Major felonies on the Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North Railroad and Staten Island Railway fell 20.1 percent during the first eight months of 2026 compared with the same period last year, according to figures released by New York State on October 26. The combined category includes burglary, felony assault, grand larceny and robbery on systems patrolled by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Department.
The state described the total as the lowest level in four years and said the decline follows a 16.4 percent reduction during the first eight months of 2025. Those comparisons apply to the commuter railroads and Staten Island Railway; they should not be read as a measure of crime on the New York City subway, which is policed primarily by the NYPD and reported through a separate data system.
The longer comparison with 2024 shows declines across several categories. The state reported burglaries down 50 percent, grand larcenies down 18.1 percent, thefts of vehicles from station parking lots down 42.9 percent and robberies down 39.3 percent. It also said no rapes had been reported on the three rail systems since 2023. The release did not provide raw incident counts for every category, so the percentages are most useful as trend indicators rather than a complete picture of risk at any station or time.
Reports involving crimes against LIRR and Metro-North employees and MTA police officers also decreased. The state counted 107 such incidents in the first eight months of 2026, compared with 120 during the same period in 2025 and 240 in 2024. That represents a 10.8 percent decline from last year and a 55.4 percent decline over two years.
State and MTA officials attributed the trend partly to added patrols, expanded surveillance systems and faster information sharing with train crews. The LIRR and Metro-North have introduced a joint security strategy that sends crews alerts through tablets and cellular ticketing devices. The information can include notices about persistent fare evaders, people suspected in employee assaults or harassment, and missing-person alerts.
The MTA says that strategy coincided with a 40 percent decrease in disorderly-customer incidents, a 47 percent reduction in fare disputes and a 12 percent decline in requests for police assistance during the first half of 2026. The LIRR has also been adding panoramic cameras at stations, yards and grade crossings to reduce blind spots and allow live feeds to support emergency response. These are agency-reported outcomes and do not by themselves establish how much any single measure caused the decline.
Crime statistics on transit are especially sensitive to changes in ridership and reporting. A falling incident total may reflect improved safety, but the risk experienced by an individual rider also depends on the number of trips taken, location, time of day and whether incidents are reported. The state’s announcement did not provide a per-million-rides calculation, which would help compare periods with different passenger volumes.
Even with that limitation, the direction of the reported figures is significant for systems that carry hundreds of thousands of people and connect New York City with Long Island, the Hudson Valley and Connecticut. Riders can review official service and safety information through the MTA, while emergencies should be reported immediately to railroad staff or police. Continued publication of both raw totals and ridership-adjusted rates would make future comparisons more useful. Regular releases also allow the public to distinguish systemwide trends from isolated incidents that may receive intense attention.
Sources: New York State Governor’s Office; Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Reviewed October 27, 2026. Development: October 27, 2026.