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If you think your morning commute could use a little more noise and disruption, good news! The MTA has officially kicked off a pilot program that will pipe 30-second audio ads into select subway and commuter rail stations every 10 minutes. That's right, every 10 minutes. Because clearly what you need on your way to work is a loud commercial break.
The MTA hopes that these ads will generate income to keep the system running. The spots will be capped at 75 decibels, roughly the volume of a loud conversation, a vacuum or heavy traffic. In other words, quite pleasant! This will definitely improve the soundscape of the stations where riders already struggle to understand service announcements.
So what kinds of ads can we expect to enjoy? For now, the pilot is limited to entertainment and sports, like ads for upcoming movies and TV shows, concerts and live events and video games. Only one advertiser will take over a station per day, so you'll hear the same thing again and again depending on how long you're waiting for your train.
What we don’t know yet is where these ads will play. The MTA has not released a public list of participating stations, so you'll just have to be surprised if you hear one. The test run is scheduled to continue through June 1, 2026.
The agency says rider feedback will determine whether the program sticks around. The reaction, so far, is to be expected. Commenters ran wild on a local Instagram post, with one commenter summing up the collective response: "Save yourself research and just know the feedback is: NO."
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It's highly likely you'll encounter one of these audio pitches on an upcoming ride over the next few months, so bring along your best noise-cancelling headphones and get your feedback fingers ready to share your experience with the MTA.