Subway Ridership Down, While Subway Crime is Up

Although 70% fewer people are taking the subway per day than before the pandemic, the number of felonies committed on the rails, unfortunately, has only dropped by 24%. Even with 3.6 million fewer people riding the subway per day than this time last year, the numbers of murders, rapes, and burglaries have all tragically increased this year, so far.

  For instance, September of 2019 saw 24 felony assaults, while last month of this year saw 22 felony assaults, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) said via statistics it released on Friday.

   Although five million people rode the subway every day before the pandemic, the MTA said, this last September, only 1.4 million people per day have been riding the underground trains, of late.

  More commuters started to take the subway in October, which brought the ridership to closer to 2 million people per day, however, the criminal activity continues to increase.

   Other recent acts of violence on the subways have been the result of several people who were shoved onto the tracks, such as a 28-year-old woman, who thankfully, emerged with light injuries, but who was shoved from behind on the tracks by a mentally disturbed homeless person on Friday.

  Although the MTA has its own small police force, the NYPD is primarily responsible for policing the subways.

Photo: Marc A. Hermann / MTA New York City Transit