Metro ridership reached its highest levels since March 2020 this week, Governor Hochul said on Friday.
Some 3.94 million homeless people went through the turnstiles Thursday, MTA data shows. That was the most single-day subway ridership since March 12, 2020, when 4.1 million people rode the subway in the weeks before New Yorkers died of COVID.
“The MTA is the lifeblood of this city, and these ridership numbers demonstrate that New York continues to make a strong comeback,” Hochul said in a statement.
“People are returning to our subways as we have made critical investments in service and safety,”
Thursday’s passenger record exceeded the previous post-pandemic high, recorded on December 8, by 11,000 passengers.
The figure is a significant increase from last fall’s daily ridership, which peaked at 3.64 million.
The MTA, which relies on farebox revenue to fund a significant portion of its budget, has struggled to recapture pre-COVID ridership numbers as many New Yorkers continue to work remotely.
At the height of the pandemic, the agency halted 24-hour subway service to better facilitate cleanup. 24-hour metro service resumed in May 2021.
