New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) detailed a phased rollout of subway service enhancements, which are expected to begin this summer.

With the passage of the FY 2024 New York State Budget, the MTA will receive an additional $35 million for subway service enhancements. The planned enhancements will start with the first phase in July 2023, with the final phase expected to be implemented in July 2024.

The planned enhancements focus on periods where subway ridership has recovered the highest from its pre-pandemic baseline. Subway ridership, overall, continues to recover with the latest trend showing 3.84 million riders on an average weekday and 1.96 million riders on an average Saturday or Sunday.

Weekend ridership has outpaced weekday ridership in its recovery, with weekend ridership around 80% of its pre-COVID baseline, compared to weekdays when ridership has been around 60% to 70% of the pre-COVID baseline.

“Discretionary travel has led the ridership recovery on subways, demonstrating that New Yorkers are ready to ride mass transit when they have somewhere to go,” said MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber. “As we have said throughout this whole process, once the funding is there, we can expand service to better align with post-COVID ridership trends.”

Changes to MTA Subway Service Coming

Beginning in July, New York City Transit will begin its phased rollout with the following enhancements:

• First Phase, July 2023: Starting in July 2023, New York City Transit will enhance weekend service in Brooklyn and Queens. Under the first phase, weekend service frequency would increase on the G, J, and M  lines. The service increase would have trains arriving every eight to nine minutes instead of every 10 to 11 minutes.

• Second Phase, August 2023: In August 2023, midday service on the weekdays will be enhanced on the C, N, and R lines with train frequencies increasing to every eight minutes instead of every 10 minutes. On weekends, service on the 1 and 6 lines will increase, with trains arriving every six minutes instead of every eight minutes.

• Third Phase, December 2023: To end 2023, evening service on weekdays will increase on the C, N, and R lines and midday service will increase on the G line. Trains on those lines would arrive every eight minutes under the enhanced service. Additionally, six-minute service on the 1 and 6 lines during the weekend would be extended to include more hours of the day.

• Fourth Phase, July 2024: The final phase of the planned service enhancements is scheduled for July 2024, with weekday service increases on the B, D, J, and M lines. The service increase would have trains arriving every eight minutes. Additionally, service would be added to the 3 and 5 lines on weekends, with trains arriving every 10 minutes.

Results of MTA’s Subway Changes

An estimated 2.9 million subway riders are expected to benefit from the enhanced service on weekends. In addition, about 800,000 riders are expected to benefit each weekday from the off-peak service enhancements.

New York City Transit explored where additional off-peak service would have the most benefit, focusing primarily on lines with train frequencies of 10 to 12 minutes during off-peak hours. Planned work was taken into consideration when these enhancements were planned to ensure critical state of good repair work and capital work would not be affected.

Weekend service enhancements could also be added to select subway lines, depending on the timing of signal modernization and critical construction work.