NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is in position to set records for ridership and on-time performance in 2025, based on figures announced Monday (July 14) for the first six months.
New York City Transit subways and Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road have all recorded post-pandemic ridership highs, according to a press release from the MTA and Gov. Kathy Hochul.
“The new MTA is a business-like organization that delivers for customers,” MTA CEO Janno Lieber said in the release, “and the proof is in the data – soaring ridership, historic levels of on-time performance and major improvements in customer satisfaction.” Said Hochul, “Thanks to the investments we’re making in safer, more reliable and more frequent service, riders are benefitting every day. When transit is thriving, New York is thriving.”
For the subways, ridership is up 8% compared to 2024 and 31% compared to 2022; with bus ridership up 12% over a year ago, NYC Transit buses and subways have carried more than 850 riders in the first half of the year. Subway on-time performance, meanwhile, is at 82.7%, up 2.4% from a year earlier and on a pace for the best non-pandemic figure in the agency’s history.
Commuter service has seen the Long Island Rail Road average 266,047 weekday riders in June, a post-pandemic high, while the year-to-date figure is up 9% from 2024 and 64% from 2022. June’s on-time performance was also a non-pandemic record at 95.9%, up 1.4% from 2024. Metro-North also hit a post-pandemic high for June weekday ridership with an average of 235,450, and for the year to date, shows ridership up 6% from 2024 and 63% from 2022. It recorded on-time performance of 98%.
Customer satisfaction surveys show approval for Metro-North up 4% and the LIRR up 11%, while the subway figure is up 8%.
“The big gains we’ve made in customer satisfaction prove that riders are noticing our commitment to great service,” said LIRR President Rob Free, “and we will work even harder to improve the customer experience.”
As I am reading this article on Trains online, I’m hearing a story on the radio just now about a brutal stabbing of a passenger on NYC MTA “1-Line” subway. And so it sounds like crime is still a problem on the New York City subways such that I would think this issue is still a major deterrent to getting folks back to ride on the subway lines there …..
Keep up the good work!
Dr Güntürk Üstün
NYC transit and buses carried 850 riders since the first of the year???
I guess you don’t have to worry about getting a seat these days. Not like when I lived in NYC. Glad I got out when I did. No more riding the subways for me.
The correct figure should be “more than 850 million customers.”
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Recycled press release. The first paragraph is directly contradicted by the second paragraph.