Subway commuters experienced some trains skipping stations on Thursday morning, as throngs of Knicks fans flooded the system to get to Lower Manhattan’s Canyon of Heroes for the team’s championship ticker-tape parade.
REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
Subway commuters experienced some trains skipping stations on Thursday morning, as throngs of Knicks fans flooded the system to get to Lower Manhattan’s Canyon of Heroes for the team’s championship ticker-tape parade.
MTA spokesperson Aaron Donovan said some trains have at times skipped as many as five stations in Lower Manhattan at the request of the NYPD, due to the overwhelming crowds of revelers. He did not specify which stations were skipped besides those the MTA had already planned not to run service to before Thursday: the City Hall R and W and Wall Street 4 and 5 stations.
But according to the MTA’s website, at around 10 a.m., some R and W trains were bypassing Rector St in both directions, some 4 and 5 trains were going past Bowling Green and Fulton St in both directions, and some A and C trains were skipping Chambers St in both directions. Additionally, the E train was suspended between West 4 St and World Trade Center.
Donovan said the bypasses have been “short-term in nature” and were quickly lifted.
“Service is running,” he said. “People are getting where they need to go.”
Knicks fans heading into Lower Manhattan to watch the ticker-tape parade on June 18, 2026.Photo by Dean Moses
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, in a social media post, warned New Yorkers about the changes in a 9:53 a.m. social media post. He also noted that bus service is suspended in “much” of Lower Manhattan.
“We’ve got a big crowd here celebrating our Knicks,” he wrote. “Bus service is suspended in much of lower Manhattan. Subways are skipping some stations in the area.”
The mayor directed New Yorkers to text NOTIFYNYC to 692-692 and check mta.info for the most up-to-date information.
Videos and photos posted to social media Thursday morning showed subway stations, including the atrium at the Fulton Center station and the platform at 34 St Penn Station, packed wall-to-wall with fans decked-out in Knicks gear.
Meanwhile, the MTA shared at 9:27 a.m. that Chair and CEO Janno Lieber, NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow and MTA Security Chief Michael Kemper were monitoring “conditions in Lower Manhattan to keep as much subway service as possible running with parade related crowding.” The post included a photo of the three looking at a wall of monitors.