Governor Hochul Celebrates Long Island Rail Road’s Strongest Year to Date

Governor Hochul Celebrates Long Island Rail Road's Strongest Year to Date

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that 2024 was the strongest year for the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) in its nearly 200-year history. The railroad's on-time performance record was 95.65 percent - the best in its history excluding in 2020-22 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The LIRR also surpassed its 94 percent on-time performance goal each month throughout 2024 for the first time, and finished the year strong with an all-time November on-time performance record of 96.2 percent. Additionally, each of the 12 LIRR branches exceeded the 94 percent on-time performance target and 95 percent of trains ran on time in December.

"New Yorkers deserve fast and reliable train service wherever they're headed, and the LIRR delivered to our commuters in 2024 with its strongest year to date," Governor Hochul said. "I am committed to keeping New York moving and continuing to build on these performances, as we look forward to projects that will modernize our railroads, reduce travel time and expand train service for riders."

MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said, "Transit is helping to make Long Island - and the entire New York region - more affordable. The 687,000 monthly tickets we sold in 2024 actually cost less than in 2019."

The LIRR saw a substantial upswing in customer satisfaction in the bi-annual Customer Satisfaction Survey conducted in Fall 2024. Overall satisfaction reached 76 percent, a 6-point increase from Spring 2024 -the highest it has been since Fall 2022 prior to the opening of Grand Central Madison.

The Fall 2024 bi-annual Customer Satisfaction Survey was conducted October 14-31, 2024, offered online in nine languages and on the phone. The LIRR had 21,854 respondents, a 27 percent increase from Spring 2024.

Long Island Rail Road President Rob Free said, "One of my main goals when I assumed the presidency of the LIRR was to create an amazing customer experience, every day, on every train. This incredible jump in customer satisfaction shows that we are in fact achieving it. The LIRR continuously monitors data and customer feedback to improve the reliability and customer experience of our service. On-time performance is at record highs, schedules are more convenient, and this makes our customers happy."

Preliminary ridership statistics for 2024 show an increase in ridership - 75.5 million riders rode the LIRR in 2024 compared to the 65.2 million people who rode in 2023, marking a 15.8 percent increase. November 2024 was an extremely successful month for the railroad, reaching both a record on-time performance level of 96.2 percent - the highest level for that month since the statistic started being kept in 1979 - as well as carrying 6.3 million riders, up from 5.8 million in 2023.

Top 5 Ridership Weekdays in 2024

Wednesday	11/27/2024	284,694	Highest ridership since the pandemic
Wednesday	9/18/2024	281,624	2nd highest weekday
Wednesday	10/16/2024	279,608	3rd highest weekday
Thursday	10/17/2024	277,906	4th highest weekday
Tuesday	10/8/2024	275,934	5th highest weekday

Highest Saturday and Sunday Ridership in 2024

Saturday	12/14/2024	161,398
Sunday	6/9/2024	132,945

Service Projects and Expansion

Since 2018, the LIRR has increased the capacity of the railroad with a series of projects.

A second track was added to an 18-mile stretch of the Ronkonkoma Branch between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma in 2018. This allowed the railroad to increase peak service, add flexibility and help minimize the impact of service disruptions on the branch.

The construction of the Main Line Third Track completed in 2022 was not only a rail expansion project but also an infrastructure project, bringing more existing infrastructure into a state of good repair than any other project in railroad history, increasing safety, modernizing stations, beautifying towns and eliminating multiple railroad grade crossings. The track was built on time and $100,000 under budget, and opened in October 2022 after 50 years of effort. For the first time, Long Island commuters had less train congestion and fewer delays, and now have true bi-directional service during peak hours on a more reliable rail network.

The LIRR's newest terminal, Grand Central Madison, opened in 2023. Combined with the Main Line Third Track, the projects allowed a service increase of 41 percent, which is more service than any other time in the railroad's history. These increases continued into 2023, with the LIRR operating 14,000 additional trains in 2024 than in 2023.

Following a 41 percent increase in service that took place when the railroad began operating out of Grand Central Madison in February 2023, initial usage patterns showing a general 70 percent/30 percent split of usage between Penn Station and Grand Central have shifted over the past 23 months to a 60 percent/40 percent split.

The system expansion and modernization brought about by these projects enabled the LIRR to build and open its first new full-time commuter station, Elmont-UBS Arena, bringing thousands of event-goers to the arena and the surrounding shopping areas who contributed money to the local economy.

Contact the Governor's Office