section_path: Transportation/Rapid transit/Rail
section_name: Rail
paragraph_text: Rail
  
  The New York City Subway system is the largest rapid transit system in the world when measured by stations in operation, with 472, and by length of routes. Nearly all of New York's subway system is open 24 hours a day, in contrast to the overnight shutdown common to systems in most cities. The New York City Subway is the busiest metropolitan rail transit system in the Western Hemisphere, with 1.70 billion passenger rides in 2019, while Grand Central Terminal is the world's largest railway station by number of train platforms.
  
  Public transport is widely used in New York City. 54.6% of New Yorkers commuted to work in 2005 using mass transit. This is in contrast to the rest of the United States, where 91% of commuters travel in automobiles to their workplace. According to the New York City Comptroller, workers in the New York City area spend an average of 6 hours and 18 minutes getting to work each week, the longest commute time in the nation among large cities. New York is the only U.S. city in which a majority (52%) of households do not have a car; only 22% of Manhattanites own a car. Due to their high usage of mass transit, New Yorkers spend less of their household income on transportation than the national average, saving $19 billion annually on transportation compared to other urban Americans.
  
  New York City's commuter rail network is the largest in North America. The rail network, connecting New York City to its suburbs, consists of the Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North Railroad, and New Jersey Transit. The combined systems converge at Grand Central Terminal and New York Penn Station and contain more than 250 stations and 20 rail lines. The elevated AirTrain JFK in Queens connects JFK International Airport to the New York City Subway and the Long Island Rail Road. For inter-city rail, New York City is served by Amtrak, whose busiest station by a significant margin is Penn Station on the West Side of Manhattan, from which Amtrak provides connections to Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. along the Northeast Corridor, and long-distance train service to other North American cities.
  
  The Staten Island Railway rapid transit system solely serves Staten Island, operating 24 hours a day, with access to Manhattan from the St. George Terminal via the Staten Island Ferry. The PATH train links Midtown and Lower Manhattan with Hoboken Terminal and Newark Penn Station in New Jersey, and then those stations with the World Trade Center Oculus across the Hudson River. Like the New York City Subway, the PATH operates 24 hours a day, meaning three of the five rapid transit systems in the United States which operate on 24-hour schedules are wholly or partly in New York.
  
  Multibillion-dollar heavy rail transit projects under construction in New York City include the Second Avenue Subway.