Subway segment times

Rows

1,646,722

Size

13.1 MB

Covers

Weekdays, April 2021 to yesterday

Updated

Nightly

Source

MTA subway GTFS-realtime feeds; station names from MTA GTFS

License

CC BY 4.0

Fileshttps://data.transitlab.nyc/v1/subway_segment_times/year=YYYY/month=MM/YYYY-MM.parquetOne file a month, 67 so far. In the database as transitlab.subway_segment_times.

Rows and size from catalog.json, 2026-10-06.

What a row is

One segment on one weekday. A segment is two stations in a row on a trip, in one direction, such as L03S → L05S (Union Sq to 3 Av on the L, southbound). Its time runs from the moment a train leaves the first station to the moment it leaves the second, so it includes the stop at the second station.

For each segment and day we take every train between 6:00 and 21:59 New York time and keep a trimmed mean: we drop the fastest and slowest 10% and average the rest. Single times move in steps of about 15 seconds, the rate the MTA’s feed refreshes, so the mean is steadier than the median.

History through 2026-10-02 comes from an archive of the MTA’s subway feeds; later days come from our own collector, which applies the same rules.

Query it

-- One segment over time: E train, Jackson Hts-Roosevelt Av to Queens Plaza
SELECT service_date, n_trips, round(mean_seconds) AS seconds
FROM transitlab.subway_segment_times
WHERE a_stop = 'G14S' AND b_stop = 'G21S'
  AND service_date BETWEEN '2023-03-01' AND '2023-08-31'
ORDER BY service_date;

Each month is its own file, so you can also read one month straight from its URL:

SELECT a_station, b_station, avg(mean_seconds) AS seconds
FROM 'https://data.transitlab.nyc/v1/subway_segment_times/year=2026/month=09/2026-09.parquet'
GROUP BY ALL
ORDER BY seconds DESC
LIMIT 10;

Stop IDs are from the MTA’s subway GTFS: the first character is the line group, and N or S is the direction.

Columns

service_datedate

New York date. Weekdays only.

a_stopvarchar

GTFS stop ID the train leaves, with its direction (N or S), e.g. L03S.

b_stopvarchar

The next stop on the same trip, e.g. L05S.

a_stationvarchar

Name of the first station.

b_stationvarchar

Name of the next station.

route_idsvarchar

Routes that ran the segment that day, space-separated, e.g. N W.

n_tripsbigint

Trains counted, 6:00 to 21:59 New York time. Days with fewer than 10 are left out.

mean_secondsdouble

Trimmed mean (10th to 90th percentile) of seconds from leaving a_stop to leaving b_stop. Includes the stop at b_stop.

median_secondsdouble

Median of the same. Moves in steps of about 15 s, the feed's refresh rate.

Good to know

• Weekdays only. Weekends and late nights aren’t in the table.
• Some stops are timing points, not stations. The feed reports places like R60 (the 60 St tunnel) between stations; they have no station name.
• A segment can change. Reroutes, skipped stops and reopened stations add or remove segments. route_ids shows which routes ran it that day.
• Days with fewer than 10 trains on a segment are left out.