Governor Hochul Announces Subway Ridership Reaches Historic High on Marathon Sunday

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) achieved an all-time Sunday subway ridership record during the 50th running of the iconic five borough course of the New York City Marathon, carrying 3.14 million riders and shattering last year's record of 2.81 million riders by 11 percent, and representing 109 percent of pre-pandemic Sunday ridership. Additionally, on Halloween, Saturday, Oct. 31, subways carried 3.59 million riders, surpassing the previous post-pandemic Saturday record of 3.27 million riders set on May 16, 2026, and the highest Saturday since 2016. These milestones follow a record-breaking Thursday, when the subway carried 4.72 million riders, marking the highest post-pandemic single-day subway ridership. This represents a 9.7 percent increase from the same day last year.

"From the streets to the subways, New Yorkers were on the move this weekend in record numbers," Governor Hochul said. "The subway is the lifeblood of our city and from Halloween to the marathon, the major events that make New York special simply would not be possible without mass transit. We have made historic investments to run better service and keep riders safe and New Yorkers have responded by riding in ever growing numbers."

MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said, "Spirits were high this weekend for Halloween and the NYC Marathon, but subway ridership was even higher. These record-breaking numbers show once again that when New York goes big, it goes by mass transit."

Between Friday, Oct. 30, 2026, and Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, the MTA set a new post-pandemic weekend ridership record, carrying 11.24 million riders and surpassing the previous record, also set during Halloween and Marathon weekend last year. This past weekend's ridership was 8.4 percent higher than last year's. Subway ridership on Friday, Oct. 30, 2026, was also a post-pandemic Friday record with 4.51 million riders, surpassing the previous record of 4.4 million riders set on Friday, Oct. 31, 2025.

These record-breaking ridership milestones come on the heels of recently announced post-pandemic subway ridership records: a five-day weekday record of 22.32 million riders between Oct. 19 and Oct. 23, 2026, and a seven-day record of 27.87 million riders for the same week. With this past weekend's surge in ridership, the MTA has broken both records, achieving a new five-day weekday record of 22.62 million riders for the week beginning Oct. 26, and a seven-day record of 29.35 million riders.

To accommodate the expected increase in travel, NYC Transit operated additional subway service throughout the weekend and deployed additional personnel at stations near the race finish line and other high-priority viewing locations to ensure customers could travel to and from the marathon smoothly and safely.