Charline Charles is a digital journalist from Brooklyn who has covered local news along with culture and arts in the New York City area since 2019. She joined PIX11 News in 2022. See more of her work here.
NEW YORK (PIX11) -- While New Yorkers may complain about the city's transit system, it was a very busy year according to MTA ridership data.
A few days before the end of 2023, the MTA revealed the busiest subway stations, train lines, and bus routes. The report also included the most used bathrooms, after the agency reopened bathrooms in some stations, which were closed in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The data covers ridership from Jan. 1, 2023, through November 2023.
- Busiest subway line: the 6 train, which the agency estimated to carry roughly 140 million passengers for the year, more than those riding the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad combined
- Station with most MetroCard swipes: Flushing-Main Street No. 7 line with 6.3 million swipes
- Station with the most OMNY Taps: Grand Central-42nd Street, with 5.4 million taps
- Stations with the busiest bathrooms: 74th Street-Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue and 14th Street-Union Square
- Bus line carrying most passengers: the M15/M15 SBS with 16.4 million riders
- Bus traveling the most miles: the B6 with 1.7 million revenue miles
- Busiest bus stop: Archer Avenue at Parsons Boulevard in Jamaica, Queens, with more than 36,000 riders per weekday