What am I looking at?
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City, serving four of the city's five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.
The quick answer
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City, serving four of the city's five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 27, 1904, the New York City Subway is one of the world's oldest public transit systems, and the one with the most stations, with 423 stations in operation (472, if stations connected by transfers are counted multiple times).
How it came to be
The system has operated 24/7 service every day of the year throughout most of its history, barring emergencies and disasters. By annual ridership, the New York City Subway is the busiest rapid transit system in the Western Hemisphere, as well as among the 20 busiest rapid transit rail systems in the world. The subway served 1,281,883,362 linked transit passengers trips, or 2,314,388,000 unlinked transit passenger trips in 2025. Daily ridership has been calculated since 1985; the record, over 6.2 million, was set on October 29, 2015.
The detail most people miss
The system is also among the world's 20 longest. Overall, the system consists of 248 miles (399 km) of routes, comprising a total of 665 miles (1,070 km) of revenue track and a total of 850 miles (1,370 km) including non-revenue trackage. Of the system's 25 routes or "services" (which usually share track or "lines" with other services), 22 pass through Manhattan, the exceptions being the G train, the Franklin Avenue Shuttle, and the Rockaway Park Shuttle. Large portions of the subway outside Manhattan are elevated, on embankments, or in open cuts, and a few stretches of track run at ground level; 40% of the track is above ground. Many lines and stations have both express and local services. These lines have three or four tracks. Normally, the outer two are used by local trains, while the inner one or two are used by express trains.
Why it still matters
As of 2018, the New York City Subway's budgetary burden for expenditures was $8.7 billion, supported by collection of fares, bridge tolls, and earmarked regional taxes and fees, as well as direct funding from state and local governments.
Look closer
Alfred Ely Beach built the first demonstration for an underground transit system in New York City in 1869 and opened it in February 1870. His Beach Pneumatic Transit only extended 312 feet (95 m) under Broadway in Lower Manhattan operating from Warren Street to Murray Street and exhibited his idea for an atmospheric railway as a subway. The tunnel was never extended for political and financial reasons. Today, no part of this line remains as the tunnel was completely within the limits of the present-day City Hall station under Broadway. The Great Blizzard of 1888 helped demonstrate the benefits of an underground transportation system. A plan for the construction of the subway was approved in 1894, and construction began in 1900. Even though the underground portions of the subway had yet to be built, several above-ground segments of the modern-day New York City Subway system were already in service by then. The oldest structure still in use opened in 1885 as part of the BMT Lexington Avenue Line in Brooklyn and is now part of the BMT Jamaica Line. The oldest right-of-way, which is part of the BMT West End Line near Coney Island Creek, was in use in 1864 as a steam railroad called the Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Rail Road.
