New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) hit one billion trips on the New York City subway in 2024. 

The billionth customer was identified as Michael Carrasquillo from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn who tapped into the subway system at Atlantic Av-Barclays CRT 2345BDRNQ Station at 1:45 p.m. Carrasquillo received four weeks of unlimited rides on an OMNY card and an OMNY hat and T-shirt.

“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,” said Gov. Hochul. “We’ve also doubled down on our commitment to making mass transit safer, ensuring that every New Yorker has the standard of safety and service they deserve.” 

Busy Lines

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 (NYCT) 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.

Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) also experienced a record-breaking October. 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 also exceeded pre-pandemic weekend ridership with LIRR averaging at nearly 135,000 and Metro-North averaging at nearly 132,000 trips per weekend day.

“It’s great to see ridership rebound with leisure hours during the weekends booming, and students are loving their OMNY cards with 20 million taps across the system,” said MTA Chief Customer Officer Shanifah Rieara. “None of these records would be possible without great employees who work day-in and day-out to move customers throughout the system.”

OMNY

OMNY’s market share continues to grow with 82% of regular fare subway rides taken by tapping with OMNY,

With reduced-fare customers now eligible for OMNY, last week 60% of all subway trips were taken via OMNY, an increase of 16% from last year. Since receiving student OMNY cards with expanded benefits at the start of the school year, students have tapped over 20 million times.

To ensure subway customers were able to travel to and from the race smoothly and safely, the NYCT did not schedule any non-essential work along lines that were anticipated to carry significant numbers of runners and race viewers.

Platform controllers were deployed at stations surrounding the finishing area and other high priority viewing points, such as Queensboro plaza 7 NW and Lexington AV/59 St 456NRW in order to prevent overcrowding on stairways and platforms at subway stations, some stairways were designated as entrance or exit only.

Knowing that the subway is the fastest way to get around on marathon Sunday, the Detroit Pistons took the train to Barclays Center for an afternoon NBA match up with the Brooklyn Nets.