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Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Chair and CEO Janno Lieber and Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) Interim President and Metro-North President Catherine Rinaldi spent Wednesday morning’s rush hour at the LIRR’s center of operations, known as Jamaica Central Control (JCC), in Jamaica, Queens. During their visit, Chair Lieber and President Rinaldi observed operations in real-time, directing their attention to travel pattens such as train capacity, dwell times at stations and other operational intricacies involved in running 936 daily trains, the highest number of any commuter railroad in the country.
“We’re closely monitoring train operations and ridership data every day,” said LIRR Interim President and Metro-North President Catherine Rinaldi. “These new schedules are the largest overhaul of timetables in the LIRR’s history. While we are thrilled many people are saving time on their commute with the opening of Grand Central Madison, we understand that the new service plan is a big change for our Brooklyn and Penn Station customers. We are paying close attention to ridership data, including service options to and from Brooklyn during peak periods. We have already started to lengthen our busiest trains and will continue to monitor ridership patterns under the new schedule to see what future adjustments may be necessary.”
On the third day of historic new schedules, the LIRR carried 60,652 morning peak passengers. Of those that traveled to Manhattan, 71% traveled to Penn Station and 29% traveled to Grand Central Madison. Since the implementation of the new schedules on Monday, Feb. 27, a total of 59,401 passengers have taken a peak direction train to or from Grand Central Madison.