MTA Railroad Ticket Sales 
Overview 
General Description 
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public-benefit corporation responsible for public 
transportation in the state of New York serving 12 counties in southeastern New York, along with two 
counties in southwestern Connecticut under contract to the Connecticut Department of Transportation 
(CDOT). The you are MTA is the largest transportation network in North America. 
The Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) is the busiest commuter railroad in North America, serving customers 
from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County on Long Island.  
Metro-North Railroad (MNR) is the second-busiest commuter railroad in North America, connecting 
Manhattan with the Bronx, the Hudson Valley, and Connecticut. Service east of the Hudson River 
consists of the Hudson, Harlem, and New Haven lines, which originate at Grand Central Terminal. 
Service west of the Hudson River consists of the Port Jervis and Pascack Valley lines, which originate at 
Hoboken Terminal in New Jersey, and are operated under contract with New Jersey Transit. 
This dataset presents daily ticket sales for the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad, 
aggregated by sales channel, ticket and fare attributes, and origin, destination, via, and device station 
details. Each row represents the total number of tickets sold for a unique combination of these 
dimensions on a given day. 
This dataset was published through MTA’s Open Data Program, which is committed to increasing 
transparency through high-quality open data and accompanying resources. We continually examine all 
our published and publishable data with a view to both providing datasets that can be effectively 
utilized by our customers and the public at large, and to providing regular, automated updates to these 
datasets efficiently and sustainably. Consequently, this dataset may be restructured and/or combined 
with other similar datasets in the future. 
Data Collection Methodology 
This dataset aggregates ticket sales records from four source systems that collectively cover all paper 
and mobile ticket sales for LIRR and MNR. FareGo captures paper ticket sales for both LIRR and MNR 
from newer ticket vending machines located in the railroad stations. Central Support System (CSS) is 

used exclusively by MNR and captures paper ticket sales from older ticket vending machines as well as 
over-the-counter sales at staffed station ticket windows. Ticket Selling System (TSS) is used exclusively 
by LIRR and captures paper ticket sales from older ticket vending machines, over-the-counter sales at 
staffed ticket windows, and on-board sales. Masabi is utilized by both LIRR and MNR and captures 
mobile ticket purchases made through the MTA’s TrainTime app. Each source provides transaction-level 
ticket sales data.  
Records from each channel are mapped to a common set of columns and combined into a single table. 
Station identifiers for origin, destination, via, and device stations, which vary in format across source 
systems, are mapped to a unified station reference dataset to produce consistent station codes, names, 
zones, and branch assignments. The ‘Sold As’ field use a standardized set of values across all channels, 
providing a consistent classification of the ticket purchase type. The ‘Via’ (code, name, zone, and branch) 
fields include categorical information about the station that the ticketed passenger went through if the 
origin and destinations are not connected by one route. Given the nature of the types of trips that use 
‘Via’, this is not a common field populated in the dataset. In addition, it is important to note that MNR 
ticketing does not use the ‘Via’ fields. Device station fields (code, name, zone, and branch) identify the 
physical location of the ticket vending or selling machine where the purchase occurred. These fields are 
not applicable to Masabi eTickets, which are purchased via mobile device. Other fields, including ’Sale 
Packet’ and ’Ticket Type’, retain the values provided by each source system and may differ in naming 
conventions across channels.  
Records are aggregated daily by railroad, sales channel, sales packet, article number, ticket type, sold as 
type, fare type, and the full set of station attributes (origin, destination, via, and device). The measure 
column ‘Number of Tickets’ reports the count of tickets sold for each unique combination of these 
dimensions on a given date. For all non-commutation tickets, the ‘Number of Tickets’ sold field already 
incorporates the ridership impact for those ticket types, e.g., a ‘Number of Tickets’ value of 70 in a row 
for a Ten Trip ticket implies that seven physical tickets were sold valid for a total of 70 rides. 
Statistical and Analytic Issues 
Data currently is not available for West of Hudson service since it is operated under contract with New 
Jersey Transit. 
Limitations of Data Use 
There are no limitations on the data at this time. 

Release Notes 
Version 1.0.0 initial release (07/23/2026) 
 
