MID-HUDSON – Ridership on Metro-North Railroad’s system saw a dramatic increase in September with a surge in ridership.
Railroad President Justin Vonashek said the railroad had a record-breaking fall adding 40 trains on each weekend day in October to accommodate visitors to the Hudson Valley.
The railroad ridership reached 90 percent of September 2019 levels before COVID 19 struck in full force, making September its second-strongest month for ridership recover in 2026, behind June, when ridership reached 93.2 percent of June 2019 levels.
The railroad achieved its highest weekday ridership between September 21 and 25, carrying 1.3 million people.
Metro-North is also seeing strong ridership growth on the super-express trains that began on the Hudson Line in April 2025 and New Haven Line in July 2022. Those trains can save Hudson Line customers up to 14 minutes daily on their commute and up to 50 minutes on the New Haven Line.
Leaf peepers taking the trains on weekends have driven up ridership with the railroad adding 40 extra weekend trains on Saturdays and Sundays to meet.
On the weekend of October 24-25, the railroad carried 323,423 customers, beating its previous record of 302,610 riders for the weekend of June 13-14, and 25.5 percent higher than 2019 October weekend ridership.
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