Midtown Subway Swipes Plummet Amid Coronavirus Spread: Data

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN-HELL'S KITCHEN, NY — Midtown residents and workers have been avoiding the subway in droves after city and state officials urged New Yorkers to work from home and banned large gatherings in an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus in New York City.

Some of Midtown's usually-busy subway stations experienced drops in ridership by as much as 40% from Friday, March 6 to the following Friday, March 14, according to an analysis of MTA turnstile data by THE CITY.

Turnstile entries at stations such as Grand Central-42nd Street, 34th Street-Penn Station and Times Square-42nd Street saw drops exceeding 40%, THE CITY found. Stations near tourism destinations such as 47-50th Street Rockefeller Plaza and 42nd Street-Bryant Park have also seen sharp declines.

Every single station in Midtown saw a decrease in turnstile swipes of at least 35%, according to the data.

Midtown isn't an outlier: The number of turnstile entries dropped at almost all the 457 subway stations analyzed, according to THE CITY.

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“Not surprisingly, we are seeing daily declines in ridership and we expect those declines to continue as mass gatherings are barred and major companies and universities move to telecommuting,” Abbey Collins, an MTA spokesperson, told the news outlet.

On Tuesday, the MTA announced that the agency is seeking a $4 billion federal bailout. The transit authority projects it will lose $3.7 billion in coming months from falling ridership and $300 million more from coronavirus expenses like cleaning subway cars, the letter states.

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