This map shows the 4.3 million NYC subway trips taken on an average Wednesday in September 2025.

The MTA publishes hourly origin-destination pair ridership estimates, as well as train timetables. In this map, riders navigate from their origins to their destinations, taking into account transfer times and when trains are scheduled. The size of a train's bubble is proportional to the number of riders on it.

The riders use the RAPTOR algorithm to navigate, finding the fastest possible route. All trains are assumed to run on time. Origin-destination data is hourly, so the exact departure time of a rider within the hour is randomly chosen. There is no cap on the number of riders on a train.

Trains' speed is based on their timetables. Sometimes the timetables are a bit wonky, which is why trains sometimes go weirdly fast or slow.

If the display is slow, you can hide station and walking bubbles in the settings to improve performance.

Route geometry from MTA GTFS. Map built with MapLibre GL and OpenFreeMap basemap tiles (© OpenStreetMap). Visuals inspired by subwaybuilder.

Made by anita!