A billion people represent one eighth of the world’s population. It’s also the number of customers we’ve served on the New York City subway so far this year. We got there last Tuesday with 11 weeks still left to go in 2025 – the shortest time yet since COVID.
Greenpoint resident Zayd Nubani was our lucky one billionth customer. We surprised him at the Lafayette Av C station with MTA swag and a $100 OMNY card while he was on his way to surf the nor’easter waves at Rockaway Beach. He said he rides the subway every day, even with his longboard.
We appreciate his patronage, and that of every New Yorker, visitor and tourist who’s helped us reach this milestone. It’s not just about bragging rights — transit ridership is one of the best markers we have for charting New York’s comeback. When the subway is doing well, so is the City, and we’ve been working hard the last few years to hold up our end of the bargain.
New York City Transit is running more subway service than pre-COVID, with the best on-time performance (OTP) in over a decade — 85% in September. That’s on par with our most recent record in May, and a huge improvement over the late 2010s, when OTP dropped as low as the 50s and 60s during the Summer of Hell.
It was a conscious choice to bet big on more service while the post-COVID fiscal cliff forced many of our peers across the country to make tough cuts. Luckily, we have a Governor and State Legislature that understands the vital importance of transit to New York.
Riders are also coming back because they feel safer. We’ve worked with the State and City to get more police officers into the system and more mental health outreach. We’ve installed tens of thousands of security cameras, plus platform barriers in 100 subway stations as well as brighter LED lighting.
As a result, overall crime is down more than 12% compared to 2019, and customer satisfaction with safety has rarely been higher. In our last monthly poll, almost 70% of respondents gave us a favorable rating — an increase of 14 points just this year.
We hope to see continued progress in our Fall Customers Count survey, which went live last week on the MTA website. It takes just 10-15 minutes to fill out, but for us the feedback is priceless. It helps us get a sense of what’s working and what needs improvement in the new year, so we can get to the next ridership milestone. Two billion customers — here we come!
