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http://www.mta.info/news-lirr-metro-...emains-busiest

Metro-North at All-Time High; LIRR, Highest Since 1949, Remains Busiest Regional Railroad in Nation

February 2, 2016

Ridership is up on the MTA's regional rails. Numbers increased significantly on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad in 2015, giving a significant boost to the economic health of the regions they serve. Metro-North reported all-time record ridership of 86.1 million customers, an increase of 1.6% over 2014, while the Long Island Rail Road remained the busiest regional railroad in the nation, carrying 87.6 million customers, a 2.1% increase over the prior year and the railroad’s highest total since 1949.

The LIRR’s total breaks the modern record set in 2008, when the railroad carried 87.4 million customers. Metro-North’s total ridership growth means that it has more than doubled the ridership the railroad carried when it was founded, in 1983.

“When ridership set records back in 2008, many said it was because of high gasoline prices, and that certainly is one factor,” said MTA Chairman and CEO Thomas F. Prendergast. “But gas prices have sunk to low levels and the trend is continuing. We are seeing the confluence a strengthening regional economy, healthier downtowns around the region, a new generation of millennials who values public transportation, and greater productivity on board our trains through the proliferation of smartphones, tablets and laptops. Customers are also responding to improvements we have made, including more frequent trains, improving on-time performance, a fleet of modern new electric cars, expanding availability of real-time information, and more channels for customer communication.”

LIRR and Metro-North ridership is positioned for even further growth in the years ahead because of investments included in the MTA’s 2015-19 Capital Program, funded through a record contribution from the State of New York made by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo. The program will fund the construction of four new Metro-North stations in the Bronx and the expansion of Metro-North’s New Haven Line to Penn Station, a major expansion of the LIRR’s Main Line between Floral Park and Hicksville, enabling significant reverse commuting to Long Island for the first time, and the construction of new LIRR stations in Queens, in Elmhurst and Sunnyside.

The LIRR’s growth was fueled in equal parts by commuters, who increased 2.1% to 50.4 million customers, an increase of 1.04 million riders, and non-commuters, who increased 2.0% to 37.3 million customers in 2015, an increase of 734,000 riders. (.....)