(The following story by Steve Ritea appeared on the Newsday website on February 13.)
NEW YORK — Ridership on the Long Island Rail Road hit a modern-day record with 86.1 million passengers last year, the highest number in nearly six decades, officials said.
LIRR President Helena Williams attributed the growth – a 4.9 percent increase from 2006 – to “higher gas prices as well as job growth in New York City.” She also cited the railroad’s improved on-time performance, which reached a record-setting 96.5 percent for last month.
“Our research shows customer satisfaction is directly tied to on-time performance, and the LIRR is continuing to deliver in that important category,” she said.
LIRR Commuter’s Council President Gerard Bringmann, while pleased by the news, downplayed the link between performance and ridership. On-time trains are “nice,” he said, “but the bottom line is people are doing it because gas and toll prices are prohibitive for driving into the city unless you’re wealthy. … Mass transit is definitely the way to go.”
While the number of peak-hour commuters increased 4 percent in 2007 from the prior year, the number of off-peak commuters increased 6.3 percent over the same period.
The last time annual ridership exceeded 86.1 million was in 1949, when the LIRR had 91.8 million riders.
Williams pointed to growing ridership as evidence of the need for its East Side Access project, which is to bring LIRR trains into Grand Central Terminal by 2014. She also highlighted the LIRR’s efforts to construct a third track along a heavily used portion of its Main Line between Floral Park and Hicksville.
The LIRR’s latest numbers mirror those in the city, where officials last week announced subway ridership is at its highest level in more than half a century.
A total of more than 1.5 billion passengers filled the trains last year with more than 5 million straphangers riding the subways on an average weekday. Both figures are the highest since the early 1950s, officials said.
Record ridership
The Long Island Rail Road set an all-time high in yearly ridership in 2007 with more than 86.1 million riders.
Annual ridership (in millions)
2002 — 83.9
2003 — 80.9
2004 — 79.3
2005 — 80.1
2006 — 82.1
2007 — 86.1