LIRR figures show ridership down after summer spike
A train pulls up to the LIRR Woodside station. (Oct. 21, 2010) Credit: Uli Seit
Fewer passengers rode the Long Island Rail Road last month than during the same period in 2009, according to LIRR figures released Monday, ending a brief spike in ridership over the summer that had railroad officials optimistic that more people would use the train.
Ridership was down 1.4 percent last month as compared with September of 2009. "Frankly, that was disappointing, because the two months of July and August were strong. So we were hoping for better than that," LIRR chief financial officer Mark Young said.
In July, overall ridership increased 1.4 percent from July of last year - the first such increase since December 2008. August, too showed signs of growth. Overall ridership dipped .7 percent because of the Jamaica control tower fire that caused a week of disruptions, but so-called "commutation" ridership, which accounts for regular customers traveling west in the morning and east in the evening, was up .4 percent - the first such increase this year over last year.
Young said part of the decrease may be attributable to two weather events that affected the number of people on trains. Concerned over the potential for high winds, the LIRR suspended service in eastern Suffolk County for about a day and a half during Labor Day weekend - typically a big getaway weekend. A Sept. 16 tornado in Brooklyn and Queens that knocked nearly two dozen trees down onto tracks also caused widespread service outages over two days.
Year to date, the LIRR has carried 61.2 million riders - a drop of 1.7 percent from last year, which some experts have attributed to the economic slowdown. "It's all based on the economy. We try to watch very closely what's happening on Long Island as far as economic strength, and we'll continue to watch those trends," LIRR president Helena Williams said. "Is the housing market picking up again? Are employers employing again? Those are the indicators that really matter for us."
It may not be until December at the earliest that the LIRR is able to more accurately gauge ridership trends.
The LIRR saw a major drop in ridership this past weekend because it ran limited service to accommodate a project to upgrade Jamaica's signal and switching system - affecting October's overall ridership numbers. The LIRR expects similarly sparse ridership on the weekend of Nov. 6 and 7, when it completes the project.
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