LIRR adding more trains to Brooklyn, Penn in schedule changes
The railroad's new chief, Robert Free, left, expects the schedule changes will further bolster the LIRR improving ridership, which has set several COVID-era records. Credit: Corey Sipkin
The LIRR will further adjust its schedules next month to address demands from riders, including by adding a few more trains serving Brooklyn and Penn Station, and eliminating some trains serving Grand Central Madison.
The railroad's new chief said he expects the schedule changes, which take effect Nov. 13, will further bolster the LIRR improving ridership, which has set several COVID-era records since September.
Speaking at his first meeting of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board's railroad committee since becoming acting LIRR president last week, Robert Free said the ridership gains are "further proof that the schedule adjustments we've made over almost eight months now are really leading to some positive results for our customers.
"Our upcoming Nov. 13 schedule changes continue that practice," Free added.
The new timetables include two more morning trains from stations on Long Island to Atlantic Terminal — one from Ronkonkoma and one from Wantagh — more morning peak express trains on the Port Washington branch, and the permanent addition of an afternoon Babylon train out of Penn Station that previously operated only occasionally.
The streamlining of some LIRR trips will mean fewer westbound trains will stop at Mineola during weekends. The new schedules, developed using customer feedback, also leave one-hour gaps in middays between trains at some stations on the LIRR's Main Line, including Merillon Avenue.
“This is ridiculous and it’s unacceptable,” Charlton D’souza, president of Passengers United, an advocacy group, said in public comments at the meeting. “We’re very, very upset about this.”
LIRR officials said, even with the changes, Mineola will maintain plentiful weekend service, and that ridership is light at the stations losing some trains.
Some of the added Brooklyn and Penn Station trains will replace ones that currently serve Grand Central Madison, where demand has been below the LIRR's original projections. However, Free said there has been an increase recently in the number of passengers traveling to and from Grand Central. The new terminal now accounts for about 36% of Manhattan ridership, up from around 30% when it opened.
Free said, throughout the system, the LIRR’s post-Labor Day ridership has been "extremely strong," especially outside of the rush hours. September marked the first month that the LIRR’s monthly off-peak passenger count — about 3.57 million — surpassed that of the same month in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic began.
And the LIRR has reached several other COVID-era ridership milestones since September, including the highest ridership weekday average, the highest Friday ridership, and the five highest morning rush hour passenger counts.
The approximately 5.56 million total riders carried by the LIRR in September is nearly 74% of what the LIRR carried in September of 2019 — a year in which the railroad went on to set a modern ridership record of about 91 million passengers. Ridership plummeted the following year as people stopped taking the train to work during the coronavirus outbreak, and has gradually recovered since then. The LIRR ended 2022 carrying about 52.5 million riders.
Free attributed the recent gains to tweaks made to the LIRR’s timetables in September, following months of complaints from riders about the schedule overhaul that came with the opening of Grand Central Madison in February. The adjustments, which took effect Sept. 5, rerouted some Grand Central trains to Penn Station, added more express trains during the rush hours, and restored some morning trains from Long Island to Brooklyn.
“Our nonstop ridership analysis and all of the methodical schedule adjustments, big and small, that we’ve made since the unprecedented 41% service increase from February have produced schedules that made the most sense for riders and improved the customer experience,” Free said.
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.
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