By: Justin Kayboom
New York City is on the move – literally.
The numbers show there were nearly 20% subway riders during first opening week of the Phase One reopening compared with the previous period.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) said that between Monday and Friday, the subway system saw 877,158 passengers per day on average, an increase from 735,747 each day over the course of the previous week and two times as many than rode the rails in the middle of April, when the pandemic was surging.
The jump in ridership is seen as a positive, but the statistics also show that the ridership was significantly lower than the roughly six-million recorded back on February 5 of this year.
To help build traffic, MTA officials said last week that each of the 472 subway stations were being thoroughly disinfected twice each day. In fact, trains and buses have thus far been cleaned more than 650,000 times since March. Also, hand sanitizer and masks are available, the MTA said.
There is even more good news. MTA Metro-North Railroad announced schedule changes on the Hudson, Harlem and New Haven Lines beginning June 15 as trains increase in frequency to accommodate the region’s Phase 1 reopening. The schedule change will further increase overall service to 61% of the Metro-North normal weekday schedule.
The new schedule reflects a 115% increase in peak-service, MTA said. The current schedule of 54 trains is being replaced by the new June 15 schedule consisting of 116 trains, and includes a 61% increase in reverse-peak train service with 11 additional trains operating. This reflects 49 trains arriving at Grand Central Terminal during the AM peak and 67 trains departing during the PM peak.
“With ridership down more than 90% and more customers expected to slowly make their return to the system, the new schedule provides approximately 41% of the normal Metro-North peak capacity,” the group noted. Metro-North Railroad will continue to provide hourly service during off-peak, mid-day, late-evening, weekends and holiday periods.
“Increasing the frequency of trains on all three lines is part of our commitment to ensure our customers have a safe way to get to work and back home,” said Catherine Rinaldi, Metro-North Railroad President. “We will pay close attention to ridership numbers and quickly make any adjustments necessary. Cleaning and disinfecting stations and train cars remain our priority as we slowly welcome more riders back.”
The schedule will allow beginning June 15 for up to 12 trains to be added to the schedule on a short notice.
