There’s never been a bigger summer for sports in New York. It started with the Knicks’ historic NBA Championship run, then the City hosted the FIFA World Cup, and now U.S. Open tennis is back in action just as baseball season winds toward playoffs and a rebuilt Belmont Park races to its grand reopening.
Through every event, mass transit has proved to be the real MVP. We saw a 7% increase in subway ridership this June compared to the same month last year, while the LIRR hit 100% of pre-pandemic levels for the first time.
More recently, US Open Fan Week and a Mets homestand gave the 7 line a bump, with paid ridership at the Mets-Willets Point station shooting up by over 300% compared to the week before. Further north, Metro-North carried 24,869 passengers to and from the Yankees-E 153 St station for the team’s 8/29 double-header against Boston – by far the most rides ever transacted there in a single day.
Savvy fans know there’s no better way to get to the game. The MTA network offers unbeatable access to every major sports venue in the City: Citi Field, Yankee Stadium, Madison Square Garden, Barclays Center, UBS Arena, Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, and right on the Queens-Nassau border, a new Belmont Park.
The best incentive is strong service, and we are knocking that out of the park. Year-to-date subway on-time performance is holding steady around 82%. The LIRR and Metro-North are even better – 94% and 97% respectively – while service delivery for Buses hit 93.5% in June. And Access-A-Ride (AAR) paratransit is breaking records all the time, even after we tightened the criteria for on-time performance.
Subway and bus riders can find all the latest service information in the new MTA app. With just a single tap, users now have access to real-time arrivals at the stops closest to them, along with live positioning of the nearest trains and buses, clearer station layouts, and better transfer advice. And for the times you need some extra assistance, there’s 24/7 chat support from live customer service agents.
That’s what a world-class system is supposed to do: get you where you’re going and get out of the way. And this summer, the MTA has shown that when the crowds come, we’re ready to deliver. The games may have a winner and a loser, but when fans choose transit, the whole City wins.