Subway Ridership Hits Single-Day Coronavirus Pandemic Highs

NEW YORK CITY — The city's subways returned to a form of "normal" last week that riders haven't seen in a solid year.

MTA officials counted 1.91 million paid trips on March 12 — a single-day record for the coronavirus pandemic, according to the agency.

The tally surpassed the record 1.88 million set just one day before on March 11, officials said.

"To set back-to-back record highs in the same week is an indicator that people are eager to return to their normal lives,” Sarah Feinberg, interim president of New York City Transit, said in a statement.

Riders likely found the subways more crowded those days than they've been used to in the pandemic, but total ridership is still less than half what it was before the coronavirus struck.

Before the pandemic, MTA counted 5 million trips per day on average, officials said.

But the pandemic, lockdowns and social distancing measures drove that average to 300,000 per day last April, according to the MTA.

The cratering ridership contributed to a billions-deep loss for MTA that officials proposed to plug with massive cuts to services and workers. Those appear off the table after President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Act, which included more than $6 billion in MTA funding.