Proposal would expand use of discounted LIRR CityTicket
Long Island Rail Road passengers purchase tickets at Jamaica Station in Queens, July 21, 2020. Credit: Charles Eckert
A proposal to deeply discount all LIRR trips made within New York City could lead to rush hour trains taking in a lot more riders, who would be paying a lot less than those from Long Island, officials said.
Among the initiatives in the “action plan” released by Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday was an expansion of the Long Island Rail Road’s CityTicket, which offers a discounted fare of $5 for all trips within New York City, including Penn Station, Jamaica, and stops in Queens and Brooklyn.
The program had long been in place for weekend travel, and was expanded earlier this year to include off-peak, weekday hours. The proposal by Hochul and Adams would make the CityTicket valid “all day, every day — including during peak travel times.”
According to the proposal, “This new, more affordable peak travel time option will save many riders up to an hour or more compared to long bus and subway commutes, and it will induce some commuters to switch from traveling by car.”
The CityTicket has been limited to off-peak hours, because that’s when the LIRR tends to have extra capacity. The proposal would invite additional riders onto trains during the busiest hours. And those riders would be paying far less than any from Long Island.
A one-way peak ticket from to Penn Station from Valley Stream — within the LIRR's cheapest fare zone on Long Island — currently costs $12.50, and is expected to go up next year. Passengers boarding from Rosedale, just two miles away, would pay 60% less.
And while Long Island passengers would have first dibs on seats during the morning commute, in the evening rush, they'd compete with discounted city riders for seats on trains from Penn Station, Grand Central Madison or Atlantic Terminal.
Kyle Strober, executive director of the Association for a Better Long Island, an business group, noted that there are already LIRR passengers “who have stood from Penn Station to Hicksville who ask just where will these Queens commuters stand?”
Gerard Bringmann, chairman of the LIRR Commuter Council, noted that weekday ridership is around 65% of pre-pandemic levels, "so we definitely have the capacity to do this."
Officials with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the LIRR's parent organization, would not comment on the CityTicket proposal, but said they were looking forward to working with city, state and federal government partners to fund the transit system.
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.
