Monthly LIRR tickets grow, sending commuters scrambling for holders

Although most LIRR customers have switched to electronic tickets in recent years, paper tickets still have a place in the heart — and around the necks — of thousands of daily commuters.

But a recent move by the Long Island Rail Road to increase the size of monthly passes by around 25% has irked some LIRR regulars, and sent them scrambling for options on how to carry them.

"Now, you have to fold this thing up like origami to get it into the size of the regular ticket holder," Huntington commuter Jenn Triquet said in a telephone interview Thursday.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority stopped printing monthly passes on the back of MetroCards last month, and instead has been using larger paper stock it had on hand, "saving a material amount of taxpayer dollars," spokeswoman Joana Flores said in a statement.

The switch was only temporary, and the railroad will return to printing the monthly passes on card-sized stock when it rolls out new ticket vending machines next month.

In the meantime, the monthlies are being printed on the same-sized stock as the railroad's 10-Trip Tickets, making for a "ridiculous, long" commuter pass, Triquet said. "It should be wallet-sized, absolutely, in my opinion."

MTA officials said three-quarters of LIRR monthly pass holders have already transitioned to electronic tickets using the TrainTime app.

But Gerard Bringmann, chairman of the LIRR Commuter Council, a rider advocacy group, said many riders are "creatures of habit" and have no plans to give up their paper tickets, which come with some advantages. Paper ticket loyalists need not worry about keeping their phone charged or having to pull up an electronic ticket to show a conductor. If they keep it displayed on a lanyard around their neck, they don’t even need to be conscious, Bringmann said.

"If you’re leaving out of Ronkonkoma at 4:58 in the morning, you want to catch that snooze before you get to Penn Station," said Bringmann, who counted himself among the "dinosaurs" who appreciate paper tickets. "If the conductors are on their game, they're going to hit you between Ronkonkoma and Jamaica, and then hit you again after Jamaica. So you’re going to get woken up twice."

Until the monthly tickets return to their standard size, resourceful commuters have figured out ways to live with the jumbo-size passes. In a Facebook LIRR commuter group, riders traded stories of folding the tickets, cutting off the edges, and crocheting pouches for them.

When one commuter shared her solution of forging a new ticket holder on a 3D printer, her fellow LIRR passengers became potential customers.

"We chatted back and forth on Facebook and Messenger, and we arranged a back alley deal," said Triquet, who paid $6 for the customized item. "Us commuters have to stick together."

In other LIRR ticket news, railroad officials said last week that the recently discontinued "MTA Away" discount travel package program, which was previously only available to paper ticket-buyers, may return in an electronic format.

The program, which offered deep discounts on the combined price of train tickets and admission to tourist destinations, was terminated after selling fewer than 1,000 packages in 2024, costing the MTA more than the $30,000 it generated, according to the transit authority.

At a Grand Central Madison news conference last week, LIRR president Robert Free said the MTA is "working with vendors and retailers in the industry to see what we can do to make it easier and more convenient" to purchase getaway packages by the summer 2026 travel season.

"We’re definitely looking at other avenues to make it better," Free said.

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.