Governor Kathy Hochul announced Saturday that New York City subway ridership has surpassed the 3 million mark for three consecutive days this week.
According to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), the subway system carried 3,015,755 customers on Tuesday, 3,087,731 customers on Wednesday and 3,108,216 customers on Thursday. This is the first time subways have carried more than 3 million passengers for three days in a row since the Omicron wave hit New York City on December 17, 2021.
Weekly subway ridership has now reached 55 percent of pre-pandemic levels. The latest ridership figure is a 54 percent increase since reaching a weekday Omicron low of 2,011,675 on December 27, 2021. Since then, mask compliance has improved to 95 percent on the subway and the passenger trend has increased again.
“The high number of public transit riders is yet another sign that New York’s comeback is going strong,” said Governor Hochul. “The subway is the lifeblood of the city, serving millions of passengers a day and keeping New York moving as our economy recovers from the pandemic. A strong and dynamic transportation infrastructure is key to our recovery, And we’re working hard to keep our progress returning to pre-pandemic levels.”
To further encourage ridership, the MTA announced a series of new fare pilot programs that make fares more affordable, more flexible and fairer, including capping weekly fares through contactless payment of the Authority, OMNY, with the function “Lucky 13”. Starting with the 13th trip of each week, each additional metro or bus trip is free for the rest of that week.
The MTA has conducted unprecedented cleaning and sanitizing protocols in the year since the pandemic began in 2020 to ensure the system is as safe as possible for its customers. The Authority has also launched public education campaigns and handed out millions of masks to its customers.
Before the pandemic, average weekday ridership routinely exceeded 5.5 million on the subway system. That number dropped by 95 percent to a low of about 300,000 daily trips in April 2020 when the number of COVID-19 cases peaked in the New York City area. MTA employees continued to serve frontline health care professionals and other essential workers who needed to get to work during some of the most difficult days in New York City history.
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