JAMAICA, Queens — It's a pilot program on the Long Island Railroad affecting tens of thousands of commuters in New York City every day and it's been so successful that it's got transit riders, public transportation advocates, and elected officials calling for its expansion, even as they also call for its improvement.

It's called Atlantic Ticket, and one commuter's assessment mirrors that of many.

"It's a great deal," said rider Demetrius Pass. "Five dollars to go from St. Albans to Atlantic Terminal."

He described what would be a 90-minute to two-hour trip, typically, from the so-called transit desert in southern Queens to central Brooklyn, where he works. The alternative, Pass added, was more pricey: the normal $7.75 one way ticket on the LIRR.

With the Atlantic Ticket, commuters traveling between Brooklyn and southern Queens, or between those areas and lower Manhattan, can save so much time, money, or both, according to supporters, that they're calling on the MTA to expand the program to other parts of the city.

Right now, The Atlantic Ticket serves passengers traveling among 10 stations in Brooklyn and southern Queens:

East New York, Nostrand Avenue, and Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, on the City Terminal Zone LIRR line; and Locust Manor, Laurelton, and Rosedale on the Far Rockaway Branch line in Queens; and St. Albans, on the West Hempstead Branch line in Queens; as well as Hollis, and Queens Village on the Hempstead Branch line in Queens.

All of the stations covered by the Atlantic Ticket connect with Jamaica station, in Queens.

Also, the weekly $60 Atlantic Ticket comes with a weekly MetroCard for no additional cost.

"Best deal around," Lisa Daglian, the executive director of the Transit Riders Council, a public transportation advocacy group, told PIX11 News in a text message.

"Wow, I didn't know that," said Pass, the commuter from St. Albans, Queens. "I will definitely invest in that."

The Atlantic Ticket does not serve commuters within the city at stations on the Port Washington Branch line, or the Forest Hills, Kew Gardens, Woodside, Hunterspoint Avenue or Long Island City stations.

Another major advocate for the program is the city councilmember for St. Albans, I. Daneek Miller. He calls the program the "Freedom Ticket."

Its long term goal, Miller said, is for the program to expand beyond southern Queens and Brooklyn and to eventually have one fare, preferably the $2.75 paid on the subway, apply to the entire MTA system — the subway, LIRR, and Metro North trains.

The program not only saves money, Miller said. The Atlantic Ticket, or Freedom Ticket, he said, also saves time.

"That could save you five to 10 hours a week," said the councilman, "for your family, for your community."

As successful as the program has been, having sold some 23 million tickets since its inception in the summer of 2018, Daglian, the transportation advocate, said that it still has room for improvement.

"More people need to know about it," she said, in an interview with PIX11 News.

She added that Atlantic Ticket purchases are only available at kiosks or windows in LIRR stations.

"We'd like to buy it on e-tickets," she said, "so more people would be able to take advantage of app-based ticket purchasing."

At an MTA news conference on Tuesday morning, PIX11 News asked the president of the LIRR if the pilot program can become permanent, or could even expand.

President Phil Eng's response was favorable, but noncommittal.

"We want to support increased ridership on public transportation," Eng said. "Anything we can do to make it affordable, we will."

The MTA has committed to the Atlantic Ticket program until this summer.