By Scott Etkin
This week, the MTA announced plans to improve weekend service on several lines – including some that run through the Upper West Side — thanks to $35 million allocated from the FY 2024 New York State Budget.
The changes focus on subway lines with ridership that has “recovered the highest from [their] pre-pandemic baseline,” as well as those with “train frequencies of 10 to 12 minutes during off-peak hours,” according to the announcement.
The schedule changes will take a phased approach, starting this summer and continuing over the next 12 months. Here are the updates relevant to the UWS:
- Beginning in August 2023, weekend service on the 1 line will increase, with trains arriving every 6 minutes instead of every 8 minutes.
- Beginning in December 2023, 1 line trains running every 6 minutes during the weekend would be extended to include more hours of the day.
- Beginning in July 2024, weekday and evening service on the B line will increase to arriving every 8 minutes. Weekend service on the 3 line will increase to arriving every 10 minutes.
Subway ridership data gives an interesting view of the state of the city’s recovery. The latest numbers show that people have returned to riding the subway faster on weekends than during the week. Weekend ridership is nearing 80% of its pre-Covid baseline, whereas weekdays are at 60-70%.
The MTA also recently announced that the subway system carried 4.02 million riders on Wednesday May 3rd, the highest single-day number since March 2020. Prior to the pandemic, however, ridership was well above this mark. In 2019, the average weekday ridership was 5.4 million
This is great!
Now all they have to do is schedule the buses to run so we don’t have to wait
30-45 minutes on Columbus, Amsterdam, Broadway and Riverside Drive. If they did, they would be much fuller….
Sadly, bus frequency, bus routes, bus stops keep getting cut.
Significant cuts in other boroughs as part of “redesign”.
And incredibly the City implemented open streets forcing bus detours.
The City keeps prioritizing and growing bicycling – those funds could have supported State MTA
DO YOU NOTICE THAT WHEN THEY SAY”MTA” BUSES ARE NEVER – OR HARDLY EVER MENTIONED. WE NEED LESS WAIT TIME – AND MORE BUSES ON BROADWAY – AND ANOTHER ON RIVERSIDE WOULD BE NICE.
Good news!
Weekend 1/2/3 trains tend to be packed more than rush hour times.
This article should tell how frequently those trains currently run. Dec is a long way off.
The article indicates that the #1 currently runs at 8-minute intervals on weekends. Not in the article, but available on the MTA website: the B is scheduled at around 10 minutes; the #3 on weekends at around 12 minutes.
All of the MTA apps show you how often the trains are running. For example right now the #1 is coming into 72nd and B’way in 3 minutes, 8 minutes and 12 minutes. I don’t know how they could squeeze in any more than that.
They can run trains at 2-3 minutes apart if they want to.
This is great! Off topic: so often on the MTA app I see that trains are delayed because:
NYPD called to respond to disruptive persons
NYFD called for fire on track
unauthorized person on tracks
person struck by train
My thought is that at least some of these incidents could be prevented if there were more rigorous gatekeeping of access to the subway. Too many people go into the subway system without paying. Too many of them cause problems.
I reject any argument that “unhoused” persons should be allowed to appropriate parts of the public transit system as their residences or the like.
I agree. Transit is not the solution for the homeless issue. I hope you’ll join us to support the Safe Haven housing project coming this month on W 83rd Street.
“Am I a joke to you?”, C line riders to MTA, probably.
This is great, but can we get the B line to run on weekends? I work weekends and getting to work is always a challenge.
Great news. We really need more 1 trains.
All of this is moot if they have to cut service due to construction going on some place somewhere down the line.
wonderful, now do the horrid bus schedules
The MTA is cutting bus service under the “ReDesign” plan.