Village Subway Ridership Cut In Half Amid Coronavirus, Data Shows

GREENWICH VILLAGE, MANHATTAN — Ridership at the Village's subway stations is half of what it was before city and state officials began urging New Yorkers to work from home and banned large gatherings in an effort to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, data shows.

The number of rides at the West Fourth Street-Washington Square Park station plummeted by nearly 45 percent from March 6 to March 13 as New York City entered a state of emergency for the pandemic, according to an analysis of MTA turnstile data by THE CITY. Only 21,433 people swiped into the station on Friday compared to 38,911 the week before, the data shows.

The trend was similar at other nearby Village stations, like Christopher Street, where there were only about 5,000 swipes March 13 compared to 9,244 the week before.

Ridership decreased a little less steeply at Union Square station, where swipes went down by 33 percent, or from 29,703 swipes to just 19,879, according to the data.

The downtown stations are far from outliers, too.

The number of turnstile entries dropped at almost all of the 457 subway stations analyzed across the boroughs, according to THE CITY.

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.

Patch reporter Maya Kaufman contributed to this story.