Jamaica Station — which is 113 years old and was last renovated 23 years ago — is the fourth-busiest commuter rail station in North America, behind only Penn Station, Grand Central Terminal, and Union Station in Toronto, according to Hochul’s office. The L.I.R.R.’s Commuter Council chairman, Gerard Bringmann, said his “wish list for a reimagined Jamaica Station would include elevators on the west end of the platforms, more plentiful seating, additional restrooms, new dining options, and measures to shield commuters from the elements, especially during winter,” according to Newsday. The station could be reconfigured so fewer commuters have to struggle up and down stairs to change trains.
Meanwhile, another upgrade to the Jamaica experience is coming from another budget line over at the M.T.A., with some half-billion dollars being dedicated to reconfiguring the tracks to reduce “the Jamaica crawl,” the L.I.R.R. sensation so familiar to travelers, when trains coming into the station slow down to a creeping tortoise’s pace.
It’s not all sunshine and lollipops for Long Island train passengers, however. As the right hand giveth, the left hand taketh away.
With an ongoing labor dispute between L.I.R.R. labor unions and the M.T.A., the threat of a strike that has loomed for some three years may finally come to pass in 2026. Meanwhile, the M.T.A. bumped up L.I.R.R. ticket prices at the turn of the new year, raising the cost of weekly and monthly passes by 4.5 percent and of single-ride tickets by as much as 8 percent. Read the fine print, however, and you realize this actually leaves current ticket prices below what they were pre-pandemic, in 2019 — but, more painful to the pocketbook, the surcharge for tickets bought onboard or activated digitally onboard is now $7.75 to $8.50.
Hop on the train at East Hampton during peak hours and buy a regular ticket from the conductor, and it will cost around $41 to get to Penn Station. For reference, a Hampton Jitney ticket bought onboard today will be $48. And you’re not imagining it that the L.I.R.R. used to be significantly less expensive than the luxury bus. The commuter train ticket price is approaching that of the Green Machine, while the bus ride up the Long Island Expressway remains, frustratingly, the quicker option on most days.
Still, we are train fans and applaud the plans to improve Jamaica Station. With congestion pricing in Manhattan, not to mention environmental concerns, anything that encourages more of us to ride the rails is worth the cost to New York State.
Weighing the scales, we think that, over all, the L.I.R.R. picture may slowly be improving. We are optimistic that congestion-pricing revenue will, over time, allow the M.T.A. to add more trains to the schedule. If the Jamaica crawl is remediated, and the revamp means we no longer have to stand outside on the platform at Jamaica in a howling winter blizzard, we’ll consider the surcharge money well spent, even if grudgingly.