New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the Long Island Rail Road and other transit in New York City, had a record-breaking year in 2025.
MTA recorded nearly 1.9 billion trips on its system, the most since 2019. Ridership is up almost 7 percent systemwide over 2024, officials said. Additionally, the subway, Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad all recorded record-highs for On-Time Performance in 2025.
“This is what happens when you invest in mass transit: better service, faster trips and increasing ridership, benefitting the entire region,” Hochul said. “2025 was a record-breaking year for the MTA and a great year for riders, who took almost two billion trips from Poughkeepsie to Patchogue and the Rockaways to Riverdale, powering the entire region. Transit is the lifeblood of New York, and in 2026, we will build on these results to continue improving service, saving New Yorkers precious time and powering our economy.”
MTA said 2025 set other records. Weekday and weekend On-Time Performance (OTP) reached the highest levels since electronic record-keeping was launched, excluding the pandemic period. Additionally, weekday OTP in 2025 was 83.7 percent, a 2.1 percentage point improvement from 2024. Weekend OTP was 86.6 percent, 2.4 points better than 2024. And in August, subway weekday OTP reached 85.2 percent, the best single month for performance in history.
The subway saw 13,000 fewer delays, MTA said, even with increased service. Officials said the improvements in subway service were driven by an increased focus on data-driven schedule and service management; a drop in delays related to public conduct incidents and improved schedules to mitigate the impacts of scheduled maintenance and other work. MTA said subway ridership grew in 2025, with nearly 1.3 billion trips, up seven percent from last year.
MTA said bus ridership grew by eight percent in 2025 with nearly 440 million total trips, and paratransit continued to break records with its first month of more than one million riders on the service in October. Overall ridership is up to 161 percent of pre-pandemic levels.
“Four years ago, under Governor Hochul’s leadership, the MTA set out ambitious goals to bring transit – and New Yorkers — back from the pandemic by increasing and improving service and investing in our infrastructure,” MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said. “Thanks to the amazing MTA workforce and historic capital funding from Albany, we’ve been able to accomplish those goals—ridership, service, safety and modernizing and expanding our great but aging system. Promises made, promises kept. That’s good government in action.”