For better or worse: LIRR ridership down, but on-time performance up in March
A commuter waits for a train at the Long Island Rail Road station in Freeport on April 3. Credit: Newsday / J. Conrad Williams Jr.
The COVID-19 pandemic is already skewing two of the Long Island Rail Road’s most important metrics — one for the better, one for the worse.
With most of its commuters staying home and service levels being reduced, the virus is having a major impact on ridership and on-time performance, statistics show.
Patrick Foye, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority — the LIRR’s parent agency — said railroad ridership already has fallen by 97%, as compared with the same period in 2019, a year in which the railroad set a modern ridership record.
The 91.1 million passengers carried by the railroad last year was 1.5% higher than in 2018, and the most since 1949, when it carried 91.8 million people.
A 90% reduction in ridership for April would represent the loss of about 7 million riders. Even if ridership rebounded to regular levels in May, and held steady for the rest of the year, the loss still would bring the LIRR to its lowest annual ridership since 2013.
“ … Over the last two years, we've seen ridership grow month after month, and we had record ridership. Then toward the end of March, as we saw new measures being put into place, the ridership starts to drop,” LIRR president Phillip Eng said in an interview with KJOY / 98.3 radio last week. “It's very eerie. It's sort of out of … it's things that you would only think would happen in a movie. But at the same time, it's real life.”
On the upside, the scant few riders on LIRR trains may find themselves arriving at their destination on time more frequently. With the LIRR’s primary reason for delays — the time needed to load and unload customers — becoming less of a factor, the railroad’s on-time performance rate for March was 95.3% — tying for the best month in eight years.
The LIRR said 23% of the nearly 19,000 delays last year were attributed to customer loading and unloading times. The railroad considers a train on-time if it arrives at its final destination within 5 minutes and 59 seconds of its scheduled time.
The LIRR’s punctuality also could benefit from running fewer trains. The “MTA Essential Service” plan enacted late last month has reduced the LIRR’s weekday schedule by about 30%.
While the coronavirus outbreak has thrown some performance metrics out of whack, the LIRR’s recently released 2019 Customer Satisfaction Survey offered some insight into how the railroad was doing leading up to the pandemic.
The survey, which was based on the responses of nearly 15,000 railroad riders, showed that overall customer satisfaction increased to 80% from 76% the previous year. Overall customer satisfaction had previously fallen in every year since 2017.
"Overall, we're seeing that our customers are acknowledging and experiencing the efforts of our workforce and the positive changes we were making prior to COVID-19," Eng said of the survey results during an MTA board meeting March 23.
The railroad, in a report about the survey, said the “LIRR Forward” service improvement initiative begun in 2018 contributed to the increased satisfaction among riders, as did the completion of the Double Track project between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma. The Ronkonkoma branch experienced the largest increase in customer satisfaction of all lines.
Only the Oyster Bay and Port Jefferson branches, which are not electrified and use less-reliable diesel trains, saw drops in customer satisfaction.
As usual, the LIRR earned its highest marks for the courtesy and professionalism of its conductors — a 92% satisfaction rating — and its lowest for the cleanliness of train restrooms — 41%.
Baldwin commuter Anthony Thornton took the survey in October, and said he responded being unsatisfied in most categories. He expects most riders would feel the same, given that he’s observed “so many negative comments from people who are not happy with the service."
“If it’s saying 80%, I think they’re fixing the numbers,” said Thornton, who has not been on the LIRR for more than a month. But Thornton added, "Honestly, I do miss it … Doing normal things again would be a change of pace.”
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.
