But Still Below Pre-Pandemic Levels
By Hank Russell
More people on Long Island took the bus and the train and crossed local bridges last year than in the previous year, but the numbers did not reach the same levels as they did before the pandemic.
In its quarterly Travel Patterns report, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (NYMTC) found that the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) averaged 251,450 riders during the second quarter of 2024. While that was 13.1% higher than the same quarter in 2023, there were 21.6% fewer passengers in 2019, the year before the pandemic began.
During the three months, ridership increased on a monthly basis. In April 2024, there were 236,206 riders on the LIRR. That number went up in May 2024 to 250,517 and again in June 2024 to 267,626, according to the NYMTC.
On the Atlantic Beach Bridge, an average of 15,918 crossings took place between April and June 2024, a 5.3% improvement over Q2 2023, but 8.4% less than the same quarter in 2019. The number of crossings grew exponentially from 12,490 in April 2024 to 16,093 (May 2024) to 19,172 (June 2024), based on NYMTC data.
In Nassau County, the number of passengers taking the Nassau Inter-County Express (NICE) in Q2 2024 averaged 71,767, according to data from the NYMTC. While that number is 9.9% more than it was in the same quarter the previous year, it was 9.9% less than it was during April-June 2019.
Over a three-month period, ridership spiked before increasing incrementally. During April of last year, 68,589 passengers took the NICE bus, according to the NYMTC. The following month, the number of passengers quickly rose to 73,023 before leveling off to 73,688 in June 2024.
There was an average of 15,303 passengers on Suffolk County buses between April and June 2024, said the NYMTC report. That was 18.6% greater than the April-June 2023 numbers but a 17.5% drop compared to the same time period in 2019.
Ridership in Suffolk County buses rose month over month, the NYMTC said. The number of passengers went from 13,602 in April 2024 to 15,495 in May 2024 to 16,811 in June 2024.
The City of Long Beach saw monthly increases last year, but sharp declines compared to the previous year and five years before that. The city averaged 361 passengers in Q2 2024, according to NYTMC data, which is a 3.6% drop from Q2 2023’s numbers and a precipitous 63.3% decrease from Q2 2019.
The only positive spot was the monthly improvements to ridership. Between April and June 2024, the numbers grew from 316 to 370 to 398, as NYMTC data showed.
NYMTC’s Travel Patterns report provides a snapshot of travel from New York City, Long Island, the lower Hudson Valley and northern New Jersey. Developed annually and by each quarter of the year, the report measures the average weekday ridership on buses, rail, subways, and ferries along with the vehicular traffic crossing waterway bridges in the NYMTC planning area.
“The data from Travel Patterns and all our many studies are essential for travel demand modeling and transportation planning in general — particularly our federally-mandated work,” said NYMTC Executive Director Adam Levine. “We encourage everyone interested in this data to also use it to better transportation planning in their communities and our region.”