LIRR carried 5 million more passengers in 2021, compared with 2020

The Long Island Rail Road carried 5 million more passengers last year than in 2020 — even while losing nearly one-third of its usual rush-hour commuters over the same period.

The LIRR’s 2021 annual ridership figures, released this week, illustrate the changing face of commuting since the COVID-19 outbreak began. After falling from 91 million riders in 2019 — a modern record — to about 30 million in 2020, the LIRR rebounded by 17% last year, when it carried 35 million passengers.

Notably, even while overall ridership increased, the LIRR’s "commutation" ridership — passengers traveling into New York City during the morning rush hour and back home in the evening — fell by 31% in 2021. The railroad more than made up for the losses by increasing ridership at other times, including weekends and middays, by 59%.

In discussing the statistics at an MTA Board meeting on Monday, LIRR president Phillip Eng pointed out that the railroad began 2020 with three strong months of ridership before it plummeted in April.

Gerard Bringmann, chairman of the LIRR Commuter Council, an advocacy group, said the large increase in "discretionary" trips in 2021 showed riders are comfortable with riding the train again. But many simply don’t have to anymore, Bringmann added.

"If your boss is going to let you work from home, hey, why not?" said Bringmann, who expects some percentage of the rush-hour ridership loss is permanent. "There are people who are going to be working from home, part time at least, from now until forever. There’s definitely been a shift."

A consultant’s report, commissioned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in 2020, has projected that, even by 2025, ridership may only return to around 80% of 2019 levels. Eng said the LIRR surpassed that report’s projections for 2021, and by November was carrying 58% of its pre-pandemic ridership.

But the omicron variant resulted in many commuters again working from home, and LIRR ridership falling to around 40% of 2019 levels.

"In the last week of January, we’ve started to see that tick up to around 45%, 48%," Eng said. "So it’s slowly coming back again. We’re optimistically that, hopefully, we get through this variant and we can get back to where we were at the end of November."

The pandemic also appeared to have an effect on the LIRR’s crime statistics in 2021. While the total number of crimes in the LIRR system rose by five — from 67 to 72 — felony assaults more than doubled over that period, from 10 to 21, according to MTA Police.

Assistant Police Chief Gary Beahanli, who also spoke at the meeting, said that of the 21 incidents, 14 involved an assault of an LIRR employee or police officer.

LIRR union officials have said aggression toward train crews has risen during the pandemic, in part because of confrontations over the railroad’s mask policy.

Beahan said he believes "the answer" to the problem is the MTA Police Department’s recently launched initiative to have more cops ride LIRR trains.

"We just really got it ramped up at the beginning of the year … and it is increasing the presence of police on the trains and at the stations," Beahan 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.