As other cities experiment with fare-free transit, some MTA board members are calling on elected officials to come up with new funding sources that would allow the financially strapped agency to let New Yorkers ride buses for free.
While MTA officialsthat higher-than-expected fare hikes may be needed by 2025 if ridership does not return to pre-pandemic levels, others say the time is now for mass transit to be funded similarly to the police, fire and sanitation services that are usually deemed “essential.”
Other sources have told THE CITY there are rumblings from Albany on legislative proposals for fare-free bus service.An MTA spokesperson declined to comment for this story, but CEO and chairperson Janno Lieber has repeatedly called for transit to be, saying that Washington, Albany and City Hall must find ways to help North America’s largest mass transit system get through its latest fiscal crisis.
“Our recommendation is not to kick the can, to careen 100 miles an hour toward the fiscal cliff,” Lieber said after the Nov. 30 board meeting, “but rather to come up with a plan now that makes sure that the riders can count on the system being there at a high level of service, at an affordable cost.”
Samuelsen, Jones and others concede that the idea of free bus rides could become a reality only if federal, state and city elected officials come up with alternatives for funding a transit system whose farebox revenues have been clobbered by the pandemic — yet service frequency and quality must not decrease.
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