New York’s Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) shattered its post-pandemic daily ridership record twice this week, carrying 298,419 passengers on Wednesday, July 23, and 295,419 passengers on Tuesday, July 22.
Both milestones contributed to the railroad’s busiest seven-day period since the pandemic, with a total of 1.72 million passengers riding between July 17 and July 23. Before this week, the previous post-pandemic ridership high was 287,437 on June 19. The pre-pandemic 2019 average weekday ridership of 316,692 was the highest since 1949.
Customer Satisfaction Equals Ridership Gains
The ridership highs reflect the railroad’s increasing customer satisfaction rate and record-breaking on-time performance statistics. Through the first half of the year, 96.6% of trains reached their destination on time, the railroad’s best rate in its history outside of pandemic years, and nine-tenths of a percentage point above last year’s rate of 95.7% covering the same period of the year.
Overall customer satisfaction with the railroad reached 81% in the spring of 2025, up five percentage points from the fall of 2024, when it stood at 76%, which was itself a six-point increase from the spring 2024 rate of 70%.
“The LIRR is consistently delivering clean, safe, and reliable service for all New Yorkers,” said Rob Free, LIRR’s president. “Ridership numbers like this show that people know that the LIRR is the best way to travel to work, school, and everything that Long Island has to offer.”
Strong Performance Mirrors Trends at NYCT
The substantial LIRR ridership numbers follow the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) announcement that it achieved its best summer subway ridership week since 2019, hitting four million subway riders three days in a row in a summer season — a first since the start of the pandemic.
On July 15, New York City Transit (NYCT) recorded 4,046,610 subway riders; on July 16, the agency recorded 4,121,751 subway riders; and on July 17, it recorded 4,029,692 riders.
The milestone was also achieved during the same week NYC experienced a near-record rainfall on July 14, and transit crews worked expeditiously to restore service the evening of the storm and through the night to ensure a smooth commute the next day.
Moreover, the 4,121,751 subway riders on July 16 is a new post-pandemic ridership high for the summer.
