MTA New York City Transit officials announced a significant milestone — 2,009,025 trips were recorded on the subway on April 8, the first time that more than two million trips were taken on the subway since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City.

Ridership on buses also reflect a resurgent New York City. Bus ridership has regularly gone over one million trips since July 2020, representing more than half of bus pre-pandemic ridership. Bus ridership on Wednesday, April 7 — 1,155,405 — represents a new record high since September 2020 when fare collection resumed on buses. Preliminary data shows that there were at least 1,118,319 trips taken on MTA and NYC Transit buses on April 8. The final bus ridership count for April 8 will be higher after additional data is tallied.   

Staten Island Railway ridership on April 8 was 3,889, making the total combined number of subway, railway, and bus trips, citywide, at least 3,131,233 for the day.

“Seeing more and more riders return to the subway system gives everyone in New York a sense of optimism, and hope — it's a return to normalcy,” said Sarah Feinberg, interim president of New York City Transit. “I want to thank my NYC Transit colleagues who continue to work tirelessly to keep the system safe and clean as we welcome the city back.”

The subway ridership milestone comes as the recently-passed American Rescue Plan includes an additional $6.5 billion in emergency funding for the MTA, which will allow transit workers to continue providing quality service and safety measures as more customers return to mass transit in the weeks and months ahead.