NYC Subway Riders Up 19% in First Week of City’s Reopening
New York City is slowly riding back to work with almost a fifth more subway commuters in first work week of Phase One reopening
(Bloomberg) -- New York City is slowly riding back to work, with almost a fifth more subway commuters in first work week of the Phase One reopening compared with the previous period, according to data from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
From Monday to Friday, the city’s subway carried an average of 877,158 passengers per day, up from 735,747 per day the previous work week. That’s also twice as many commuters compared with mid-April, when the coronavirus outbreak hit its peak in the city.
While the traffic reflects signs of a rebound, it’s still substantially lower than this year’s high of almost 6 million daily riders on Feb. 5.
The recovery in traffic also points to a pick up in ridership across main commuter hubs connecting to the city, if at substantially lower rates than before the lockdown.
To draw more commuters, the MTA said on Thursday that all 472 subway stations are being disinfected twice daily. In all, trains and buses have been cleaned more than 650,000 times since March. Hand sanitizer and masks are available to all riders, the MTA said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, who called mass transit the “heartbeat of the city,” said Friday that the subway system “has struggled in the middle of the crisis.” And while many people are still watching and waiting before returning to offices and other workplaces, he pointed to increased ridership as a sign that “New Yorkers are voting with their feet.”
Turnstile entries to PATH trains, which travel to New Jersey, also rose by a fifth to an average of 30,713 in the past five days. That remains a small fraction of the year’s peak of almost 300,000 late February.
At Penn Station, which serves the Long Island Rail Road and Amtrak, traffic also posted a similar gain in its weekday crowd to an average of 15,430 riders, down from the year’s high of about 166,000 in January. Subway rides at the Port Authority, the city’s main bus terminal, climbed 22% compared with the week before, to an average of 12,473. Before the lockdown, it carried more than 100,000 on several days earlier this year.
Tracking the Reopening of New York City
Subway ridership at Grand Central Terminal, which serves points north of the city, rose 15% compared to the week before, to an average of 13,248, less than a 10th of its 2020 peak.
De Blasio also said there were 31% more Staten Island Ferry riders at midweek, while traffic into Manhattan was up 17% on the East River bridges and up 14% on the Harlem River bridges.
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