Buckle Up: Speed, Safety, and Sorrow on the New York City Subway

Photography by Abel Lockhart

By Fiona Fahey

Subway surfing has plagued the underground world of New York’s five boroughs for decades. This illegal phenomenon consists of riding on the outside of a moving train car, and it has taken the lives of many New York City youths. In 2025 alone, five New Yorkers across three boroughs have lost their lives to subway surfing and an additional four have been badly injured. Most recently, in the early hours of October 4th, two young girls were found unresponsive atop a J train at the Marcy Avenue station in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Zemfira Mukhtarov, 12, and Ebba Morina, 13, were pronounced dead at the scene. Mukhtarov’s mother, Nataliya Rudenko, found out about the loss of her daughter through her local news station. "She was supposed to be asleep in her room," Rudenko told Fox 5. "Now, we’re planning her funeral." This heart-wrenching tragedy has sparked statewide uproar as New Yorkers call for societal change and more effective subway safety protocols. 

Earlier this year, the Trump administration attempted to withhold nearly $34 million in counter-terrorism funding from reaching the New York City subway system. This proposal, one that was referred to as an "arbitrary, capricious and a blatant violation of the law” by Senior U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, was ultimately denied.  Still, with so much pushback from government officials, New Yorkers are beginning to wonder if they will ever see valiant and effective change within their transit systems.

Only a few weeks ago, on September 30th, the MTA announced that as of January 1st, 2026, basic transportation fares on all train and bus lines will increase from $2.90 to $3.00. This comes after Governor Kathy Hochul’s January 2025 order that welcomed an increase in police presence on subway platforms and at bus stops in hopes of cracking down on fare evasion crimes. The American Prospect reported in 2024 that nearly 400,000 New Yorkers avoid paying their subway and bus fares daily, and though this number is high, it is not the only transit crime that New Yorkers feel needs to be addressed.

Photography by Abel Lockhart

At any given time on any given day, a local New York City news source is running a story about a violent crime committed on a subway line. Reports of slashings, brawls, and even burnings have been running rampant all over the city for decades, but the frequency of these crimes has increased considerably over the past few years. According to the United States Transit Administration, felony-level assaults on subways increased by 21% between 2019 and 2025, from 974 incidents to a staggering 1,177. Dozens of videos warning women about the violent interactions they could experience on subway platforms and in train cars are constantly circulating all over social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. Current New York City mayor, Eric Adams, has claimed that public safety is both a top priority of his and a vital factor in assuring the sustainability of an ever-growing city. With Governor Kathy Hochul’s proclamation that approximately 6 million New Yorkers ride on public transportation systems daily, the need for improvement in subway safety protocols is dire, pressing, and essential.

In addition to this persistent cloud of fear, New York City transit riders have also been experiencing frustration and disappointment in the reliability, or lack thereof, of the subway system. Delays, malfunctions, and alerts of reduced service torment nearly every train line at a consistent rate. When not considering crime or weather, the main perpetrator of these issues is abundantly clear: signal problems. Subway signals are safety devices that resemble and serve the same purpose as an everyday traffic light. If they begin to malfunction, trains can remain stuck at a specific station for a long period of time or, at worst, collide with another train. According to the Office of The New York State Comptroller, the six-month period from January to June 2025 saw an astonishing 214,714 reported train delays. This number demonstrates the increasing urgency to update an aging and outdated transportation system. With so much inadequacy underground, New Yorkers have started to wonder: Why are fare prices rising when the quality of service remains stagnant?

New York City is an undeniably moveable city with a seemingly immovable governing body. The devastating losses of Zemfira Mukhtarov and Ebba Morina have shed a light on just how critical the need for transit safety reform is. Before any more lives are taken, the growing unrest within the city emphasizes the desire for transparency and accountability from the MTA and state officials alike. Through all of this loss, New Yorkers have done what they do best: come together in times of tragedy. Posts urging users to remember Mukhtarov and Morina’s names and stories have flooded social media platforms. Mukhtarov’s mother has called for a change in the accessibility of subway trains and wants the public to remember her daughter as a young and curious girl with an entire life ahead of her. “Zemfira was the happiest person in the whole world,” she told News 12 Brooklyn. “She always shared with her friends and neighbors. Everybody remembers her like a shiny diamond.”

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Fiona is a soon-to-be junior and native New Yorker who is majoring in Communications and Media Studies. Her dream is to work in a busy newsroom in the heart of Manhattan. She spends her spare time filling her ears with Irish music, showing her family members terrible films, and hanging around the five boroughs with her friends.