LIRR ridership rises for 5th straight month

For the fifth straight month, the Long Island Rail Road carried more people in January than during the same month a year earlier -- a sign that LIRR ridership may be bouncing back after a three-year decline.

In January, the LIRR carried 6,431,658 people -- a 6.4 percent increase over January 2011. The year-over-year increase on a monthly basis was the highest since February 2008 as compared with February 2007, LIRR officials said.

"We are encouraged by this recent positive ridership trend and are hopeful that it will continue," LIRR spokesman Sam Zambuto said Monday.

"We believe the improved employment picture and the unseasonably mild winter weather in January played a role in the significant ridership gains in January," he added.

The heftier ridership comes after a disappointing 2011, when for the first time the LIRR fell behind Metro-North Railroad as the nation's busiest commuter railroad. The LIRR carried about 81 million people in 2011 -- a million less than its sister railroad in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It was the third consecutive year that the LIRR carried fewer people than in the previous year.

But LIRR ridership has been on the rise since September. Metro-North also saw ridership gains from September to January, and carried more people than the LIRR in each of those months. Metro-North's ridership last month was 6,548,634, about 117,000 more than the LIRR.

LIRR Commuter Council chairman Mark Epstein called the ridership gains "good news" and evidence of the importance of restoring some of the service cuts the LIRR made in 2010. The MTA board voted against that in December, noting that the agency's finances were still fragile.

SEE PHOTOSLIRR trains and commuters through the years

"As the economy is coming back, ridership gets a little better," Epstein said. "We have to be prepared to meet the increased service demand. . . . You have to service those extra riders."

LIRR president Helena Williams noted that this month got off to a strong start, thanks in large part to the Feb. 7 parade in Manhattan honoring the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. Between noon and 4 p.m. that day, about 34,000 people left Penn Station on the LIRR -- more than twice the usual 14,000.

"From early morning, the trains were crowded with lots of blue shirts," Williams said Monday at the Manhattan meeting of the MTA's railroad committee. "It really was a wonderful day."