City Ticket: Has anyone noticed?

Hi everyone!! this is my very first post on Railroad.net What I would like to know is has anyone noticed how ridership is on SAT/SUN from stations such as Little Neck,Queens Village and Rosedale-stations close to the Queens/Nassau line - has there been a notable increase in ridership? I am assuming that because the fare differential is so steep-R/T city ticket $5 compared to $5.25 OW from zone four? In my opinion,the LIRR will not institute City Ticket on weekdays for the following reasons: The stations on the east end of zone 3 would become 'magnet' stations and have potential parking problems also this would also create'magnet' trains-trains just before and after the peak period where the cost would be substantially lower - therefore attracting riders. I have noticed there are some pitfalls with City Ticket-namely:Good only on date sold and sold as one way only with NO REFUND. If you purchase your ticket on the train,you must pay $7.50 - a $5 penalty-the highest on the LIRR now but with the fare increase,the CT goes to $3 but the OB charge is $10-a $7 penalty - the highest on the LIRR!! Thanks All - MACTRAXX

when the city tickets first came out, I notice a big increase in ridership, especially on branches such as the PT. Washington and Far Rockaway. But after they temporarily stopped the city ticket program and reinstated it again, I have actually come across few of these tickets, (then again, I do work on the Ronkonkoma branch). I'm sure once the weather gets better, ridership will increase again with these tickets. The folks on the PT. Wash branch really benefit from it the most with most stations being within zone 3. I'm not really sure what will come of these tickets when the fares are raised next month. They will most likely rise to $3.00.

Everyone:

Ten years ago this was my very first post after joining Railroad.net on February 7,2005 and this past weekend
I bumped up this topic on the subject of the City Ticket but it was lost due to the recent website problems...
I got minimal feedback then and I thought that it would be appropriate to revive this topic now...

What I would like to know if eastern Queens stations that are near the Queens-Nassau boundary have attracted
riders from western Nassau County taking advantage of using the City Ticket on weekends?

Have Little Neck, Queens Village and Rosedale attracted riders on weekends that would normally use Great Neck,
Bellerose, Floral Park and Valley Stream respectively noting their somewhat close proximity to one another?

Ten years ago the City Ticket was a experiment that looks to have become a permanent part of the LIRR fare
structure - a weekend incentive benefit for Queens riders...

The current City Ticket fare is $4 while a zone four off peak one way is $8 - literally half price...

The current off peak fares from City Zone One are - zone one $5.75 and zone three $7.00

With the new fares effective March 20, 2015 the City Ticket will increase to $4.25 and the
new off peak one way fares will be - City Zone One and: zone one $6; zone three $7.25
and zone four $8.25

The on board fares from City Zone One to zone one $12 and zone three $13 will remain
the same and the minimum $8 on board penalty charge is the LIRR's highest when the
City Ticket is in effect on weekends...

See: http://web.mta.info/mta/cityticket.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; for more information...

Ten years ago I joined Railroad.net and I made a vow to myself that I would contribute here in a positive
manner to the best of my ability and if it became a negative experience I would stop posting and walk away...

Railroad.net has a wealth of information from a wide variety of sources and I enjoy reading the dialogue here
and learning about railroading from fellow members is one of the best features of these forums...

Thoughts from MACTRAXX

The answer to your question is yes.

Many zone 4 riders will also buy a city ticket going eastbound and "miss" their stop. If they are caught, they are to be charged the full on-board zone 3 to 4 price of $11.

The LIRR sold 1,174,642 CityTickets in 2013, which works out to be about 11,295 CityTickets per weekend day.

As the poster immediately above noted, many Nassau County riders like to "have their cake and eat it too" by buying the discounted ticket and "accidentally" riding across the border into Nassau County. If I remember correctly, there was a time when the LIRR would have extra collectors on the Port Washington Branch trains to go through after Little Neck and charge the penny-pinching carry-bys the onboard fare, but I don't believe that's the case much anymore, nor do I know how frequently the train crew goes through the train after Little Neck to collect those additional fares.

lirr42 wrote:As the poster immediately above noted, many Nassau County riders like to "have their cake and eat it too" by buying the discounted ticket and "accidentally" riding across the border into Nassau County. If I remember correctly, there was a time when the LIRR would have extra collectors on the Port Washington Branch trains to go through after Little Neck and charge the penny-pinching carry-bys the onboard fare, but I don't believe that's the case much anymore, nor do I know how frequently the train crew goes through the train after Little Neck to collect those additional fares.

Why would that require extra collectors? All it takes is for the regular crew to use seat checks heading east, punched for the destination zone, something I don't think I've ever seen.

boblothrope wrote:

lirr42 wrote:As the poster immediately above noted, many Nassau County riders like to "have their cake and eat it too" by buying the discounted ticket and "accidentally" riding across the border into Nassau County. If I remember correctly, there was a time when the LIRR would have extra collectors on the Port Washington Branch trains to go through after Little Neck and charge the penny-pinching carry-bys the onboard fare, but I don't believe that's the case much anymore, nor do I know how frequently the train crew goes through the train after Little Neck to collect those additional fares.

Why would that require extra collectors? All it takes is for the regular crew to use seat checks heading east, punched for the destination zone, something I don't think I've ever seen.

Your guess is as good as mine... I guess it might have to do with the relatively short amount of time between Little Neck and Great Neck/MHT/PDM/PWS compared to how long it takes to sell an oboard fare, but, still, getting one onboard fare is still more than nothing. I also hardly see seatchecks used on eastbound trains.

Considering the 5 minute window at Port Washington, Section A has no interest in hearing about a request for police assistance at Great Neck for a fare dispute.

inthebag wrote:Considering the 5 minute window at Port Washington, Section A has no interest in hearing about a request for police assistance at Great Neck for a fare dispute.

I have often wondered why the railroad has things so tight on the Port Washington end instead of the Great Neck end for that segment of single track... Considering a train is more likely to be delayed coming all the way from New York than it is on the 10 minute trip from Port Washington, having trains depart within a few minutes of each other at Great Neck sounds like it would likely reduce conflicts along the branch.

Everyone: 4/2/2017

With the March 2017 fare increase the City Ticket price remained at $4.25 for weekend travel
within City Zone One and Zone Three destinations.

What did increase is the off peak onboard fare between Zone 1 and Zone 3 which is now $14.
This creates the highest on board penalty charge on the entire railroad at $9.75.
The off peak on board charge between City Zone One stations is $12 or $7.75 more.

The off peak differential between the City Ticket fare of $4.25 and the Zone 4 off peak one way
fare of $8.75 is now literally double (plus 25 cents) and in itself would be incentive to turn Zone
3 eastern stations (Little Neck, Queens Village and Rosedale) into "magnet" stations attracting
riders from Nassau County Zone 4 stations in somewhat close proximity.

There has been discussion previously about what lower fares for Queens and Brooklyn stations
could offer but as we realize this could bring its own problems such as Zone 4 riders trying to
use these lower cost fares to save money or creating a huge fare differential that will only to
create more problems for the LIRR - especially for the employees that have to enforce these
rules to try and curb abuse that may result from any substantial changes from lower fares.

The weekend City Ticket has had a run of more then a decade and has been successful but
unless the City of New York is willing to pay huge subsidy increases to the MTA I do not see
any expansion of times for lower fares from what is available now.

MACTRAXX

With the introduction of eTix, Zone 4 CityTicket abuse has increased.