Billionth Rider Milestone Achieved One Week Earlier Than Previous Year; Continues Trend for Fifth Year in a Row
Follows Post-COVID Record Subway Ridership on Sept. 23, 2026, With More Than 4.6 Million Riders; Week of Sept. 14, 2026 Saw Over Four Million Riders Each Weekday
Governor Kathy Hochul and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) today celebrated the one billionth rider on the New York City subway in 2026. Dr. Lynval Clayton-Rowe tapped into the subway system at the Jackson Hts-Roosevelt Av (E, F, M, R, 7) station complex at 10:24 a.m. and received a $100 OMNY gift card. Dr. Clayton-Rowe is a professor of healthcare management and administration at the Mandl School, The College of Allied Health. This milestone follows a strong September 2026 performance, where the subway recorded ridership of over 4.2 million customers on the average weekday. September 23, 2026 also set a single-day post pandemic ridership record, with nearly 4.7 million passengers. In September 2026, we saw 15 days with 4 million or more riders, including the week of September 14, which recorded at least 4 million riders each weekday. July 2026 and August 2026 also featured 14 days of over 4 million riders each day, compared to only 8 days within that time period in 2025.
"A billion riders are a billion pieces of evidence that the subway is New York's lifeblood, and when the subway is thriving, New York is thriving," Governor Hochul said. "When I became Governor, I committed to improving safety and reliability in the subway and since, we've seen riders return in growing numbers every year. Reaching a billion riders a week earlier than last year is the latest sign of our transit resurgence in New York."
Since 2022, increasing subway ridership has meant that the MTA has been achieving the billionth rider milestone earlier each year. This year’s billionth subway rider comes one week earlier than 2025, three weeks earlier than 2024 and nearly three months earlier than 2022. The billionth riders have been recorded on Dec. 27, 2022, Nov. 14, 2023, Nov. 4, 2024, and Oct. 14, 2025.
This comes as the subway continues to see increases in overall customer satisfaction levels, including reaching an all-time high of 63 percent on the Spring 2026 Customers Count survey, which was first introduced in Spring 2022.
Summer ridership rebounded following a colder than usual winter, fueled in part by the Knicks’ playoff run, including their NBA Championship win. 3.16 million people rode the subway on the night of the Knicks’ Championship victory on June 13 — which is 15 percent higher than a typical Saturday in June as compared to 2025. To accommodate fans headed to World Cup games and watch parties, the MTA added extra service on the 1, C, F, and 7 lines.
The continued ridership boom follows the MTA’s rollout of new, state-of-the-art R211 trains on more subway lines every year. Since March of 2023, New York City Transit has introduced the R211s on six different subway lines and the Staten Island Railway, most recently the D line in July. The Authority is expected to enter the 1,000th R211 into service later this month. In March, the MTA’s new Rolling Stock Program announced it is seeking proposals from rail car manufacturers for its largest subway car contract in history with a base order of 1,140 R211 subway cars to replace the R62 and R62A fleets operating on the 1, 3 and 6 lines, and if an option to purchase the additional 1,250 cars is exercised, to replace the R142 and R142A cars on the 2 4 and 5 lines.
Additionally, the MTA is completing a record number of station accessibility projects and elevator replacements, as part of its commitment to creating a safe, convenient and equitable system. There are a total of 163 fully accessible stations across the MTA, 48 of which have been completed since 2020 — the most in MTA history. The MTA is also investing nearly $7.1 billion in station accessibility in the 2025-29 Capital Plan, to make 60 stations newly ADA-accessible and modernize an additional 48 subway elevators.
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