The MTA NYC Subways celebrated a major ridership milestone as the 1 billionth rider entered the turnstiles in a Brooklyn subway station, agency officials announced during a press conference in the borough on Tuesday.
Zayd Nubani, a surfer from Greenpoint, Brooklyn, was heading to the Rockaways to ride the waves when he became the star commuter at the C train’s Lafayette Avenue station on Oct. 14.
MTA officials gave the morning commuter a swag bag filled with mugs, T-shirts, a hat, and a $100-value card for riding the rails.
The guest of honor said he was surprised to find that his morning commute had taken an unexpected, yet joyful, turn on Tuesday.
“This has been a crazy detour. I was going to surf the nor’easter today and didn’t expect this to happen,” Nubani said. “I’m super happy to be the billionth. MTA, you guys are awesome. I ride you every day.”
With music playing and confetti falling, smiles lit up the drab subway station.
“It’s always a joy to come out and celebrate our 1 billionth subway rider of the year. That’s a billion with a ‘B’ folks, not an ‘M’,” MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber told the crowd of reporters, riders and MTA staff.
Billion subway riders shows signs of recovery
He discussed what the occasion means for the MTA.
“This is one of the best markers charting NYC’s comeback, because every year we are hitting it earlier and earlier,” he said. “In 2022, the first year we got back to a billion riders after COVID. That was on Dec. 27, right under the wire.”
In both 2023 and 2024, the 1 billionth subway rider entered the system in November.
“And here we are, 2025, we got to that milestone in October, a great sign,” the chair said.
Lieber attributed the earlier milestone to “the best service” in over a decade. Last month, the subway system marked an 85% on-time performance, which was just short of the MTA’s best month on record. He stated that in the immediate years preceding the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, on-time performance was in the 60-70% range.
Lieber also thanked Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers for funding increased subway service.
Meanwhile, overall transit crime, he said, is down more than 12% compared to “before COVID,” though he still acknowledged the prevalence of high-profile crimes in the system.
“We’re never going to stop working with the NYPD to make sure that crime goes down, down, down,” Lieber said.
