While the St. Patrick’s Day Parade will take over Fifth Avenue in New York City on Saturday, it will also affect the traffic patterns of many surrounding streets — and the MTA’s subway, bus and rail service.
Here’s what you can expect from the MTA this St. Patrick’s Day.
Subways & buses
Due to the expected crowds near the end of the parade route at 79th Street, some staircases in the nearby 77th Street 6 train station may be designated as entry/exit only on both uptown and downtown platforms.
As a friendly reminder, some subways don’t have weekend service, so there will be no B trains or express 6 or 7 service; riders can take the J or Z instead.
Additionally, N service will be suspended in both directions between Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard and Times Square-42nd Street due to track work. There will be free shuttle buses between Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard and Queensboro Plaza, where straphangers can grab the 7 train.
As for buses, these routes will be detoured for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade: M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M31, M50, M55, M57, M66, M72, M79, M86, X1, X10, X17, X27, X28, BM1, BM2, BM3, BM4, BM5, BxM2, BxM3, BxM4, BxM6, BxM7, BxM8, BxM9, BxM10, BxM11, Q32 and most Staten Island Express buses.
LIRR
There will be 38 extra Long Island Rail Road trains running on Saturday. For complete schedules, visit web.mta.info/lirr/timetable, and scroll down to the section about the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
Metro-North
There will be seven extra morning trains to Grand Central on Metro-North’s Harlem, Hudson and New Haven lines on Saturday, and additional trains will be on standby to depart Grand Central as needed. To view the schedule, visit mta.info/mnr.
Straphangers traveling to and from stations north of Goldens Bridge should expect delays of up to 10 minutes due to repair work from Winter Storm Quinn, which caused multiple downed power poles and lines along the tracks.
Leave the green beer at home
While you can deck yourself out in holiday attire until you’re green in the face, leave the green beer — and any other alcohol — at home if you’re heading to the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Alcohol is banned on the LIRR and Metro-North, and any such refreshments found on your person will be confiscated by MTA Police.
Get your tickets early
With 2 million revelers expected to attend the St. Patrick’s Day parade, the MTA urges riders to buy round-trip tickets in advance at their home station or through the MTA eTix app on their mobile devices.
