Nearly 1.9 billion trips were taken on New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s subway, bus, and paratransit services in 2025—up roughly 7% from 2024—and the subway, Long Island Rail Road, and Metro-North Railroad each broke OTP (On-Time Performance) records last year, MTA reported Jan. 2.
At MTA New York City Transit, the subway’s weekday OTP in 2025 came in at 83.7%, a 2.1 percentage point improvement from 2024, and weekend OTP was 86.6%, 2.4 points better than 2024. The best single month for performance in subway history was August, when weekday OTP reached 85.2%, according to MTA.
“This improvement in subway service was driven through increased focus on data-driven schedule and service management improvements; a drop in delays related to public conduct incidents; and improved schedules helping to mitigate the impacts of scheduled maintenance and capital work,” the transit authority reported. “ \The subway system experienced about 13,000 fewer delays in 2025 compared with the previous year, even with increases in regularly scheduled service. In 2025, the Department of Subways also increased service on several lines, including the A and L in November, and the M in December in conjunction with the F M swap.”
Subway ridership also grew in 2025, with nearly 1.3 billion total trips representing 85% of pre-pandemic levels. It rose 7% from 2024 and some 30% from 2022. According to MTA, the subway broke its post-pandemic single-day weekday and weekend ridership records on numerous occasions last year, with the most-recent single day high reached on Dec. 11 with 4.65 million riders.
On buses, the MTA added additional service across the city in 2025. “Following the launch of congestion pricing, the MTA and [New York] Gov. Kathy Hochul committed $8 million from the Outer Borough Transportation Account to increase frequencies on 22 high-ridership bus routes, including eight Express Bus routes connecting riders to Manhattan and 14 critical Local Bus routes, reducing wait times for riders,” MTA reported. “In June and September, the MTA phased in the Queens Bus Network Redesign, which included a $35 million annual investment in increased all-day frequency, 11 brand new bus routes and 25 new Rush Routes, which have sped up trips by 7%.” Bus ridership grew by approximately 8% in 2025, with nearly 440 million total trips.
For paratransit, October was the first month in history with more than 1 million riders, according to MTA. Overall ridership is at 161% of pre-pandemic levels.
In November, customer satisfaction was at 67% for subway riders and 62% for bus riders, while paratransit satisfaction has been in the high 70s all year, MTA reported. “This increase in satisfaction was driven primarily by improved customer safety, with 71% of subway customers reporting they felt safe on the system in November, the highest rate since the MTA began monthly surveys in 2022,” the transit authority said.
The MTA’s commuter railroads clocked strong performance and ridership results in 2025, according to MTA. LIRR saw the greatest ridership increase of all MTA modes in 2025, with 81 million riders, up 9% from 2024. Also, 183,250 people took LIRR on Saturday, Dec. 13, the highest post-pandemic Saturday, and 152,661 people took LIRR on Sunday, Dec. 21, the highest post-pandemic Sunday, the transit authority reported. On Sept. 24, LIRR carried more than 300,000 riders for the first time since the pandemic. Overall, MTA said, LIRR ridership is at 92% of pre-pandemic levels.
LIRR’s OTP for 2025 exceeded 96%, up one point from 2024 and the best non-pandemic year in at least a decade, according to MTA, which noted that 81% of riders “felt satisfied” with service, an 11-point increase from 2024.
Metro-North’s OTP for the year reached 97.8%. “This strong performance was matched by improvements to service, including the ahead-of-schedule launch of new ‘Super-Express’ service on the Hudson Line on Oct. 5, slashing travel times between Poughkeepsie and Grand Central to less than 90 minutes,” MTA reported.
Metro-North carried 69 million riders in 2025, up 6% from 2024. The week of Dec. 15 was the highest post-pandemic ridership recovery week for the railroad, with 827,015 total customers, MTA said. Additionally, the weekend of Dec. 20-21 was Metro-North’s “strongest weekend ridership performance of the post-pandemic era,” with 245,638 customers. MTA said the railroad’s ridership is now at 88% of pre-pandemic levels.
According to MTA, additional milestones in 2025 include:
- Highest ridership subway station: 42 St Complex (Times Sq-42 St N, Q, R, S, W, 1, 2, 3, 7/42 St-PABT, A, C, E/Bryant Pk, B, D, F, M/5 Av 7), 58,848,238 total customers.
- Highest ridership subway route: 6 line with an average of 560,000 daily riders.
- Highest ridership bus route: M15-SBS carried 7,004,769 riders.
- Busiest turnstile in the subway: Grand Central – 42 St, Booth R238 Position 16, 1,853,615 total entries.
