Metro-North Carrying More Riders To Suburbs Than To NYC

NEW YORK City (AP) — For the first time in its 23-year history, the Metro-North Railroad is carrying more riders from suburb to suburb than to downtown New York, according to data compiled by the railroad.

Shifts in regional employment patterns and efforts by the railroad to attract new types of riders and fill underused trains are major reasons.

The number of traditional suburb-to-Grand Central commuters is not declining. On the contrary, Metro-North’s ridership is higher than ever.

However, other categories of riders — commuters traveling to jobs north of the city, riders traveling between suburbs and shoppers and sightseers — have grown faster.

Commuters to Grand Central made up 49.4 percent of total riders on the three Metro-North lines east of the Hudson River last year, according to the railroad.

That is down from 65.3 percent in 1984, the year after Metro-North took over commuter operations of Conrail in New York and Connecticut. The data do not include two smaller lines that Metro-North operates in Rockland and Orange Counties.

“It’s kind of a benchmark that shows what has been building over the last several years and demonstrates the way the region is changing: more job growth in the suburbs and more diverse commuting patterns,” said Christopher Jones, vice president for research at the Regional Plan Association, a nonprofit organization that monitors transportation and development issues.

The number of jobs in Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess Counties grew by 10.1 percent from 1997 to 2005, an increase of nearly 51,000 jobs, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employment in New York City grew by 7.2 percent in the same period, or an increase of more than 241,000 jobs.

Metro-North’s suburban commuters to Manhattan still fill about two-thirds of the seats on weekdays. But with the growth of other types of riders, including weekend riders, those traditional commuters now contribute less than half the annual number, said Robert MacLagger, director of operations planning for the railroad.

Last year, suburbanites rode 35.9 million one-way trips to and from Grand Central Terminal, up by 17 percent over the 30.6 million such trips recorded in 1984.

But other types of travel on the railroad grew much faster during the same period. The biggest percentage growth was among reverse commuters, whom the railroad defines as people who travel north from Manhattan or the Bronx during the morning rush hour.

One-way trips taken by reverse commuters shot up to 4.5 million in 2005 from 1 million in 1984. In 1984, reverse commuters made up roughly 2 percent of Metro-North riders. Now they make up more than 6 percent.

The biggest group of riders after traditional commuters is made up of what the railroad calls discretionary riders, those who travel during off-peak hours for reasons other than work. In 1984 they accounted for a quarter of all riders. They now represent nearly a third.

And the number of workers traveling between suburban stations has nearly tripled and now makes up 13.5 percent of total trips.