The Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad capped off 2025 with extraordinary performance and ridership growth, setting new records for both services.
The LIRR led the charge with a 9 percent increase in ridership, totaling 81 million customers. In December alone, the railroad hit several milestones, including its highest post-pandemic Saturday ridership with 183,250 riders on Dec. 13, and the highest Sunday ridership since the pandemic with 152,661 riders on Dec. 21.
This growth reflects a larger trend throughout the year, as the LIRR reached over 300,000 passengers in a single day on Sept. 24 for the first time since the pandemic. With a 96 percent on-time performance rate, the LIRR also achieved its best reliability score in over a decade, an increase of one percentage point from 2024.
Rider satisfaction surged to 81 percent, an 11-point boost from the previous year.
Not to be outdone, Metro-North Railroad also posted impressive results. With OTP reaching nearly 98 percent in 2025, Metro-North achieved its highest levels of reliability in recent years.
The railroad carried 69 million riders, a 6 percent increase over 2024, with notable spikes in ridership during the winter holiday season. The week of Dec. 15 saw Metro-North’s highest post-pandemic ridership, with 827,015 total riders.
Metro-North’s “Super-Express” service, launched ahead of schedule on Oct. 5, further enhanced the passenger experience, cutting travel times between Poughkeepsie and Grand Central to under 90 minutes.
These gains were part of a larger, region-wide growth in MTA ridership in 2025, which saw nearly 1.9 billion trips across all services, including the subway and buses.
Gov. Kathy Hochul praised the MTA’s achievements, highlighting the significant improvements in service and ridership across the system. Reflecting on the milestone year, she emphasized how investments in mass transit are driving both performance and growth, benefiting riders and the broader region.
“This is what happens when you invest in mass transit: better service, faster trips, and increasing ridership, benefitting the entire region,” she said “[The year] 2025 was a record-breaking year for the MTA and a great year for riders, who took almost two billion trips, powering the entire region. Transit is the lifeblood of New York, and in 2026, we will build on these results to continue improving service, saving New Yorkers precious time and powering our economy.”
Improved reliability and record ridership in 2025 were the result of sustained investments in infrastructure and service enhancements, including a focus on increasing subway and bus frequencies and expanding rail services. On the LIRR, for instance, new schedules and more trains helped accommodate the surge in demand, while Metro-North’s modernized “Super-Express” services added new options for commuters.
However, as the MTA looks ahead to 2026, fare hikes are on the horizon. Starting Jan. 4, all MTA services—including the LIRR and Metro-North—will see a price increase. This move is intended to help offset rising operational costs and ensure continued improvements to service and infrastructure.
