The Long Island Rail Road’s commuter satisfaction is tanking after transit bosses hiked fares, ended some ticket options and started slapping riders with surcharges for activating tickets after they’re on board.
Rider satisfaction now sits at 73% after dipping seven points since January’s fare hike and ticket changes —- making it the LIRR’s second drop in the last 3 years and the steepest decline since falling 13% back in 2023, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s own survey.
“The new rules are annoying — [the MTA] gets me from location A to location B without many issues, that’s about it,” LIRR rider Jeremy told The Post about this year’s changes.
Commuters this week railed against the railroad’s changes earlier this year that saw the end of the 10-trip ticket package — good for 60 days — that also included a 15% discount for off-peak hours. Now, riders can only buy weekly or monthly passes with no option to carryover unused rides.
Round-trip passes were axed in favor of “day passes” but both one-way tickets and day passes are only valid until 4 a.m. the day after they’re activated, a change that has commuters with late shifts out of luck.
One of the most loathed changes, commuters said, was a new $8 penalty for riders who activate mobile tickets after they already board the train. That’s in addition to an 8% jump in ticket prices and a 4.5% hike on monthly passes, with an additional 4% hike set for March 2027.
The MTA defended the changes and excused the dip in satisfaction as riders just needing time to adapt.
“Satisfaction stats reflect that some riders are adjusting to the change in fare collection,” a spokesperson for the MTA told The Post about the survey’s results.
“However, that’s delivering higher collection rates at improved speeds, giving conductors more time to help customers,” the agency said, adding that ridership is up and on-time performance is “through the roof.”
Plenty of riders said they’re not “adjusting.”
“It’s bulls-t, there is no benefit for the rider with this,” said Dave, a union sheet metal worker who commutes from Ronkonkoma to Manhattan for work.
Dave, who works the overnight shift, said the elimination of the 10-trip ticket has cost him and others hundreds of dollars in extra fares — and with his schedule, he said buying the weekly and monthly passes would be a waste of money.
“To get either of those is more expensive than me buying individual train tickets, whereas the 10-trip used to accommodate that — but it just doesn’t exist anymore,” he scoffed.
Dave said he doesn’t buy day passes because he works nights and by the time he is returning from work the next morning at the end of a shift his pass has already expired. Instead he has to buy two one-way tickets.
