Buses were made free during the pandemic and not paying has continued to be the mindset for the last 6 years. Half of bus riders don’t pay the fare now, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in MTA lost revenue. And with the mayor flapping his gums about free buses both during and after his successful campaign, why would those people start paying now? Words have consequences and the fact is that Mamdani can’t snap his fingers and abolish the fares for subways and buses. MTA is a state agency that reports to the governor, and neither Gov Kathy Hochul nor MTA President Janno Lieber are open to this. Good luck trying to put the genie back into the bottle now. It was reported this summer that the MTA is looking at a 4% fare increase in 2027 to offset the losses and to cover inflation, and then they plan to implement more hikes in 2029 across subways, buses, and bridge and tunnel tolls. So, the MTA keeps hemorrhaging money and taking more of it out of people’s pockets.
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SERVING MIDDLE VILLAGE AND MASPETH SINCE 1938.
