New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) achieved several significant milestones following a surge in railroad ridership, with the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) surpassing pre-pandemic levels for the second time this year, and Metro-North Railroad setting new weekend ridership records, driven by fall travel, including foliage trains serving the Hudson Valley. Ridership on both railroads is at or near historic highs for both weekday and weekend travel, with LIRR monthly ridership in September now exceeding pre-pandemic 2019 levels.
LIRR Ridership Surpasses Pre-Pandemic Levels
The LIRR continues to see strong ridership growth with September 2026 ridership reaching 102 percent of 2019 September levels. This marks the second time since the pandemic that the LIRR exceeded 2019 ridership for a calendar month; the first time was June, which also reached 102 percent of its 2019 levels.
On Wednesday, Sept. 9, the LIRR carried 321,497 riders, its second highest weekday ridership of 2026 – surpassed only by June 18’s ridership for the Knicks Championship Parade with 369,482 riders. The LIRR also recorded three consecutive weeks in September with Tuesday – Thursday ridership exceeding 300,000 customers each day – a first since the pandemic.
The growth follows investments that have expanded service and improved connectivity across Long Island and New York City. The opening of Grand Central Madison and completion of the Main Line Third Track and Double Track projects have enabled a 41% increase in LIRR service, providing customers with more frequent trains and greater travel flexibility.
Metro-North Ridership Continues to Climb, Boosted by Super-Express Service
Metro-North ridership reached 90 percent of September 2019 levels, making September its second-strongest month for ridership recovery in 2026, behind June, when ridership reached 93.2 percent of June 2019 levels.
The railroad achieved its highest weekday ridership (Monday through Friday) between Sept. 21 and Sept. 25, carrying a total of 1,294,011 riders. Excluding the Knicks Championship Parade on June 18 when Metro-North carried 302,486 riders, Metro-North’s strongest single-day ridership was on June 17, with 277,410 riders, 93.8 percent of June 2019 weekday ridership.
Metro-North is also seeing strong ridership growth on the super-express trains introduced on the Hudson Line in April 2025 and New Haven Line in July 2022. These trains can save Hudson Line customers up to 14 minutes daily on their commute and New Haven Line riders up to 50 minutes.
Since spring 2026, ridership on the Hudson and New Haven Line super-express trains has outpaced overall peak-period growth on their respective lines. Hudson Line super express ridership increased 8 percent while New Haven Line super express ridership grew 6 percent.
Weekend Ridership Surge on Both Railroads
Weekend ridership recovery has consistently outperformed weekday travel since the pandemic. Through October 2026, Saturday ridership across the railroads increased 66 percent compared to the same period in 2022, and Sunday ridership grew 64 percent, highlighting the increase in commuter railroad travel for discretionary trips.
The LIRR recorded its busiest weekend of the year on Sept. 5-6, carrying 353,308 customers, 62 percent above 2019 September average weekend ridership.
Each fall, Metro-North sees a surge in weekend demand on the Upper Hudson Line as leaf season peaks. On Oct. 3, Metro-North introduced its Leaf Peeper service with five additional outbound and three additional inbound trains. In response to very strong ridership, just two weeks later, on Oct. 17, they expanded further — adding six more outbounds and six more inbounds.
In total, Metro-North is now running 40 extra weekend trains on Saturdays and Sundays to meet demand. Fall season ridership is now twice what it was in 2019. Additional Hudson Line weekend service will continue through Sunday, Nov. 8.
To compare, in 2019, Metro-North operated just three Saturday outbound trains and one Sunday outbound. This fall, Metro-North is operating 11 outbounds each weekend day. This extra service totals approximately 6,930 outbound trips, nearly triple over the 2,040 trips offered in 2019.
This past weekend, Oct. 24-25, Metro-North carried a total of 323,423 customers, beating its previous record of 302,610 riders for the weekend of June 13-14, and 25.5 percent higher than 2019 October weekend ridership. This past weekend’s record was boosted by the increase of riders traveling to the Hudson Valley to enjoy peak fall foliage and seasonal festivities, including Tarrytown’s Halloween parade.
-via Press Release
