UES Subway Swipes Plummet Amid Coronavirus Spread: Data

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Upper East Siders 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 the Upper East Side's busiest subway stations experienced drops in ridership topping 50% from Friday, March 6 to the following Friday, March 14, according to an analysis of MTA turnstile data by THE CITY.

The sharpest declines in station swipes occurred at 68th Street-Hunter College (53.9%), 86th Street and Second Avenue (43.9%) and Lexington Avenue-63rd Street (41.5%) and86th Street and Lexington Avenue (37.5%). A mere 11,313 subway riders swiped in at the Hunter College station on March 13 compare to 24,537 the week before.

The Upper East Side 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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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.

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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