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PATH Ridership Reaches 76% of Pre-Pandemic Levels, Sets New Post-COVID Record

Port Authority logged its busiest post-pandemic day in November as commuter rail ridership climbed 3.1% year over year.

January 6, 2026
Image of construction workers working on a rail site.

The Port Authority plans to make major service increases across the PATH rail system beginning in 2026. This photo shows track replacement work between the Journal Square and Harrison stations in October 2025.

Photo: The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

2 min to read


The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced that its PATH commuter rail in November reached 76% of pre-pandemic ridership and recorded its busiest single day since the pandemic.

In November 2025, PATH continued to regain ridership lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. On Thursday, Nov. 20, the system welcomed 246,594 passengers, which was a new single-day post-pandemic ridership record. It surpassed the previous record of 243,848 passengers set just two months prior.

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Throughout the month, PATH welcomed approximately 5 million passengers. This was a 3.1% increase from November 2024 and was 76.2% of pre-pandemic November 2019 levels.

Average weekday ridership in November 2025 was 210,325 passengers, the fourth-highest for any month since the pandemic. It was 6.5% higher than average weekday ridership in November 2024.

Weekend ridership in November 2025 surpassed pre-pandemic levels. The month’s average Saturday ridership of 117,658 was 9.6% above November 2019. Average Sunday ridership of 84,149 was up 9.2% from November 2019.

PATH welcomed 55.6 million riders over the first 11 months of the year. The total surpassed the same period of 2024 by 6.1%.

Air, Port, and Crossing Traffic Reflect Shifting Demand

Other transportation modes also saw increases in volume. According to a release, commercial airports welcomed 11.2 million passengers during the airports’ third-busiest November, buoyed by the agency’s busiest Thanksgiving travel period ever.  

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This was the agency’s third-busiest November ever, down 3.7% from the record for the month set in November 2023. November 2025 volume declined 2.6% from November 2024. The year-over-year decline was largely due to Federal Aviation Administration staffing challenges amidst the most recent government shutdown.

The Port of New York and New Jersey maintained its status as the nation’s second-busiest port for loaded containers both during November and over the first 11 months of the year. It handled 509,124 loaded twenty-ft. equivalent units through the month and a total of 5,520,444 units from January through November.

Volume at the agency’s vehicular crossings in November decreased 0.01% from 2024 and decreased 0.6% from pre-pandemic 2019 levels. From January through November, 111.3 million eastbound vehicles used the agency’s six vehicular crossings.

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