NYC subway slow zones

Stretches of track where trains have been running well over their usual time for days on end, measured from five years of MTA train data. The MTA doesn't publish its speed restrictions, so this is an outside estimate.

Time lost each week

Extra time spent by riders in slow zones, weekdays 6 am to 10 pm.

Active now

Biggest since 2022

Ranked by total rider-hours lost.

How this works

For every pair of stations in a row, we measure how long trains take from leaving one to leaving the next, using the MTA's live train feed, updated nightly.

  • Usual timeThe 10th percentile of the last 120 weekdays, a good typical day.
  • Slow zone4+ weekdays in a row at least 10% and 10 seconds over the usual time, adding at most 2 minutes. Bigger jumps (reroutes, skipped stops) are left out.
  • Riders affectedEvery station-to-station trip in the MTA's 2025 ridership estimates, sent along its fastest route.

Caveats: run times include time at the platform, so a busier station can look like slow track; sudden, lasting jumps are the clearest sign of a speed restriction. One stretch of slow track can appear as two zones, one per direction. Rider counts are 2025 averages.