Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) President Phillip Eng today announced that the LIRR will continue its Atlantic Ticket field study for an additional year.
Atlantic Ticket offers discounted LIRR fares for customers traveling between Brooklyn and seven stations in Queens. The study, which began in June 2018, is measuring the impact the lower fare is having on ridership on the LIRR and New York City Transit’s subways and buses.
“We are seeing some promising results from Atlantic Ticket,” Eng said. “We hope this continues to support our common goal of providing more public mass transit options and giving our customers a better commute.”
With connections to nine subway lines at Atlantic Terminal, travel time to Lower Manhattan is comparable to traveling from Penn Station. As part of the metrics it is evaluating through the study, the LIRR is monitoring customer volumes at Penn Station and Atlantic Terminal to gauge whether there is a notable shift of travel habits.
“We have seen riders move from Penn Station to Atlantic Terminal,” Eng said, “balancing riders out across the western terminals.”
Under the study, the fare for a one-way LIRR ticket between Brooklyn and seven Queens stations is $5.00 at all times of day, a reduction of 51 percent from the baseline peak fare of $10.25, and a reduction of 33% from the baseline off-peak fare of $7.50.
The combined one-way fare covering the LIRR and NYC Transit portions of a trip is $7.75 ($5 for the LIRR Atlantic Ticket and $2.75 for NYC Transit pay-per-ride fare).
Atlantic Ticket also offers a $60.00 joint weekly unlimited-ride ticket valid for LIRR travel between the selected stations and transfers to NYC subways and buses. Compared to the current fares in Southeast Queens, this joint weekly ticket offers a 42.5 percent discount over the baseline two-system fare of $104.25.
