Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority hit one billion trips on the New York City subway in 2024. The billionth customer was identified as Sir Michael Carrasquillo from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn who tapped into the subway system at Atlantic Av–Barclays Ctr 2 3 4 5 B D N R Q Station at 1:45 p.m. Mr. Carrasquillo received four weeks of unlimited rides on an OMNY card, and an OMNY hat and T-shirt. This milestone follows the busiest Sunday since the pandemic with the subway carrying 2.6 million riders during the New York City Marathon and comes nearly two months earlier than in 2022. October was the busiest October for New York City Transit since the pandemic, with nearly 114 million subway rides and over 40 million bus rides, 10 million more subway rides and 3 million more bus rides than the previous year.
“There’s no better way to get around New York City than taking the subway, and we’re proud to be setting post-pandemic ridership records while investing in major new initiatives that will modernize our transit system,” Governor Hochul said. “We’ve also doubled down on our commitment to making mass transit safer, ensuring that every New Yorker experiences the standard of safety and service they deserve.”
Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) also experienced record-breaking Octobers. Metro-North had an average of 230,400 weekday trips and LIRR had an average of 261,900 weekday trips, representing a post-pandemic record. Both railroads exceeded pre-pandemic weekend ridership. LIRR averaged nearly 135,000 trips per day on weekends, equaling 132 percent of Oct. 2019 weekend ridership. Metro-North averaged nearly 132,000 trips per weekend day, equaling 102 percent of Oct. 2019 weekend ridership.
MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said, “The MTA is proud to be the engine that moves and powers New York and we’re welcoming riders back in record numbers. Credit to Governor Hochul and the NY Legislature for stepping up and allowing us to increase service when the rest of the country was making cuts and, here we are, billions of rides later.”
