MTA Board Postpones Fare Hike Hearings, while $3 Billion Deficit Remains

By Yehudit Garmaise

While the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) usually raises fares and tolls in March, last Wednesday, the MTA’s board postponed fare hike hearings, so New Yorkers will not see higher public transit prices until at least June of 2023.

Although delayed, MTA fare hikes are likely unavoidable because the low ridership that has lingered since the start of the pandemic in 2020 has created a nearly $3 billion deficit, according to MTA Chief Financial Officer Kevin Willens.

Before the pandemic, subway and bus fares accounted for 42% of the MTA’s revenue, according to NY State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s audit. Now, however, the MTA’s reduced ridership means that fares only provide 24% of the MTA’s earnings, Apple News reported.

In March 2021, the federal government bailed out the MTA with $15 billion dollars, but the transit agency has already burned through at least two-thirds of those funds to keep the trains running. DiNapoli warned that as government funding runs out, the MTA will likely have to initiate severe service cuts and fare hikes soon.

In response to DiNapoli’s report, the MTA said, “solving budget gaps with fare increases and service cuts alone is not an attractive option” as the agency remains “committed to maintaining robust service for our riders.”

Although MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber has said that service cuts are not on the table, the MTA has vaguely announced plans “to adjust” subway service on more than a dozen lines in 2023 “to better reflect post-pandemic ridership.”

“The people who ride the subway ride do so because the public transportation is affordable, and so it is not fair to make riders recoup the MTA’s losses: especially in light of the fact that it has become quite unpleasant and sometimes dangerous to ride the subway,” Simi J. told BoroPark24.

While DiNapoli’s office suggested a fare hike to $3.50, a price that Simi called “ridiculous,” Lieber has recommended a more modest fare hike to $2.90, which is only 15 cents more than riders pay now. 

Lieber also wants the federal government to continue to supply the MTA with hundreds of millions of dollars. “And if [the federal government] also wants to provide an answer that makes the fare hike unnecessary: we are all ears,” Lieber said.