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MTA data shows where subway riders are stopping
Photo credit: Getty Images
Even your MetroCard knows that people aren't going to Mets games.
A new breakdown of subway use citywide shows ridership trends at stations citywide, including dwindling use of the Mets-Willets Point station in the last three years while more fans made a trip to the Bronx to watch the Yankees. Overall ridership across the city in 2011 was at its highest level since 1950, as city buses saw fewer riders.
Stations near transit hubs in midtown remained the busiest, though Union Square was a more popular destination on weekends than Grand Central Terminal.
MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg said more people are taking subways because it’s “the cheapest, easiest and often fastest way to get around New York.”
“Unless you're going to catch a Metro-North train, there's not much reason to be here on the weekends,” Bill Henderson of the MTA's Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee said about Grand Central. “Union Square is a happening place – there’s shopping, and if it’s a nice day, you’re walking around the neighborhood.”
Henderson also noted that more riders are using lines like the G train and M train, which was rerouted during the massive service cuts in 2010 that eliminated the V line.
“The rerouting of the M may have made it more convenient for some folks that might have taken the L train before,” he said.
Stations that saw big increases include some along the No. 6 and Q lines that had construction work done in 2010. New Yorkers also flocked to the Aqueduct Racetrack after a racino opened there last year, while many riders who had to take the F train to Roosevelt Island while the tram was shut down due to maintenance work in 2010 have now returned to using it.
Here's a look at where riders are going:
Busiest subway stations
Rank
Station
Riders in 2011
Riders in 2010
1
Time Square
60,604,822
58,422,597
2
Grand Central
42,795,505
41,903,210
3
Herald Square
37,731,386
37,769,752
4
Union Square
34,927,178
34,730,692
5
Penn Station (1/2/3)
26,758,623
26,892,243
6
Penn Station (A/C/E)
24,751,771
24,265,016
Biggest increase in riders
Station Name
Riders in 2011
Riders in 2010
% Change
Whitlock Ave (6)
726,747
163,641
344.1
Morrison Ave-Soundview (6)
3,028,145
730,517
314.5
Aquduct-North Conduit Ave (A)
474,915
238,119
99.4
Aqueduct Racetrack (A)
54,183
29,644
82.8
Avenue U (Q)
2,136,714
1,325,173
61.2
Biggest decrease in riders
Station Name
Riders in 2011
Riders in 2010
% Change
Roosevelt Island (F)
2,114,468
2,580,003
-18
Broad St. (J,Z)
1,473,717
1,636,627
-10
9th Ave (D)
1,681,423
1,863,019
-9.7
Sheepshead Bay (B,Q)
4,096,449
4,481,755
-8.6
Beach 98 St. (A,S)
198,503
215,474
-7.9
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