Leisure and tourism travel has boosted weekend ridership on Metro-North Railroad to near pre-pandemic levels while weekday commuting totals continue to lag as workers continue working from home, according to a report issued April 16 by state Comptroller Thomas Di Napoli.
DiNapoli said the commuter rail and its Metropolitan Transportation Authority partners should do more to tap into the popularity of weekend travel to offset financial losses from weekday ridership dips since the pandemic.
“The MTA should continue to focus on increasing the reliability and frequency of service on weekends to meet the ongoing rise in demand,” DiNapoli said. “The authority can also work with its partners in government to address fare evasion’s impact on fare revenue, and focus on improvements in those areas where ridership recovery continues to fall short.”
In 2025, Metro-North’s weekend ridership totaled 229,614, roughly 92% of the 250,228 tallied in 2019, before the pandemic hit. The Long Island Rail Road has fared even better. Its 2025 weekend ridership of 267,567 is 27% above 2019’s total of 210,313.
Metro-North’s recovery tracks with weekend totals on city subways, where 2025’s ridership of 4.8 million was around 90% of 2019 totals.
Manhattan remains a tourist hub
Among the five boroughs, Manhattan has the lowest unemployment rate and remains a popular spot for tourists, the report notes, adding it “is likely benefiting from a near-return in overall tourists, including leisure visitors locally who tour the city.”DiNapoli suggests the commuter rails continue offering Saturday discounts that allow monthly ticket holders to ride anywhere on the railroad at no extra cost, regardless of the station on the ticket. And for an additional $1 each way, monthly ticket holders can bring along up to two additional passengers.
“Such programs likely led to increases in ridership, especially in the summer, and should be continued or expanded to meet demand,” the report notes.
Weekend service represents a fraction of Metro-North’s annual ridership totals.
In 2025, Metro-North’s overall ridership was 71.4 million, around 82% of 2019’s 86.6 million rides. Still, last year’s totals were up 6% from the 67.4 million rides tallied in 2024.
A USA TODAY Network analysis in February 2025 showed that the railroad lost nearly two years of ridership revenue between 2020 and 2025, forcing the railroad and its MTA partners to rely on billions of dollars in state and federal funding.
Thomas C. Zambito covers energy, transportation and economic growth for the USA TODAY Network’s New York State team. He’s won dozens of state and national writing awards from the Associated Press, Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Deadline Club and others during a decades-long career that’s included stops at the New York Daily News, The Star-Ledger of Newark and The Record of Hackensack. He can be reached at tzambito@lohud.com
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Metro-North weekend ridership is surging. How it could keep rising
Reporting by Thomas C. Zambito, New York State Team / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
