{"id":2372,"date":"2025-10-14T21:20:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T21:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/2372\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T21:20:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T21:20:08","slug":"mta-celebrates-billionth-subway-rider-of-2025-as-pandemic-bounce-back-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/2372\/","title":{"rendered":"MTA celebrates billionth subway rider of 2025 as pandemic bounce back continues"},"content":{"rendered":"

A newly-minted Brooklynite on his way to surf the Rockaways was surprised to learn he was the New York City Subway system\u2019s billionth rider of the year<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a crazy detour,\u201d Zayd Nubani, 28, told reporters, covered in confetti and holding a $100 OMNY card gifted him by MTA\u2019s chief customer officer, Shanifa Rieara, moments before at the Lafayette Ave. station in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

\u201c[I was] going to surf the nor\u2019easter today \u2014 didn\u2019t expect this to happen,\u201d he added. \u201c[I\u2019m] super happy to be the billionth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MTA<\/p>\n

Evan Simko-Bednarski \/ New York Daily News<\/p>\n

MTA Chief Customer Officer Shannifah Rieara (center) and Chairman Janno Lieber (left) present Zayd Nubani, 28 (right) with $100 in free subway and bus rides as confetti falls in the Lafayette Ave. station in Brooklyn on Tuesday. Nubani was given the reward as a prize for being the subway system’s billionth rider of the year. (Evan Simko-Bednarski \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Originally from the Philadelphia area, Nubani told the Daily News he\u2019s lived in New York for nearly four years. The Greenpoint resident said he regularly takes the G train to the L train where he works in the fashion industry \u2014 and regularly rides the A train to the Rockaways to surf.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I won\u2019t live anywhere else in the States, because there\u2019s nowhere that has as good public transportation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In recent years, the MTA has celebrated its billionth yearly rider as a benchmark of the system\u2019s comeback from the pandemic lockdown closures of 2020 and 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the best markers for charting New York City\u2019s comeback,\u201d MTA chairman Janno Lieber said. \u201cEvery year we\u2019re hitting it earlier and earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Confetti<\/p>\n

Evan Simko-Bednarski \/ New York Daily News<\/p>\n

Confetti is seen on the floor of the Lafayette Ave. C train station in Brooklyn after NYC Transit celebrated the year\u2019s billionth subway rider. (Evan Simko-Bednarski \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

In 2022, the system\u2019s billionth rider spun the turnstile in late December<\/a>. In 2023<\/a> and 2024<\/a>, the billionth rider came in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere we are, 2025, we got to that milestone in October \u2014 a great sign,\u201d Lieber said.<\/p>\n

In 2019, the year before the pandemic lockdown, people rode the subway nearly 1.7 billion times.<\/p>\n

Originally Published: October 14, 2025 at 5:07 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A newly-minted Brooklynite on his way to surf the Rockaways was surprised to learn he was the New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[267,9,11,10,12,608],"class_list":{"0":"post-2372","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-local-news","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-transportation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}