New York City subway ridership slipped 0.3 percent in 2016

Last year, MTA New York City Transit's (NYCT) subway system served 1.756 billion riders, marking a 0.3 percent decline from 2015's ridership.

The decrease was the first time the NYCT's annual subway ridership fell since 2009, New York media reported yesterday.

However, average weekday ridership in 2016 was the highest since 1948, according to NYCT's preliminary ridership report. The system last year logged 5.656 million average weekday rides, a 0.1 percent increase compared with 2015.

In addition, subway ridership surpassed 6 million on 39 weekdays in 2016, down from 49 in 2015, agency officials said in the report.

In 2015, NYCT's subways served 1.763 billion riders, the agency's highest ridership since 1948.