Long Island Rail Road hits post-pandemic one-day high with 298,419 riders, officials say

The Long Island Rail Road this week set post-pandemic records back to back — 295,419 passengers on Tuesday, then 298,419 passengers on Wednesday — although ridership has yet to return to the pre-pandemic peak, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul's office.

The previous post-pandemic record was 287,437, set on June 19, her office wrote in a news release.

(The pre-pandemic weekday average in 2019 was 316,692 riders, the highest weekday average since 1949.)

And the railroad had the busiest seven-day period post-pandemic: a total of 1.72 million riders between July 17 and Wednesday.

“We are thrilled — thrilled, thrilled, thrilled — to see that the numbers are just spiraling through the roof, or skyrocketing, rather, through the roof,” said Gene Ribeiro, the deputy chief customer officer of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, of which the LIRR is a part.

Ribeiro and railroad President Rob Free held a news conference Thursday at Penn Station to celebrate a series of milestones for the LIRR, the busiest commuter railroad in North America.

"Things normally slow down during the summer months, but not here at the Long Island Rail Road, such as ridership, customer satisfaction and reliability," Free said.

The lowest estimated daily ridership during the pandemic was April 26, 2020: 1,903 riders, according to railroad statistics.

Also Thursday, the railroad released other statistics, including how through the first half of 2025, 96.6% of LIRR trains got to their destination on time, which is the best such rate in its history but for pandemic years, and slightly above last year’s rate of 95.7% for the same period.

"Overall customer satisfaction with the railroad reached 81% in the spring of 2025, up five percentage points from the fall 2024, when it reached 76%, which was itself a six-point increase from spring 2024’s rate of 70%," the governor's news release said.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.