A ray of hope from the subway on NYC’s recovery

In one clear sign that the city’s truly recovering from the pandemic, the MTA reports that 4 million people rode the subway last Thursday, the first time ridership hit that mark since March 12, 2020, the day before then-President Donald Trump declared the national COVID emergency.

There’s a ways to go yet: Midweek ridership is still at 70% of pre-COVID levels and commuters are scarce indeed on Fridays.

But it’s vital progress nonetheless.

Ridership dropped by 90% in the depths of the lockdown and was still at only 56% of pre-COVID levels in February 2022.

The MTA’s tried a variety of tactics to bring riders back, from a “#TaketheTrain” campaign on social media in 2021 to pulling transit agents out of their booths to directly interact with customers this year.

But the biggest beacon is surely the crackdown on transit crime, which measured as down 21% in March over the year before.

Of course, it’s not certain those safety gains are sustainable, as the left is still pretending that crime isn’t a problem anywhere.

Which means it may take another round of elections to get the subway, and the city, truly back on track.