Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that the Long Island Rail Road shattered its post-pandemic daily ridership record twice this week, carrying 298,419 passengers on Wednesday, July 23, and 295,419 passengers on Tuesday, July 22. Both milestones contributed to the railroad’s busiest seven-day period since the pandemic, with a total of 1.72 million passengers riding between Thursday, July 17, and Wednesday, July 23. Before this week, the previous post-pandemic ridership high was 287,437 on June 19. The pre-pandemic 2019 average weekday ridership of 316,692 was the highest since 1949.
“New Yorkers know that the best way to get to and from Long Island is by riding the Long Island Rail Road. From Mets games to beach days and beyond, the LIRR connects riders to so much of what makes summer in our state special,” Governor Hochul said. “By delivering better, more frequent service since the opening of Grand Central Madison in 2023, LIRR ridership has grown considerably to near-record highs. I look forward to celebrating more milestones to come as New Yorkers continue to benefit from the ease and convenience of taking the train to get around.”
The ridership highs reflect the railroad’s increasing customer satisfaction rate and record-breaking on-time performance statistics. Through the first half of the year, 96.6% of trains reached their destination on time, the railroad’s best rate in its history outside of pandemic years, and nine tenths of a percentage point above last year’s rate of 95.7% covering the same period of the year…