LIRR and MNR Train Numbers

Both the LIRR and MNR number each and every one of their trains- from your regular morning commuter train to their work, equipment, and deadhead moves. Instead of just numbering each one down the line as the day goes through starting with one, they both follow a system segregating each trains number by what line/stops it's serves.

Almost all train numbers for both Long Island Railroad consist of 1, 2, 3, or even 4 digits. They all follow a naming system with the first digit or two serving as the "series" for the branch. Each branch is assigned a number "block" and every train on that branch must start with those numbers. Here's the table showing all the LIRR's train numbers:

(Photo: The LIRR Today)

To form weekend train numbers, you add 6000 to weekday train numbers (i.e train #5 would be #6005). To find non-revenue/deadhead moves, just add 3000. It's also very important to note that westbound trains are odd, meanwhile, eastbound trains are even. That rule is always followed, period.

At lunchtime (noon), train numbers generally skip-forward to the midpoint (i.e 350, 750, 850). This is mainly done on all branches except The Montauk Branch, where trains are numbered by terminal instead.

For the LIRR, train numbers are generally numbered sequentially, however, more then enough exceptions. As the LIRR has been tweaking train terminals for trains since East Side Access, gaps in the train numbers have formed. In addition, gaps were already present as they left gaps were they may add trains in the future (think the gap left between Montauk branch trains #17 and #21). If they can't add a train in the middle, then, they'll typically add the train in at the end of the series (#799, #6095, #2099), this is done to avoid changing already established train numbers. Numbers for special trains, extra trains, seasonal trains, etc are also added towards the end of the series.

Metro-North is a bit more complicated, however, as they do number their trains based on the branch, but, they do it in a way that is slightly less easy to understand.

(Photo: Tri-State Rail NOW)

As you can see, Metro-North does it in a more complicated way. You'll notice that like the LIRR, each terminal has it's own number, and diesel territory train numbers are separate from electric territory. The difference is, multiple of the terminals for MNR have a couple of different numbers. On The Harlem Line, for example, Metro-North has two train numbers for North White Plains, #300-399 and #500-599. For #300-399, all of the Crestwood trains are numbered through that, in addition to some of the locals, #500-599 is generally for the express trains from North White Plains, yet some of the locals are #500-599 too. There's no real consistency. 

Metro-North's weekend train numbers are found by adding 9000. Unlike the LIRR, inbound trains to Grand Central are numbered even, meanwhile, outbound trains are numbered odd. Once Penn Station access is finished, the train numbers are expected to change for MNR once they roll out the brand new schedule. It'll be interesting to see how the schedule turns out.

The LIRR fare situation is worsening

The LIRR fare situation is getting out of control. It really is. The LIRR has now announced yet another fare hike, this one is for the entire agency. However, the LIRR is getting beaten by the stick the most, as, unlike their the New York City Transit and their sister railroad, Metro-North, which is actively trying to increase ridership through additional service, especially during the off-peak hours, the LIRR is trying to hurt it. 

Ridership

The affects of this impact ridership greatly. Generally speaking, the LIRR's ridership is increasing- to the point where it shattered post-pandemic ridership levels, as Kathy Hochul boasted at a press release. However, that doesn't mean ridership is booming all over the island as in fact, that is not the case. It's safe to say that ridership at LIRR stations located within New York City is growing, and that's mainly thanks to improved service and expansion of CityTicket to include peak hours bringing down the average fare from $6.37 in 2019 all the way down to $5.88 in 2024. That's a great thing. Bringing more people in NYC to the LIRR will greatly help reduce crowding on the already overcrowded subway lines, specifically the IRT Flushing Line and it will also help to reduce traffic on the cities way over congested roads, too. 

However, on Long Island, which should be the railroad's main focus, ridership hasn't even reached 3 quarters of what it once was. And while that's still partly due to the pandemic, it's also because of fares. The average fares for Long Island stations are up a whopping 10% from last year, raising what once was a $8.89 trip in 2019 and making it $9.73 in 2024. Ridership is failing short of pre-pandemic levels at all but 2 stations on Long Island, and with the exception of the South Fork, which is actually doing much better, thanks to SFCC, ridership just isn't going up.

The @mtalirr.bsky.social is pricing itself into irrelevance...We met up with a group of four who drove all the way into Manhattan. Even with garage parking ($20), two QMT tolls ($13.88), CBD Toll ($6) ($39.88 total)It was STILL third of the price of LIRR ($122) from zone 10. Will only get worse.

— The LIRR Today (@thelirrtoday.bsky.social) August 16, 2025 at 1:28 PM

And what's gonna make things even worse is the proposed fare hike for later in the year, which will further increase fares, and not only that, but it'll also shorten the validity period for one-way/round-trip tickets from 60 days to 4 hours! 

Less fares = more ridership

The answer is this: less fares = more ridership. It's that plain and simple. We've seen it over and over again. The largest driver of ridership is better fare incentives. The LIRR, right now, needs to focus it's efforts on developing a new fare system, one that's cheaper and more rational, one that promotes off-peak travel, not hurts it.

The LIRR is at the point where they either got to step-it-up, and deal with the fare situation, or watch as ridership plummets, as the railroad slowly declines into a shell of it's former self, something that's irrelevant, hard to use, and eventually, politically unsustainable.

Possible LIRR strike on horizon as 5 unions say

The Long Island Railroad could soon face a strike by half of it's workforce, says Newsday's very own Alfonso Castillo. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and 4 other unions have stated that the unions and the LIRR "have been unable to reach a voluntary settlement". The union leaders wrote that they reject the board's offer of a 9.5% raise, and would rather face a federally mandated 30 day cool-day "cool-down period". Afterward, the governor may request that the White House intervene to prevent a strike. This would consist of the two Presidential Emergency Boards, which are White House appointed meditators.

Legally speaking, if the White House doesn't intervene, then, the LIRR workers could legally be aloud to go on strike next month. Having a strike for the Long Island Railroad would be detrimental for Long Island. The LIRR is the nation's busiest commuter railroad and if they were to go on strike, there is no possible way the LIRR would be able to provide even half of the service they currently do. Who knows what the temporary service plan would be.

The last LIRR strike was 31 years ago- on Friday, June 17, 1994, and was quick, settled in time for the Monday morning rush hour. The last time LIRR union workers wanted to go on strike was in 2014, but it was resolved 3 days before the actual work stoppage was set to begin.

MTA to add service to the A and L lines

So in June the MTA announced that they are looking to add a combined additional six extra round trips across the entire subway, with 1 additional round trip to both the Far Rockaway/and Lefferts Blvd portions of the A line during middays on weekends, and in addition to four extra L morning rush hour trips, bringing the headways up from 20 to 22 tph. The L can now handle 22 tph with recent electrical improvements. They said this will help bring down their load from 94% at 8am all the way down to 84%. They also want to shift some weekend trips on the L slightly earlier in the evening to help with crowding from events. 

Real Time Train Information

You wake up slightly late, so then you rush to the train station, you then arrive at your station, in the morning, and you peer down the platform into the sunrise, looking at the right-of-way, hoping to see the headlights of your train. While the headlights don’t appear, shortly afterward you hear the announcement on the PA system  saying “the 7:15 train to Penn Station will arrive in 2 minutes”, so you wait. Eventually, after 6 minutes of waiting, you see the headlights of your train either coming around the bend or off in the distance. You then reposition yourself on the platform in hopes of getting a good seat. The train then comes, and your on your merry way. However, you wish there was a way for the ETA of the train to actually be somewhat accurate, not an estimate that turns out to be rather far-off. 

The railroad's AVPS system (the ETA system) is actually one of the best in North America. It consists of multiple LED screens, along the length of each platform, in waiting areas, and near the ticket machines. Each one features audible announcements that can be heard throughout the station letting you know how soon the train is. And, generally, it does a decent job of that. However, there's no denying, that there's lot to improve mainly in the area of real-time train prediction.

Photo: The LIRR Today on Bluesky

However, in order to address the areas for improvement, I need to explain how the AVPS system works in the first place. The LIRR has a system called TIMACS (Train Information Management and Control System), which keeps track of the time each train hits each interlocking and station. It works as part of the signalling system and at each signalling point (i.e JAY interlocking), the train will take note of what time the train hit the interlocking, and what time it was supposed to (aka it was supposed to hit BWD at 7:15am, but it hit BWD at 7:19am). It then uses this information to calculate the estimated arrival time for the train. In addition, if the TIMACS system is down, or the other way around, most of the trains also feature GPS which allows for an even more fine method to track actually down to earth where the trains are.

When you combine all these systems, one can come to the conclusion that the LIRR is pretty well covered in figuring out exactly where trains are. However, one can also wonder why the predictions can be so off at times. The system currently in place is far from perfect as it faces multiple issues. 

The first is that if a train is in a bad disruption, one bad enough to keep it from moving altogether, then the AVPS system won't update, therefore, if your train stopped at CI for example at 6:50am, and is supposed to arrive at Brentwood at 6:56am, but is still held at Brentwood at 6:56am, then it would still be displayed as on-time, even though the train hadn't even left CI! Another example of this is that if there's no points to update the train, and GPS isn't working, then, it won't be able to give a good estimate. For example, imagine your at Amagansett on a nice summer Friday at 10:09pm, waiting for the 10:25pm to Jamaica. The train left Montauk on time at 10:04pm, but had to stop somewhere in Napeague. 

The problem is that it would continue to count down to that scheduled 10:25pm arrival,  and at 10:25pm, it would say the train is arriving, meanwhile it's only halfway to Amagansett. The only time it would actually update is if it's marked held, and in a smaller disruption like this that will bring the train to a halt for only minutes, that's probably unlikely to happen. This is the LIRR downright lying to people, as they are saying the train is arriving, when it's really not. 

Photos: Farmingdale (8/2025)

 

NJTransit to build new station in New Brunswick

 If you haven’t heard already, NJTransit has been working on a brand-new station located in North Brunswick. 

The new station, located along the “Jersey speedway” section of the Northeast Corridor in  North Brunswick which is just outside New Brunswick. Its goal is to add a new infill station between Princeton Junction and New Brunswick, to finally close that long stretch of gap that takes thirteen minutes to travel via rail and 30 to drive, just slightly. The goal is to reduce traffic on route 1, and hopefully, it will do so.

Rendering of the project.

The project is nearing the construction phase as it’s 60% designed as of yesterday and the projected cost is 30 million.

In addition to the brand-new station, New Jersey Transit also has a couple other plans in the area. 

Firstoff, they plan to build a balloon loop in the area to turn trains that originate from Jersey Avenue during rush hours. From my understanding of this, the goal of this is to allow trains to turn without tying up the NEC tracks that are at capacity during the morning rush hour.  

They are also, apparently building a "train haven" where trains could be stored if weather conditions hit the severe level.