Penn Station’s rail market: the ridership and commuting evidence
Where Long Island Rail Road riders board and how each station has recovered since 2019, set beside NJ Transit boardings, recovery by operator, and the Census count of New York City jobs held by people who live outside the city.
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Grand Central changed the LIRR terminal split while Penn stayed largest.
Penn recorded 38.2 million LIRR rides in 2024, more than twice Grand Central Madison and more than three times Jamaica. Together, the two Manhattan terminals carried 54.8 million LIRR rides, 76% of Penn’s 2019 volume.
- Penn LIRR rides
- 38.2M
- Grand Central Madison
- 16.6M
- Penn share of the two
- 70%
Jamaica shows the strongest large-station rebound.
Jamaica handled 11.3 million rides and reached 129% of its 2019 level. A Penn plan built around the old one-terminal peak commute misses the transfer market that now carries more of the system.
- Jamaica rides in 2024
- 11.3M
- of its 2019 level
- 129%
The strongest recoveries sit outside the traditional peak commute.
Mets-Willets Point, Forest Hills, Far Rockaway, East New York, Nostrand Avenue, and several East End stations finished above their 2019 levels. Of the 126 stations mapped, 28 did.
- Below 60%
- 60–79%
- 80–99%
- 100–124%
- 125% or more
City and East End station markets outran the Long Island commuter market.
New York City stations reached 108% of 2019. Long Island stations reached 74%. East End stations were smaller in total volume, but reached 124%.
Off-peak branch travel belongs in the Penn test.
West Hempstead, Ronkonkoma, Hempstead, and the western Huntington market exceeded 2019 off-peak activity. A through-running alternative needs full-day schedules, reverse-peak service, equipment movements, and branch pairings.
The station pattern depends on the service pattern.
The Atlantic Terminal–Jamaica branch and the Grand Central Madison connector put Brooklyn, Jamaica, Woodside, and Midtown in the same terminal network. East Side Access showed that riders respond to frequency, destination, transfers, fares, and reliability, rather than only the number of trains entering Manhattan.
NJ Transit keeps the west side of Penn in the same planning frame.
NJ Transit recorded 62,786 average weekday boardings at New York Penn in the first quarter of fiscal 2025, with another 18,873 at Secaucus, 15,755 at Newark Penn, and 8,334 at Hoboken. Total NJ Transit rail trips, 200,700 a weekday, reached 63% of 2019.
Regional rail recovery is uneven across operators.
April 2026 ridership reached 88% of April 2019 on LIRR, 80% on Metro-North, 74% on PATH, and 69% on NJ Transit commuter rail.
The New York City labor market reaches far beyond the five boroughs.
Census LODES data for 2023 record 1.33 million New York City jobs held by workers living outside the city. Nassau, Westchester, Suffolk, Hudson, Bergen, Essex, Fairfield, Middlesex, Rockland, and Orange lead the county table.
The next artifact is an operating model.
The market evidence sets the agenda: station-pair demand, full-day branch pairings, reverse-peak frequencies, tunnel slots, platform assignments, dwell times, yard moves, fleet cycles, crew assumptions, and reliability modeling.
Related research: the case for through-running, Study Watch, and where the region goes to work. How the data is prepared: methods.
Sources
- The LIRR Today, FOIL ticket-sales analysis of 2024 LIRR station ridership.
- NJ Transit, average weekday rail station and line boardings workbook through the first quarter of fiscal 2025.
- Federal Transit Administration, National Transit Database monthly ridership through April 2026.
- U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD LODES8, 2023 worker origins into New York City.
- MTA, LIRR schedule data (GTFS) for route geometry, with the Atlantic Terminal–Jamaica and Grand Central Madison connector paths.