Transit & Streets Data retrieved 2026-08-22
Subway on-time performance
The share of scheduled subway trips reaching their terminal on time, by year since 2015: 63.4% at the 2017 low, 84.4% in 2025.
84.4%
of scheduled subway trips reached their terminal on time in 2025
Below the 88.6% pandemic-era peak of 2020, when trains ran with far less congestion, and above the 63.4% low of 2017.
The numbers behind this chart
| Year | Subway terminal on-time performance, citywide annual rate |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 69.6% |
| 2016 | 66.8% |
| 2017 | 63.4% |
| 2018 | 66.4% |
| 2019 | 81.1% |
| 2020 | 88.6% |
| 2021 | 85% |
| 2022 | 81.4% |
| 2023 | 83.3% |
| 2024 | 82.2% |
| 2025 | 84.4% |
The key years
What this counts
The share of scheduled subway trips that arrive at their final terminal on time, as the MTA calculates and reports it for every line and month; this page sums the on-time and scheduled trip counts across every line and weekday and weekend schedule to one citywide annual rate.
What it does not say
- This measures whether a train reaches its LAST stop on time, not whether it kept every scheduled stop along the way; a train that runs behind for most of a trip can still count as on time if it makes up the difference by the terminal.
- It is a share of trips, not of riders: a delayed rush-hour train affects far more riders than a delayed overnight train, but each counts as one trip in this rate.
- The MTA revises recent months after first posting them, so the newest year can shift slightly on a later download.
The questions New Yorkers actually ask
Is the NYC subway on time?
84.4% of scheduled trips reached their terminal on time in 2025, per the MTA's own monthly data summed to a citywide rate.
When was NYC subway service at its worst?
2017, when just 63.4% of scheduled trips reached their terminal on time, the low point in a series that begins in 2015.
The numbers move. We watch them.
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