MTA Extends LIRR Atlantic Ticket Program

Posted by Transit Blogger

June 24, 2019

In what is great news for some riders (including myself!), the MTA Long Island Rail Road has announced it is extending its Atlantic Ticket program for another year. Here are the details via the press release I received:

Long Island Rail Road President Phillip Eng today announced that the LIRR will continue its Atlantic Ticket field study for an additional year.

Atlantic Ticket offers discounted LIRR fares for customers traveling between Brooklyn and seven stations in Queens. The study, which began in June 2018, is measuring the impact the lower fare is having on ridership on the LIRR and New York City Transit’s subways and buses.

“We are seeing some promising results from Atlantic Ticket,” Eng said. “We hope this continues to support our common goal of providing more public mass transit options and giving our customers a better commute.”

With connections to nine subway lines at Atlantic Terminal, travel time to Lower Manhattan is comparable to traveling from Penn Station. As part of the metrics it is evaluating through the study, the LIRR is monitoring customer volumes at Penn Station and Atlantic Terminal to gauge whether there is a notable shift of travel habits.

“We have seen riders move from Penn Station to Atlantic Terminal,” Eng said, “balancing riders out across the western terminals.”

Under the study, the fare for a one-way LIRR ticket between Brooklyn and seven Queens stations is $5.00 at all times of day, a reduction of 51% from the baseline peak fare of $10.25, and a reduction of 33% from the baseline off-peak fare of $7.50.

The combined one-way fare covering the LIRR and NYC Transit portions of a trip is $7.75 ($5 for the LIRR Atlantic Ticket and $2.75 for NYC Transit pay-per-ride fare).

Atlantic Ticket also offers a $60.00 joint weekly unlimited-ride ticket valid for LIRR travel between the selected stations and transfers to NYC subways and buses. Compared to the current fares in Southeast Queens, this joint weekly ticket offers a 42.5% discount over the baseline two-system fare of $104.25.

The 10 LIRR stations covered under the field study are listed below along with convenient subway connections.

Brooklyn

Atlantic Terminal

East New York

Nostrand Avenue

Queens

Hollis

Jamaica

Laurelton

Locust Manor

Queens Village

Rosedale

St. Albans

Customers can purchase the Atlantic Ticket at ticket machines or from ticket sales offices and have the option to add a $5.50 New York City Transit fare to their one way or round trip tickets. The Atlantic Ticket is not available via the MTA’s eTix app or from conductors on board trains.

Between Brooklyn and Jamaica, the LIRR offers direct rush hour service of roughly every 10 minutes, and off-peak service every 30 minutes.

From Hollis, Laurelton, Locust Manor, Queens Village, Rosedale and St. Albans, the LIRR offers rush hour service roughly every 20 minutes and hourly off-peak service. Off-peak trains serve Brooklyn stations directly. For some peak-hour trains, customers traveling to Brooklyn on Atlantic Ticket need to change trains at Jamaica. Customers on these trains who remain on the train and travel to Penn Station are charged the normal, higher fares during that portion of the trip.