New York City's subway system is experiencing a rise in delays, with weekday on-time performance dropping from 83.7% in the first half of 2025 to 82% in the first half of 2026. This decline means nearly one in five weekday trips are not arriving on schedule. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) defines a train as on time if it arrives at its final destination no more than five minutes late and has not skipped any planned stops.
The B, N, 2, and F lines have shown the lowest on-time rates, with performance at 71.6%, 72.7%, 73%, and 73.1%, respectively. Passengers have voiced frustration over the increasing delays and their impact on daily commutes.
Sal Padellaro, a rider who experienced a 45-minute delay on an F train, described smoke filling the car and the difficulty of being underground without service. "It’s hard to be underground with no service that long," Padellaro said. He noted that delays can disrupt work schedules for both himself and his staff.
The 6 train saw the steepest decline in reliability, with its weekday on-time rate falling by 9 percentage points, from 85.3% to 76.3%. Ana, a lifelong Manhattan resident, reported that the 6 train often experiences longer waits than indicated and is frequently overcrowded, leading to struggles to board.
"The 6 train will say two minutes and then it takes ten mins until the train comes. It’s crowded and people are pushing and shoving and fighting because they want to get in," Ana said. She expressed concern about being late for her job in hospital billing.
Conversely, the 7, J, and L trains were among the most reliable, with on-time rates of 89.1%, 86.4%, and 85.4% on weekdays. The 42nd Street, Franklin Avenue, and Rockaway Park shuttles exceeded 96% on-time performance, attributed to their short routes with no merging train lines.
MTA Chairman Janno Lieber acknowledged the delays on Wednesday, stating that the agency is working on improving response times for signaling issues and other service disruptions. He mentioned that February's snowstorms contributed to a systemwide on-time performance dip to 79% for that month.
Despite current performance dips, the MTA has presented plans for significant infrastructure upgrades aimed at reducing bottlenecks, with many of these projects slated for completion between 2030 and 2050. A presentation titled "Eliminating Bottlenecks: Speeding Up Your Ride" outlines efforts to fix 25 chokepoints where train lines converge, a problem the MTA attributes to the system's century-old design.
"Our vision for 2050 will include fewer bottlenecks and better service," an MTA presentation stated. However, some proposed solutions, even those already underway, are not expected to be completed before the next fare hike in March 2027. This timeline has drawn criticism from riders like Ana, who questioned the justification for fare increases with ongoing service issues.
The MTA has been responsible for the city's subway system since the 1960s, inheriting a complex network built from separate earlier systems. The agency's long-term vision aims to address these inherited physical constraints to improve service frequency and reliability.