By Scott Etkin
The way New Yorkers ride the subway has changed since the start of the pandemic, and as a result the MTA is adjusting the service on some of its lines. Beginning in June 2023, the MTA plans to rebalance the allocation of trains by “increasing scheduled trips on the weekends and by modifying Monday and Friday scheduled service, where ridership recovery has shown to be the slowest,” the MTA announced this week.
The proposed service changes affect 10 of the subway’s 36 lines, including a few that go through the Upper West Side.
Specifically, NYC Transit is expected to make an earlier start to the A and C weekday rush-hour service.
“To make these additional scheduled trips possible,” according to the announcement, NYC Transit will make reductions to scheduled trips on Mondays and Fridays on the 1 line. Mondays and Fridays tend to have lower ridership since many companies have adopted more flexible hybrid work schedules.
Information on the service changes to other subway lines is available here.
Overall, levels of daily subway ridership are currently around 60% to 70% of what they were before the pandemic started, according to the MTA’s numbers. In 2021, annual total ridership was 45% of what it was in 2019. In 2020, annual total ridership was 38% of what it was the year before. At the very start of the pandemic, ridership dropped down to around 10% to 25% of normal levels.
Despite ridership still being significantly lower than pre-Covid averages, earlier this month the MTA announced subway ridership hit a record since the start of the pandemic. 3.93 million riders traveled on the subway on December 8th, a mark that had not been reached since March 2020.
Before the pandemic, more than 5.5 million riders regularly used the subway every day on average.
A careful read of the press release indicates that weekend improvements will be limited to the G, J and M lines, at the expense of reduced Monday and Friday service on a number of lines, including the #1. (The incremental improvements to A/C service impact one early weekday morning interval originating at the Brooklyn/Rockaway end of the line.) Nowhere is the vitally needed improvement in weekend #1 service mentioned. Hopefully the press release is not the complete story.
Surprised the MTA is not discussing that more people have shifted to bicycling especially Citibike and abandoned subway use. Also vespa/moped-type scooters
Bicycling siphons from mass transit – In NYC bicyclists are former mass transit users, not former drivers.
Gone are the days when most New Yorkers had a fundamental thing in common – shared bus and subway ridership .
Incredibly NYC DOT messages encouraging bike riding – but not messaging to use MTA mass transit!
Ridership IS NOT significantly lower. Ride the subway any day any night, it’s just as crowded as it ever was. They count the number of riders by the number of PAID FARES. What IS lower is the number of people *paying their fares* and the number of turnstile jumpers has SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED. I’m not making any judgement statement, just stating the cold hard facts.
How many jumpers do you see exiting? None. That’s why the MTA counts exits, not entries. How do you think they come up with fare evasion estimates? Someone sits at a station and watches? Of course not, they use entry and exit data to estimate true ridership and evasions. It’s not in MTAs interest to underreport ridership or evasions because it takes money away from them. And if it’s one think any huge bureaucratic org wants it’s more money.
And while I agree I see more jumpers these day, no, the MTA is not reducing UWS service because your neighbors are jumping relatively more turnstiles at 72nd than your neighbors on the G.
no. I commuted daily for years on 1, and in the am multiple packed trains went by before I could board. Now I get a seat easy, every time.
Maybe because ,it seems, so many people are hopping over the turn styles lately.
also some seniors have received metrocards that give them 4 free rides per day……
Never heard of such metrocards. Where are you getting this info from?
i see turnstyle jumpers a lot.
It’s literally close to every time (or every time) I ride the Subway. Buses too. People getting on the rear door is an epidemic on certain bus lines.
Where does the number 36 come from in paragraph 2? Have they added lines?
They define line by a letter or number, which is not realistic. We think of the west side IRT as a “line”; they count it as three.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_New_York_City_Subway_lines
As someone who commutes on the 1 on both Mondays and Fridays, I find this news terrifying. My evening commute has been a nightmare almost daily, and the thought of even further reduced service on the 1 during these times sounds like a terrible idea.
Please do not cut service on the 1.
The 1 train on weekends is packed to the gills. It is worse than pre Pandemic. Did they already cut back service on the weekends??? it is so bad sometimes you can’t get on the train or you need to run to a car that has space even to stand.
The 1 line is always packed. Always.
More overcrowding in small spaces, like subway cars and platforms, will be very unsafe. People have showed their hand in the past year, pushing strangers on the tracks, gun shots on the train…
And also, another slap in the face to people who have no choice but to commute to work every day. The people I see every day on my commute. Medical professionals, local store workers, retail workers, school staff, city government workers, construction workers, etc, the list goes on. They are people that continue to take the brunt force of this pandemic.
How many incidents of gunshots on trains have there actually been? It would be great to have more trains – who’s going to pay for it???
Please Please do not cut or change service on the # 1 train. It has been a popular train for as long as I can remember!!!!!