Ridership Dips At Forest Hills Subway Stations, Data Shows

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — Forest Hills subway ridership plummeted after city and state officials urged New Yorkers to work from home and banned large gatherings in an effort to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19.

Ridership plunged by nearly 29 percent at the bustling Forest Hills-71st Avenue subway station between this past Friday and the previous Friday, according to an analysis of MTA turnstile data by THE CITY. Just over 18,000 people swiped into the station Friday, compared to more than 25,000 the Friday before, the data shows.

The trend held steady at the less crowded 75th Avenue station, which saw about 2,300 turnstile entries Friday compared to roughly 3,400 the week before — a 31-percent decrease.

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

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The decrease was greatest in Midtown Manhattan, where turnstile entries at Grand Central-42nd Street, 34th Street-Penn Station and Times Square-42nd Street saw drops exceeding 40 percent, THE CITY found.

“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.

The decline in ridership — coupled with increases in bus, subway and station cleaning — could bring financial trouble to an already struggling agency.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has already said the MTA will need federal assistance to get through the crisis wrought by COVID-19, and the transit authority may also consider reducing service frequency, THE CITY reported.

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