{"id":303209,"date":"2025-10-14T17:45:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T17:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/303209\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T17:45:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T17:45:17","slug":"nyc-subways-celebrate-1-billionth-rider-in-2025-earlier-than-last-years-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/303209\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC subways celebrate 1 billionth rider in 2025, earlier than last year\u2019s record"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"people\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Zade Nubani of Greenpoint, right, became the 1 billionth subway rider in NYC in 2025.<\/p>\n

Screenshot of MTA YouTube channel<\/p>\n

The MTA<\/a> NYC Subways celebrated a major ridership milestone as the 1 billionth rider entered the turnstiles in a Brooklyn subway station, agency officials announced during a press conference in the borough on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Zade Nubani, a surfer from Greenpoint, Brooklyn, was heading to the Rockaways to ride the waves when he became the star commuter at the C train\u2019s Lafayette Avenue station on Oct. 14.<\/p>\n

MTA officials gave the morning commuter a swag bag filled with mugs, T-shirts, a hat, and a $100-value card for riding the rails.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

The guest of honor said he was surprised to find that his morning commute had taken an unexpected, yet joyful, turn on Tuesday.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a crazy detour. I didn\u2019t expect this to happen,\u201d Nubani said. \u201cI\u2019m super happy to be the billionth. MTA, you guys are awesome. I ride you every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

With music playing and confetti falling, smiles lit up the drab subway station.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always a joy to come out and celebrate our 1 billionth subway rider of the year. That\u2019s a billion with a \u2018B\u2019 folks, not an \u2018M\u2019,\u201d MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber told the crowd of reporters, riders and MTA staff.<\/p>\n

Billion subway riders shows signs of recovery<\/p>\n

He discussed what the occasion means for the MTA.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the best markers charting NYC\u2019s comeback, because every year<\/a> we are hitting it earlier and earlier,\u201d he said. \u201cIn 2022, the first year we got back to a billion riders after COVID. That was on Dec. 27, right under the wire.\u201d<\/p>\n

In both 2023 and 2024, the 1 billionth subway rider entered the system in November.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd here we are, 2025, we got to that milestone in October, a great sign,\u201d the chair said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Lieber attributed the earlier milestone to \u201cthe best service\u201d in over a decade. Last month, the subway system marked an 85% on-time performance, which was just short of the MTA\u2019s best month on record. He stated that in the immediate years preceding the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, on-time performance was in the 60-70% range.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lieber also thanked Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers for funding increased subway service.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, overall transit crime, he said, is down more than 12% compared to \u201cbefore COVID,\u201d though he still acknowledged the prevalence of high-profile crimes in the system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re never going to stop working with the NYPD to make sure that crime goes down, down, down,\u201d Lieber said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zade Nubani of Greenpoint, right, became the 1 billionth subway rider in NYC in 2025. Screenshot of MTA…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":303210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,1121,22876,34311,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,153969,11900,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-303209","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-greenpoint","11":"tag-janno-lieber","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-nyc-subways-one-billionth-rider","19":"tag-transit","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115373770661389405","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}