#NYC subway ridership tops 800K for first time since March

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People come out of the Subway station at Astor Place in Manhattan.
Robert Mecea

Subway ridership on Monday reached its highest level since the coronavirus hit the city in March, transit officials said Tuesday.

Straphangers took 800,000 subway trips as the Big Apple began to reopen — the most since March 23, the first full week of the state’s coronavirus lockdown.

In total, 213,000 more people rode buses and subways compared to last Monday — a 17 percent increase.

“We’ve now hit 15 percent [pre-pandemic] ridership for the first time,” Interim Transit President Sarah Feinberg said during a press conference in Manhattan.

Ridership dropped to below 10 percent of pre-pandemic levels from mid-March and to late April, but has slowly inched up since.

The biggest spike in riders on Monday came during  the afternoon peak from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., according to the MTA’s stats.

Manhattan saw the highest jump of any borough at 20 percent. The Bronx, where ridership declined the least during the lockdown, saw a 13 percent spike from last week. Ridership increased 16 percent in Queens and 15 percent in Brooklyn.

Ridership has rebounded faster on buses than on subways, possibly because they are currently effectively free due to entry being restricted to the back door.

Feinberg said bus officials are working on a way to allow front-door boarding and fare collection while protecting the safety of bus drivers.

Before the pandemic, weekday subway ridership was around 5.5 million.

But the agency has warned it doesn’t expect levels to return to normal anytime soon. And transportation experts warn the city could face severe congestion if too many New Yorkers choose to commute by car over taking transit, walking or biking.

Daytime car and truck crossings over the four city-run East River bridges, meanwhile, were significantly higher Monday compared to the same date last year, city transportation officials said.

On Monday, 268,070 drivers crossed over the bridges — 42,000, or 19 percent, more than the same day in 2019, according to city DOT stats. Staten Island Ferry ridership also increased, DOT said.

Additional reporting by Julia Marsh