New York's MTA has two regional railroad lines for service outside the city. These are the Metro-North and the Long Island Railroad (LIRR). New York's Metro-North serves customers with lines from NYC's Grand Central Terminal to destinations Upstate and in Connecticut. The main lines are Harlem, Hudson, and New Haven lines. These leave directly from GCT. The Pascack Valley and Port Jervis lines are under Metro-North purview, but are operated through New Jersey Transit as they connect to NJT lines for better continuous service. The LIRR is mostly served out of GCT, but also has service from Atlantic Terminal and Penn station for NYC terminals. There are many lines, all east-west routes in Long Island. It is the busiest commuter railroad in North America. ![[mta-metro-north-and-long-island-railroald-map.pdf]] ## Buying Tickets There is almost never a reason to buy tickets ahead of time as the trains are regular and seats are unassigned. Although, for large group purchases or bulk ticket purcheses you may want to. For Metro-North and the LIRR, you can get tickets: - from the [Train-Time app](https://www.mta.info/traintime) - at a ticket machine - at a ticket office - on-board the train - one-way only - This costs $5.75 to $6.50 more than other options - waived if you are boarding from a station without ticket vending machines or if you are a senior citizen, have a disability, receive Medicare, or are active-duty military - through your employer You can get discounts for buying in bulk. But this is only ideal for regular users or large groups since tickets expire after 60 days. The minimum bulk ticket purchase amount is 10 tickets.