The MTA’s discount ticket for commuter rail riders who stay within the five boroughs has now saved straphangers more than $100 million, Gov. Hochul said Monday.
“For years, residents of the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens had high-quality rail service right at their doorsteps, but the fare was too high,” Hochul said in a statement memorializing the milestone. “By making LIRR and Metro-North service more affordable for city riders, we have welcomed millions of new customers, getting New Yorkers out of their cars and onto fast, reliable rail service in and out of Manhattan.”
The CityTicket allows passengers to ride the Long Island Rail Road or Metro-North for $7 one way during peak hours or $5 during off-peak — as long as their trip begins and ends within New York’s city limits.
Since March 2022, when the program — which began as a pilot in January 2004 — expanded to include all off-peak trains, 37.2 million CityTickets have been sold, according to the governor’s office. Peak-hour trains were included in 2023.
In a statement, MTA Chairman Janno Lieber called the program “a smash success.”
“It’s another proof point that low-cost, reliable transit is one of our most important solutions to the affordability crisis, especially for folks outside Manhattan,” he said.
CityTicket was initially proposed in 2001 by the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA. It began in 2004 as a weekends-only ticket option. Current PCAC head Lisa Daglian welcomed the milestone.
“Seeing it become permanent, seeing it become 24/7, it really opens up the commuter railroads to people who live in subway deserts,” Daglian told the Daily News. “This is how PCAC envisioned CityTicket when we put it forward.”
Daglian said she and PCAC were continuing to advocate for a weekly CityTicket option with free transfers to the New York City subway. A similar ticket for LIRR riders, known as the Atlantic Ticket, was discontinued in 2023.
Originally Published:
