LIRR riders will be able to transfer to Metro-North with a single ticket at Grand Central
LIRR conductor Anthony Massa punches tickets on an eastbound train on the Babylon Branch on March 29, 2019. Credit: Newsday / Alejandra Villa Loarca
Long Island Rail Road riders will be able to transfer to a Metro-North train — and vice versa — with a single, discounted fare once both railroads are operating out of Grand Central Terminal, officials said.
With the $11.1-billion East Side Access megaproject nearly done, Catherine Rinaldi, president of Metro-North and interim president of the LIRR — announced the commuter railroad “Combo Ticket.”
Under the pilot program, riders can pay their regular one-way fare to get to Grand Central on one of the railroads, then pay an additional $8 to travel to any destination on the other railroad — a savings of up to $22.50, as compared to the most expensive one-way fare on either LIRR or Metro-North.
The pilot, which Rinaldi said will last “a couple months,” will roll out upon the upcoming opening of the LIRR’s new Grand Central Madison station, located within Metro-North’s longtime Manhattan home, Grand Central Terminal.
“We want to really get people excited about the possibility for travel on both railroads,” Rinaldi said. “We’ll see how it goes before making a permanent decision with respect to whether we’d continue it.”
The program will allow for the creation of several new rail routes on a single fare, including trips from Long Island to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, and trips from Westchester County to John F. Kennedy Airport, via a transfer to the AirTrain at Jamaica.
The longest route would take a passenger from Poughkeepsie to Montauk — 183 miles away.
MTA Board member Samuel Chu, who represents Suffolk, said he expects the new fare will lead to people “finding new and creative ways to enjoy the system.”
“It will make our region that much more interconnected from a recreation and tourism perspective, and also from a work perspective,” Chu said in an interview. “This makes it a lot easier for me to get to a meeting in Westchester without having to take an automobile.”
Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.
