Why LIRR weekend ridership has grown above pre-pandemic levels

After largely staying off trains during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, weekend Long Island Rail Road riders are back in a big way, and then some, according to a new state report.

The report by the office of State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli found that weekend ridership on the LIRR was 27% higher last year than in 2019 — a year in which the railroad set a modern ridership record.

Weekend ridership on the LIRR has beat 2019 levels in nearly every month since the February 2023 opening of Grand Central Madison, which gave riders a second Manhattan terminal and also came with expanded service.

The LIRR averaged 267,567 riders each weekend in 2025, up from 210,313 in 2019.

Among all Metropolitan Transportation Authority agencies, including subways, city buses and Metro-North, the LIRR is "the only transit mode analyzed where ridership has fully recovered and even improved compared to the pre-pandemic baseline," the report noted.

But weekend ridership recovery has outpaced the MTA’s expectations across all its agencies since the pandemic, when trains and buses were largely empty for months. After carrying 91 million passengers in 2019 — the most in 70 years — LIRR ridership plummeted to just 30 million in 2020. Last year, it was back to nearly 82 million, buoyed by particularly strong weekend crowds.

MTA officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The strong Saturday and Sunday numbers suggest the MTA should do more to serve weekend riders, the report suggested.

"Weekend ridership recovery has been a bright spot for the country’s largest transportation system," DiNapoli said in a statement. "The MTA should continue to focus on increasing the reliability and frequency of service on weekends to meet the ongoing rise in demand."

In January, LIRR President Rob Free told Newsday that off-peak riders, including those traveling on weekends, are "obviously a good market" for the railroad, but noted that ridership has also been growing among traditional rush-hour commuters, and so-called reverse commuters heading east in the morning and west in the evening.

Free said several factors could be contributing to growth, including the MTA’s congestion pricing program, which kicked off in January 2025, charging vehicles $9 for driving below 60th Street in Manhattan.

Check for updates on this story.

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.