MTA pulling back on proposal to reduce LIRR ticket validity period to 4 hours

 MTA officials, responding to what they said was an unprecedented level of feedback from riders to proposed fare changes, are pulling back a proposal to reduce the validity period for some Long Island Rail Road tickets to just four hours, and are also expanding a discount for families traveling with children.

Ahead of a planned rate hike vote Tuesday, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said Friday they have reconsidered a proposal to shorten validity windows for one-way tickets from the current 60 days to just four hours. The original proposal also would have done away with the need for customers to activate electronic tickets, which instead would have been valid from the moment of purchase.

Under a new proposal, which would apply to both the LIRR and its sister railroad Metro-North, one-way tickets will be valid until 4 a.m. on the day after they were purchased, similar to the MTA policy for CityTickets, which offer reduced railroad fares for travel between stations within New York City. The 4 a.m. validity deadline would apply to print tickets as well. 

Under the revised policy, customers would continue activating e-tickets. MTA officials said the change aimed to address the persistent problem of passengers not activating e-tickets until a conductor comes around to inspect them, with the hope of getting a free ride and saving the ticket for future use.

Jessie Lazarus, deputy chief of commercial ventures for the MTA, said the revision came after the transit authority heard from more than 1,400 riders about the proposed fare plan — more than three times as many public comments as when the MTA last raised fares two years ago. 

A common concern articulated by LIRR riders was that the shortened validity period would greatly restrict their freedom to ride the railroad when they wanted. With just four hours before the ticket was worthless, customers could no longer buy tickets a day early to give to family members unfamiliar with the system. Some riders also raised concerns about being stuck with an LIRR ticket they couldn't use if a service suspension on the railroad forced them to change plans.

"Riders felt that our proposal for the four-hour validity period would create a sort of urgency that we didn't necessarily want to impose," Lazarus said. "We feel really good about our alternative here."

The about-face on the four-hour ticket validity proposal was welcome news for Denis O'Driscoll, who regularly rides the LIRR to Rangers hockey games at Madison Square Garden and often buys train tickets well in advance.

"If I'm planning to meet some people ... I'll buy several tickets, several hours before the train actually arrives. And if I wait until I'm about to get on the train ... it gets kind of dicey," O'Driscoll, of Westbury, said. "We're all kind of conditioned to expect the fares to go up, but when you add other conditions on that, like immediate activation and a four-hour expiration, that's the kind of thing that perks people's ears up. And if you can kind of smooth that over, I think people can live with the increased fare."

Although the LIRR is keeping the e-ticket activation step, Lazarus noted that customers who repeatedly wait until a conductor comes around to activate their ticket could be hit with a surcharge of around $8 for most trips.

In another major change to LIRR ticket policy, the MTA is expanding its railroad Family Fares, which allows children to ride for $1 when traveling with an adult, to children up to 17 years old. Currently, the discount is only offered for children 11 and under.

Gerard Bringmann, chairman of the LIRR Commuter Council, the railroad's state-regulated rider advocacy group, called the fare policy revisions "a mixed bag." He praised the expansion of the Family Fare, which he said "will encourage more people to ride the trains," and the reversal on the proposed four-hour validity period, which he called "ridiculous."

But Bringmann said he'd like to see the validity window extended even further, and remains opposed to the planned elimination of the 10-Trip Ticket. In its place, LIRR riders will get a free electronic ticket after buying 10.

"You’re in the service industry. Why would you want to go out of your way to inconvenience riders?" said Bringmann, who believes the MTA is responding to political pressure to rein in fare evasion. "It’s not a perfect situation. But I guess this is as close to perfect as they can get."

If approved, the new fare policies, which would take effect in January, also will increase the cost of most LIRR tickets by an average of 4.4%, with monthly tickets capped at $500. A monthly pass between Hicksville and Manhattan would go from $287 to $299.75.

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

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.