news

MTA registers close to 2.5 million riders in post-pandemic record

Posted: 14 June 2021 | | No comments yet

The MTA has registered several records in recent weeks as New York begins to open up and New Yorkers begin to return to the city’s subway system.

As of today, Apple Pay is now accepted on New York Subway system

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) today announced that the New York City Subway carried 2,469,037 customers on Friday 11 June, the highest number since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020. The milestone extending a string of previous records set within recent weeks: 2.38 million riders on 9 June , 2.35 million riders on 27 May , 2.27 million on 14 May , and 2.24 million on 7 May . 

“As the subway comes back, New York City comes back – and with noticeably more people out and about our ridership continues to trend towards its full recovery,” said Demetrius Crichlow, Executive Vice President of Subways for MTA New York City Transit. “We hope to keep this momentum going and hit that 2.5 million mark soon.”

The MTA says it has undertaken unprecedented cleaning and disinfecting protocols in the year since the pandemic began to ensure that the system is as safe as possible for its customers. The Authority has also rolled out robust public education campaigns and issued millions of masks to its customers. Furthermore, the MTA is hosting public vaccination hubs at Grand Central and Penn Station. 

Prior to the pandemic, average weekday ridership totals routinely exceeded 5.5 million in the subway system. That figure fell by more than 90 per cent to a low of roughly 300,000 daily trips last April as the number of COVID-19 cases peaked in the New York City area.

The MTA says its employees continued to provide service for the frontline healthcare professionals and other essential workers who needed to get to work “during some of the most difficult days in New York City history”.