Subway, commuter rail lines break COVID-era ridership records
But they're still less than half of pre-pandemic totals
The New York City subway, the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad broke pandemic-era ridership records on consecutive days last week, the MTA, which administers all three, announced on Tuesday.
While the number of trips starting in Manhattan has declined since 2019, the number of trips starting in Brooklyn has increased every year since then.
However, combined subway and bus ridership, more than 3.7 million per day, is still less than half of pre-pandemic levels. Before the pandemic, average weekday ridership totals in the subway system alone routinely exceeded 5.5 million. On the other hand, the number of cars going over nine city bridges and tunnels is almost 100 percent of numbers taken before the pandemic.