradespeople or shift workers riding, there not much difference in ridership depending on the day of the week.  But at the times when the most 9-to-5 office workers are travelling, the difference is much starker.  Similarly, ridership during the morning reverse-peak period also shows little variation depending on the day of the week.

And on Fridays, LIRR makes up with ridership at other times of the day.  Going westbound, ridership in the evening reverse-peak heading into the city tends to be noticeably higher on Fridays.  Friday ridership heading into the city between 6:00p and 7:00p is 36% higher than it is on Wednesdays.  Going eastbound, ridership tends to be slightly higher in the mid-afternoon, between 1:00p and 4:00p, suggesting people are heading out of the office or starting their weekend journeys earlier.  Similarly, there is another spike later in the evening, like between 10:00p and 11:00p, when events let out and people want to head back home.

But the key difference is the steep difference in ridership at the peak-of-the-peak on Fridays.  Considering peak service is the most expensive to provide, this could offer an opportunity to redistribute some service to other parts of the day, or the weekend.  In October 2023, the Connecticut DOT implemented service reductions on the New Haven Line, and cut an additional 7 trains on Fridays.  In most cases, two express trains were combined into one that made more stops.  Metro-North also expanded this to a similar degree cutting some and shifting other Friday trains on the Hudson and Harlem Lines.  Taking an approach similar to this—moderately trimming back peak direction service on Fridays—and reallocating some of those trains to bolster service on Friday evenings or parts of the weekend when more discretionary riders are travelling.

On Fridays, AM Peak trains are considerably less crowded almost universally across the board.  There are only 6 trains that top 50% full, and three of those run before 6:30a.

Looking at ridership by branch, the difference between mid-week and Friday ridership is the most stark on the West of Babylon, Far Rockaway, Hempstead, West of Huntington, Branch (Friday ridership is 21% less than Wednesdays), 

The MTA and LIRR should look for new, creative ways to encourage more ridership growth on Fridays.  Redistributing some trains to provide better reverse-peak and evening service could result in faster and more convenient trips, and less crowding after special events.  Last year, Transport for London did a pilot program offering off-peak fares all day on Fridays.  While the pilot program did not demonstrate lower fares on Fridays spurring more ridership, the three-month pilot program was relatively short, and considering the difference between LIRR's peak and off-peak fares are quite a bit steeper, and this could be an interesting idea to fill trains more on Fridays.

IRS increases pre-tax limits for transit and parking for 2026

The IRS is increasing the monthly pre-tax deduction limits for transit and commuter parking to $340 per month for 2026 (this is an increase of $15 over 2025 to account for inflation).  Note that these limits are separate (in other words, you can elect both $340 for transit and $340 for commuter parking).  As LIRR fares will be going up on January 4, including a bunch of changes that will make travel more expensive, be sure to check your enrollment to make sure you are taking advantage of one of the best ways to save while riding mass transit.

Commuter benefit plans allow people who ride mass transit or park at a transit station or near their work to use pre-tax dollars to cover some or all of their commuter costs.  Commuter benefit plans can offer some major tax savings for riding transit, allowing you to save on Federal, state, and local taxes (as well as Social Security and Medicare taxes).  Paying for your commute with pre-tax dollars can save someone who is in the 24% Federal tax bracket (earning between $89,076 and $170,050) as much as $1,367 per year, or $1,506 if you live in New York City.

If your commuting expenses top $340 per month, double check your elections to make sure you are able to take full advantage of these pre-tax benefits.  If you have both pre-tax and post-tax funds deducted from your paycheck, most benefits providers will automatically adjust the pre-tax amount.

A couple of reminders to maximize your potential savings using pre-tax plans, if you haven't used these programs in the past or aren't fully up to speed on the procedures...  Even if you only take the train occasionally, you can still save money by allocating a small amount each month.  Since policies and procedures vary slightly depending on the company administering your pre-tax plan, be sure to double check with them, but generally these same ground rules apply:

• If you have your election loaded onto a pre-tax credit/debit card, you can usually roll over unused funds from month to month with no expiration (as long as you don't leave your employer, then all unused funds are forfeited back to your employer, usually after 90 days).  So if you are currently commuting less than daily and your commuting costs vary from month to month, you can elect for slightly more than you think you'll use and rollover the extra to the next month.
• Unlike pre-tax parking funds (which are restricted for parking near work or parking at a transit station enroute to work), you can use pre-tax transit funds for any qualified mass transit provider, even if you aren't travelling to and from work.  This includes:
• Riding rail, subway, or bus trips outside of your normal commute
• Riding ferries (including the small island ferries like the Fire Island Ferries and the North Ferry to Shelter Island, as long as they accept credit card payments)
• Riding inter-city ground transportation, including Amtrak, Greyhound, Megabus, Trailways, etc. (but not air travel)
• Riding mass transit in other cities (e.g. taking CTA in Chicago, BART in San Francisco, etc.)
• Riding in vanpools (vehicles with at least 6 or more seats for passengers)
• There is no express limitation on using pre-tax transit funds to pay for transit expenses for your spouse, dependents, or even other people.  So if you have a spouse, child, parent, etc. that doesn't work or isn't eligible for transit benefits, you can pay for their mass transit tickets with your pre-tax funds.
• Unlike pre-tax parking funds (which are limited to $340 in total per month), there is no monthly spending limit for pre-tax transit funds.  So if you're commute costs typically exceed $340, you can start your elections a few months ahead of time and accumulate money on your card, then spend that down over time (and cover the whole cost of a more expensive monthly with pre-tax dollars, even if it exceeds $340).
• The LIRR and Metro-North have eliminated paper tickets for Mail & Ride (now only available on eTix).  If you previously had your pre-tax benefits transmitted directly to Mail & Ride via wire transfer, be sure to switch your election to be loaded onto a credit/debit card, because once it's sent to Mail & Ride, there are a lot of hoops to jump through to get that back.
• If you have had your transit benefits "suspended" during the pandemic, double check your card's expiration date—chances are they didn't automatically mail you a new one if your elections were suspended.
• Many transit benefits providers are finally starting to issue cards with contactless chips that can be used with OMNY readers on NYC Subways and Buses.  If your card doesn't have a chip, call your benefits provider and see if they'll send you a new one (you may have to say you lost your old card).
• The $340 limits are separate for transit and parking—so even if you elect the full $340 for transit, you can elect an additional $340 a month for parking to defray costs for parking meters or permits, either at your usual train station or near your workplace.  Some benefits providers allow you to "flex" your funds after they have been unused for one month.  So you may be able to use leftover parking funds to pay for transit, and vice-versa.
• For parking only, double check what forms of payment your municipality or parking operator accept for permits/meter fees (several don't take credit cards, and even if they do, town and village clerks' offices usually don't have the right merchant code to accept the prepaid debit cards).  Most transit benefits providers will reimburse you for out-of-pocket parking costs paid by cash or check, but you usually have to set that up upfront as part of your monthly election.
• Leaving your employer and still have funds leftover?  Most benefits providers will cut you a check for remaining post-tax funds on your card.  If you still have pre-tax funds, you can purchase a physical OMNY card and load up to $300 worth of stored value onto your card.  This money will stay on your card and remain with you even after your transit benefit card is deactivated, and you can spend it down over the life of the card (which is good for many years).  Note that the MTA restricts the amount you can load on the card, to about $136 per 72-hour period.  So you may need to buy multiple cards, or visit a OMNY vending machine.

If you work in New York City and you work for a for-profit or non-profit organization that employs 20 or more people, your employer must provide you with commuter benefits under a law that entered into force in 2016.  If you haven't signed up for it before, check with your employer for more details.

NICE Bus confirms OMNY will be available by January 4

NICE Bus has confirmed that OMNY will be coming to Nassau County's buses by January 4, which coincides with the recently approved increase in the base fare from $2.90 to $3.00 (Nassau County has also approved a similar fare increase to $3.00) and the MTA's plan to end MetroCard sales by December 31, 2025.

NICE Bus has joined as an OMNY affiliate, similar to the Roosevelt Island Tram, which means that riders will be able to pay with contactless credit/debit cards in addition to physical OMNY cards.  Riders will also be able to benefit from the same free transfer rules as exist today with MetroCard.  Fares paid on NICE buses will count towards the $35 7-day fare cap (the MTA's elimination of the 30-day unlimited pass will also affect NICE riders)

OMNY readers have started appearing on NICE buses, though they are not active yet:

I saw a NICE bus with an Omny reader at 168th Street terminal
byu/Downtown-Inflation13 innycbus

In the meantime, riders will be left in a bit of limbo during this transition phase.  The two MetroCard Vending Machines at the Hempstead Transit Center will be removed on December 17, meaning riders will not have a way to refill their MetroCards on Long Island for the last few weeks of the year (and MetroCard Vending Machines are becoming fewer and further between at NYC Subway stations).

Once NICE transitions to OMNY, restrictions will be roughly the same as they are now with MetroCard (for example, the OMNY cards issued by the NYC Department of Education to students that allow for four free Subway/Bus rides per day will not work on NICE, nor Fair Fares NYC).

NICE says that they will continue to accept coins on buses (which is different form the MTA, which is ending the acceptance of coins on their buses), which will create an interesting gray area.  At least until NICE replaces their MetroCard fareboxes with new fareboxes, NICE will probably continue to issue MetroCard bus transfers.  Whether they will be accepted on NYCT or MTA Buses will have to be seen.  NICE will also continue to offer mobile ticketing through Masabi's JustRide platform.  Mobile tickets can only be used on NICE buses, and are not valid for transfers to NYCT, Suffolk Transit, Long Beach Bus, etc.

OMNY readers have also been spotted on Westchester's Bee-Line buses as of last month, though they have not confirmed an exact date when they will be turned on.

NICE and Bee-Line are the final operators expected to join as OMNY affiliates, along with Roosevelt Island Tram and AirTrain JFK which already accept OMNY.  This is a disappointingly short list, as the MTA failed miserably at making OMNY the One fare payment system for all of Metro New York. 

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:

Elimination of 30-day Unlimited MetroCard would make frequent Subway travel among most expensive in the world

The series of fare and toll changes approved by the MTA Board this past September includes a number of fare policy changes that will drive up the out-of-pocket costs for riders far more than the stated 4% increase in the base fares.  The MTA's elimination of the 30-day Unlimited MetroCard—with no replacement or corresponding product being made available through OMNY—will significantly increase the out-of-pocket travel costs for the most frequent Subway and bus riders.

Riders queue at a diminishing number of MetroCard
Vending Machines across the system (Photo: The LIRR Today)

The 30-day unlimited MetroCard, which has been available since the early days of MetroCard, offers unlimited Subway and bus rides across New York City, Nassau, and Westchester Counties for $132.  There are similar versions that offer 7-day unlimited passes for the Subways and buses for $34, and for express bus riders priced at $64.  While the MTA currently offers a 7-day fare cap for riders paying with OMNY or contactless (and plans to make that permanent and introduce a 7-day fare cap for express buses, similar the 7-day Unlimited Express Bus Plus MetroCard), it will not be bringing the 30-day unlimited option to OMNY or contactless.

7-day and weekly passes have traditionally been priced higher to encourage riders to buy up for the more expensive 30-day or monthly passes, which provide better value.  Therefore, buying four separate 7-day or weekly passes usually works out to be more expensive than buying a 30-day or monthly pass (and also usually leaves you a few days short each month).

For NYCT's case, the elimination of the 30-day unlimited option will stiff its most frequent riders with a whopping 14% increase in their out-of-pocket commuting costs over the course of a year.

	Current 30-day unlimited	Current 7-day unlimited	Proposed 30-day fare cap	Proposed 7-day fare cap	Change
Days in year	365.25	365.25		365.25
Days per period	30	7		7
Periods per pear	12.18	52.18		52.18
Cost per period	$132.00	$34.00	none	$35.00
Total cost per year	$1,607.10	$1,774.07	none	$1,826.25	+14%

Fare capping vs. prepaid unlimited passes

The MTA says that doing away with the practice of having riders prepurchase unlimited passes in favor of fare capping provides riders with better value, allowing riders to keep money in their pockets for longer and makes fares more flexible.

In a statement, MTA spokesperson David Steckel said “85% of riders already use tap-and-ride because they know fare capping eliminates upfront costs and guesswork about which type of MetroCard to buy, makes unlimited rides available automatically, and ensures that they never leave money behind.”

It is definitely true that fare capping takes away the upfront guesswork and provides better flexibility in the event that travel plans change partway through a week or a month.  But that flexibility coming at the price of higher total out-of-pocket costs is choice that the MTA is making, and does not necescarily mean it provides better value for all riders.

The MTA says that, pre-pandemic, riders were leaving behind $170 million of fare value annually by using unlimited 30-day and 7-day MetroCards less than the number of trips needed to break even with the pay-per-ride rate.  That is a very compelling statistic, but the MTA has not presented any data or seem to have done any evaluation of how the shift towards fare capping with OMNY has changed rider behavior.  For example, we don't know what percentage of riders hit the fare cap more than once but less than four times a month (meaning they are saving money with fare capping, but not spending more than they would if they just got a 30-day Unlimited MetroCard).

Fare capping rose in popularity across the Americas from advocates who argued that it was more equitable—since riders who are struggling to scrape by or living paycheck to paycheck may not be able to front the entire price of an unlimited pass upfront at the beginning of the month.  But we have been sold up the river in a pretty big way by this thinking.  First off, there are better ways to help the very small population of riders who cannot afford mass transit through social fare programs that offer reduced or free fares for those riders.  Let's be honest, is someone that has more than $1.45 but less than $17 in their bank account really paying the Subway fare, or are they just jumping the turnstile?  And, at the end of the day, is requiring these riders to pay 14% more in total out-of-pocket costs over the year really doing right by them?

Upfront sunk cost vs. incremental per-trip costs

The shift away from prepaid passes to fare capping changes the whole psychology of how riders evaluate the cost of travel using mass transit—and the approach being taken by the MTA and other agencies across the nation run counter to what is considered best practice elsewhere in the world.

When you purchase a prepaid unlimited pass, that is, for right or for wrong, a sunk cost.  Therefore, the marginal cost of each additional trip you take is zero.  In fact, you are encouraged to use mass transit as much as possible to squeeze the most value out of your pass.  Pre-pandemic when I would have a LIRR monthly, if I was going into the city on a weekend, taking the train was a no-brainer...since it didn't cost me anything extra.

But with fare capping, almost every trip has an incremental cost, and there is a very visible reminder of that each time you use the system and get a notification from your bank or mobile wallet.  The marginal cost of every trip is high, and that is a cost that could be avoided if you just didn't make that trip, or used a bike or walked.  The less you travel, the more you save.

In the several years since MTA launched fare capping, I have hit the cap a handful of times—but never by accident.  Each time I hit the cap, I knew in advance I would be taking more than 12 trips that particular week.  And once I knew I was going to hit the cap, I would take the Subway or bus for all sorts of extra trips, including short hops that I would not ordinarily take the other weeks.

Unlimited passes also discourage fare evasion.  If I have a prepaid unlimited pass, there is no sense in jumping the turnstile or walking past the bus driver—I already paid.  But with fare capping, fare evasion is an opportunity to save money, especially if you don't expect to hit the fare cap.

New York's multipliers are among the highest in the world

A major reason why unlimited passes have historically been not that popular in New York—pre-pandemic, unlimited MetroCards were used for only about half of trips—is because of how expensive they are.  NYCT's multiplier (the ratio between the price of a single trip and the unlimited pass) have historically been very high, among the highest among major metro systems across the globe.  Because of how expensive they were, the unlimited MetroCards didn't make a lot of sense for many riders (e.g. if you were a suburban commuter taking only two trips a day on weekdays), and you really had to use the Subway or bus multiple times a day to get your money's worth.

With the elimination of the 30-day unlimited option, that will get even worse.  The price of unlimited travel for a 30-day period will rise from $132 to $152.19 under these changes, a 50.7 multiplier over the $3 base fare.

The table below compares the cost of a single trip to the cost of unlimited travel for 30 days for major metro systems across the United States and the world.  For any transit systems in foreign countries, their current fares were converted to US dollars using the exchange rate in effect on October 1, 2025.  For all agencies, the cost of unlimited travel for 30-days was determined by taking the cost of best value unlimited pass or fare cap and prorating it for a 30-day period.  For example, calendar monthly passes are prorated downwards to account for the five extra days at the end of the year; annual passes are prorated downwards; 1- or 7-day passes are prorated upwards to put all agencies on an even playing field.  The multiplier is the cost of unlimited travel for 30-days divided by the single trip cost:

City	Single Trip	30-day	Multiplier	Fare capping?
New York (NYCT - from Jan   2026)	$3.00	$152.19	50.7	7-day
London (TfL)	$3.90	$197.17	50.6	1-day, weekly
Miami (MDT)	$2.25	$112.50	50.0	1-day
New York (NYCT - current)	$2.90	$132.00	45.5	7-day
Los Angeles (LACMTA)	$1.75	$78.30	44.7	1-day, 7-day
San Francisco (BART)	$2.40	$102.50	42.7
Dallas (DART)	$3.00	$121.94	40.6
NY-NJ (PATH)	$3.00	$120.75	40.3
Philadelphia (SEPTA)	$2.90	$114.33	39.4
Sacramento (SacRT)	$2.50	$98.56	39.4
Baltimore (MdMTA)	$2.00	$77.00	38.5
Atlanta (MARTA)	$2.50	$95.00	38.0
Cleveland (RTA)	$2.50	$95.00	38.0
Boston (MBTA)	$2.40	$88.70	37.0
Essex County (Newark Light Rail)	$1.85	$68.01	36.8
Seattle (Sound Transit)	$3.00	$106.44	35.5
Portland (Tri-Met)	$2.80	$98.56	35.2	1-day, monthly
Paris (RATP)	$2.93	$102.63	35.0
Salt Lake City (UTA)	$2.50	$85.00	34.0	1-day, weekly
San Juan (Tren Urbano)	$1.50	$50.00	33.3
Twin Cities (Metro Transit)	$2.00	$65.00	32.5
Washington (WMATA)	$2.25	$72.00	32.0
Pheonix (Valley Metro)	$2.00	$64.00	32.0	1-day, weekly, monthly
Denver (RTD)	$2.75	$86.73	31.5	1-day, monthly
Hudson County (HBLR)	$2.60	$80.82	31.1
St. Louis (MetroLink)	$2.50	$76.88	30.8
Chicago (CTA)	$2.50	$75.00	30.0
San Francisco (Muni)	$2.85	$84.76	29.7
San Deigo (MTS)	$2.50	$70.96	28.4	1-day, monthly
Honolulu (Skyline)	$3.00	$80.00	26.7	1-day, monthly
Copenhagen (Metro)	$4.72	$108.58	23.0
Rome (ATAC)	$1.76	$40.45	23.0
Madrid (Metro)	$1.76	$38.54	21.9
Lisbon (Metro)	$2.17	$46.23	21.3
Warsaw (WTP)	$1.21	$25.77	21.3
Bratislava (IDS BK)	$1.28	$25.33	19.8
Brussels (MIVB)	$2.70	$52.97	19.6
Milan (ATM)	$1.99	$31.78	15.9
Berlin (BVG)	$4.46	$67.03	15.0
Hamburg (HVV)	$4.57	$67.03	14.7
Amsterdam (GVB)	$3.99	$57.98	14.5
Zurich (ZVV)	$5.78	$83.52	14.4
Munich (MVV)	$4.81	$67.03	13.9
Veinna (Wiener Linien)	$2.81	$35.15	12.5
Prague (PID)	$1.45	$14.49	10.0
Barcelona (TMB)	$3.11	$25.43	8.2
Luxembourg	$0.00	$0.00	0.0
PA-NJ (PATCO)	$1.40	none	none
Houston (METRORail)	$1.25	none	none

New York's forthcoming 50.7 multiplier is the highest in the nation, and significantly leads most major European cities.

In fact, you can see a significant difference in how the pricing of unlimited passes is approached in the United States vs. major cities in Europe.  With the exception of London and Paris, the two most expansive and expensive metro networks in Europe, every other major city prices its unlimited passes at multipliers lower than the lowest American city, Honolulu.  Transit operators elsewhere have cracked the code that lower-priced passes, even when purchased upfront, encourages more transit ridership from the people who live and work in the city by making transit travel very affordable and at a near-zero marginal cost.

Take the example of Vienna.  Wiener Linien offers an annual ticket that costs €365 for unlimited travel across the city, which works out to just €1 per day.  At just €1 per day, it is a no-brainer for anyone who lives or works in Vienna to just buy the annual pass.  And once you have the annual pass, taking the train 5 times a day doesn't cost anymore than riding once per day.

Fare control in Vienna is simple and straightforward,
since most riders have an unlimited pass, they just
walk on (Photo: The LIRR Today)

Again, this has significant knock-on benefits in deterring fare evasion.  Because the annual pass is such a great deal, you can assume that roughly 100% of riders who live or work in Vienna (which make up the wide majority of transit users) have an annual pass.  There is no incentive for them to fare evade, so they just don't.  That means that the potential population of fare evaders is very small to begin with (tourists, who would often be let off with a warning anyways) to the point where Vienna's metro stations don't have any turnstiles or fare control infrastructure.  Nevermind all of the new attachments and complications the MTA is spending money on to combat fare evasion in NY.  In Vienna, if you have an annual pass, you just walk on.

Unlimited passes pay for themselves in as little as 8.2 trips per month in Barcelona, 15 trips in Berlin, or 23 trips in Rome—half the breakeven point of what the MTA will have in New York.

As the MTA continues to grapple with the fare evasion problem on Subways and buses, the push away from prepaid fares and towards OMNY/contactless with fare capping without addressing the high multiplier has made the problem avoidably worse.

By eliminating the 30-day unlimited option, the MTA is punishing its most frequent and loyal riders with a whopping 14% increase in their out of pocket costs, and making it more difficult to grow ridership and combat fare evasion, too.