Subways Record More Than 2.7 Million Paid Rides on October 28, Topping Previous Post-Pandemic Saturday Record Set December 2022
OMNY Accounted for Record High 55.2 Percent of Those Rides
New York City Buses Record More Than 852,000 Paid Rides
Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that New York City subway recorded 2,744,462 paid rides on Saturday, October 28, the highest weekend day total since 2020. The record high significantly exceeded the previous Saturday and weekend day high that was set on Dec. 10, 2022, when approximately 2.6 million people took the subway. New York City Buses also saw a strong Saturday, recording over 852,000 paid rides, a 7.3 percent improvement to the previous Saturday.
“My administration has made historic investments in safety and increased service to attract more riders back to the MTA,” Governor Hochul said. “We are continuing to break ridership records on our subways, railroads, and buses as New Yorkers proudly keep coming back to the system.
The record subway Saturday was driven by taps into the system – 55.2 percent of all rides were tap-and-go customers, a single-day record. OMNY, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) contactless fare payment method, accounts overall for nearly half of all paid subway rides.
MTA New York City Transit President Richard Davey said, “Mother Nature gave us good weather on a Saturday for the first time in what feels like forever, and people took advantage of it. Most importantly, they used the subway in record numbers to get to wherever they needed to go, and a lot of those riders used OMNY. NYC Transit will remain focused on delivering faster, cleaner, safer service – including increasing the amount of service we provide on weekends – so that we can celebrate even more records in the near future.”
The ridership and OMNY records came two days before the MTA would activate OMNY customer vending machines in The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, allowing riders to use cash at the vending machines, and credit and debit cards and digital wallets are also accepted for purchases.
Those cards provide another way to take advantage of OMNY’s financial flexibility to pay-as-you-go and never spend more than $34.00 in 7 days.