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Overall, ridership on the Metro-North system in Connecticut and New York was up 1.5 percent in 2014 – 85.2 million passenger trips compared with 83.9 million in 2013, also a record. The New Haven Line and Long Island Railroad remain the busiest commuter lines in the nation. Metro-North is projecting continued ridership growth in 2015 of about 2.2 percent.
“Interestingly, most ridership growth on the railroads has come outside of traditional rush-hour-based commutation patterns,” CTDOT Commissioner James P. Redeker said.
The data demonstrates Connecticut’s need to focus on a continued commitment to its transportation system, including rail, Gov. Dannel Malloy said in a statement.
“With record high ridership, commuters in Connecticut are increasingly choosing to use public transportation, demonstrating that a modern and efficient transportation network is one of the key components of a competitive economic climate,” Malloy said. “The data only further emphasizes the reasons why we need to continue our efforts to improve infrastructure and operations so that we can provide residents with the best-in-class service they need to commute in their daily lives and reinvigorate communities.”
This year, Malloy proposed upgrades to Connecticut’s transportation system, including a recommitment to rail throughout the state and encouraging transit-oriented development that includes new housing, new retail, and new office space.
The proposals include building new stations in Bridgeport, Norwalk and Orange on the New Haven Line; completing a new parking garage at the station in New Haven; and funding to finish design and construction for train stations up and down the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield Line and double-tracking the entire rail line to bring commuter rail service to that section of the state.
Malloy has also proposed funds to upgrade and repair bridges on the New Haven Line, in addition to completing a build-out of a new signal system on the Waterbury Branch that will allow for increased ridership and more frequent service.
Underpinning the overall ridership growth, Redeker said, are changing ticket purchase patterns as a result of three overall factors:
- Workplace locations continue to become less centralized;
- Industries that traditionally favored a 9-to-5 workday such as manufacturing and publishing are giving way to industries with less traditional working hours, such as health care, arts and entertainment, education, and hospitality; and
- Many are increasingly using the railroads for leisure travel.
Ridership growth can also be attributed to increased service, including half-hourly service that was added on the New Haven Line in 2014. In addition, CTDOT and Metro-North added 66 weekly trains in October 2012 and 187 weekly trains in October 2013.
The growth occurred despite unusually harsh winter weather from January 2014 to March 2014.
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