Riders fret return of peak fares

Because I have children, I don’t have a choice. I have to shop.”

Ogunleye, Janet resident

It’s 7:30 on a Friday morning, and it’s rush hour.

Passengers make their way to the Valley Stream train station platform, waiting for a lift — courtesy of the Long Island Rail Road — to Penn Station, more than 20 miles away.

As the train barrels in, riders seem to forget about pandemic-era social distancing and crowd into the cars. Some fill up quickly, others remain unused. But for the moment, the railway station resembles its old self again, without any people.

By the time the next rush hour train rumbles into the station, commuter traffic has thinned to a trickle, a grim reminder that despite efforts to bring back a sense of normalcy to the commuter rails, the effects of the pandemic still remain.   

That hasn’t stopped Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials from trying, however. Ridership has grown enough in recent months to convince riders that it’s time to once again pay peak fares. Commuters looking to get into New York City each weekday morning, or come back to Long Island each weekday evening, can expect to pay a premium up to 27 percent.

But while peak-hours pricing has long been a fixture of rush hour travel, it’s one that many riders seem to have been perfectly fine without over the past two years.

“It’s expensive,” said Andres Alvarez, a construction project manager who commutes every day because he can’t work remotely. “I just feel like everything is going up, that with gas and food. It’s a little too much.”

Ridership overall remains at about half of what it was before the pandemic — at least since the end of February — according to MTA data. More than 66,000 people took an LIRR train on Sunday, Sept. 27 — a 71 percent increase over 2019. But only 110,000 passengers boarded trains the Monday before, just 38 percent of pre-pandemic levels.

The MTA also launched a series of fare discounts to coincide with the return of peak fares, giving monthly ticket holders 10 percent off.

“It’s cheaper for me monthly because I take the monthly” ticket, said Marlene Marshall of Elmont, who typically works from home as a finance controller at the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce four days a week, before heading into the city from the Valley Stream station each Friday.

“They returned to peak fares, but before the pandemic, the fare for me was $270,” Marshall said. “But now it comes in at $243 traveling back and forth from Valley Stream to Penn, or to Brooklyn.”

The LIRR also launched a 20-trip ticket, designed to discount fares by 20 percent. The ticket is valid for 20 peak one-way rides, or 10 round-trip commutes.

Despite the discounts, a number of riders remain less than thrilled with the change.

“I only buy two tickets at a time because I rarely have enough money to buy the monthly ticket” upfront, said Carson Crew, who commutes into the city to study at FIT.

“The commute back and forth is now costing me more, which I didn’t expect when I started this semester. I thought it was going to remain off-peak for a long time. Before, I would have a set amount of money that I would have for transportation each week. But with the return of peak fares in off-peak hours, now I have to budget a little bit more, which is annoying.”

“I’d say it’s definitely a noticeable impact. You can tell it puts a dent in your pocket,” said Naomi Oken, who travels into the city to intern as a teacher. “I’m not really getting paid right now, which is why it’s extra.”

Even physicians like Joseph Gallo are missing some of the pandemic-era pricing as well.

“I was much happier when it was all off-peak,” he said. “I used to take a train that was non-stop from Valley Stream to Penn Station, which hasn’t been running since the pandemic started. They’re charging us the full fare for less service.”

The MTA enjoyed a steady boom in ridership and revenue for much of 2019. That is until the coronavirus brought everything to a grinding halt. Passenger counts plummeted until, at one point, only 3 percent of those who rode in 2019 were still riding in the wake of the pandemic. That led to major revenue losses in, and ultimately service cuts.

“It’s not as crowded as it was before, but the people are returning slowly but surely,” Marshall said. “The Valley Stream train station parking lot starts to get crowded by the time the 6:49 a.m. train comes.”   

But the chances of ridership making a full rebound anytime soon are slim, according to MTA reports. Officials there believe it could take until 2025 for ridership to reach even 80 percent of pre-pandemic levels.

And for riders already feeling financially pinched by peak fares, their situation may worsen with fare hikes looming on the horizon. A 4 percent increase was originally scheduled for earlier this year until Gov. Kathy Hochul put on the brakes.

But that hike could resurface again in 2023, as the MTA looks to recoup millions of dollars in pandemic-era losses.