Celebrating Record Single Day Subway Ridership Since 2020

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that the Subway had a record ridership of 4,497,599 passengers commuting on Dec. 12 — this is the highest ridership for a single weekday since March 11, 2020. Sixty-seven percent of all subway trips on Dec. 12 were taken using Tap-and-Go payments.

“Our subway system is the lifeblood of New York City, and these ridership levels are just the beginning of what our transit system could be,” Governor Hochul said. “We can’t achieve these record ridership numbers without investing in the MTA — New Yorkers need fast and reliable transit every day so that their commutes are stress-free, and we are going to continue our efforts to deliver a better public transit system for every rider.”

MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said, “Yesterday we had record ridership on the New York City subway system, 4.5 million people, and 67 percent of them used OMNY Tap-and-Go. When this team came together in the wake of COVID, our number one goal was to get the riders back on by providing great service, and we have done that. And we're giving them the best possible deal with OMNY. People are tapping to ride, and they're riding more and more.”

New York City Transit President Demetrius Crichlow said, “By focusing on improvements to safety and service, the subway system is delivering for New Yorkers and they have responded, coming back to transit in ever bigger numbers. Carrying 4.5 million riders is a testament to the entire team of nearly 50,000 transit workers, who move our city 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The entire team is ready for future ridership milestones as more New Yorkers choose to ride with us.”

The ridership record coincided with the first day OMNY cards became available to 1.5 million Reduced-Fare riders. This comes as the MTA continues its lightning pace of Tap-and-Go fare payment integration across the transit system to expedite the commute time for all New Yorkers. Since receiving Student OMNY cards with expanded benefits at the start of the school year, students alone have tapped more than 20 million times.

So far, it has been a strong week for subway ridership, which also exceeded four million passengers on both Tuesday, Dec. 10 and Wednesday, Dec. 11. On Dec. 7, the MTA saw 3,016,134 riders take the subway — the highest on any Saturday in 5 years — which reflects a surge in discretionary mass transit travel also being seen on the MTA’s commuter railroads, where weekend ridership is exceeding 90 percent of pre-pandemic levels.