NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) -- The MTA would have to raise fares by nearly 30% over the next several years to get back to pre-pandemic revenue levels, the state comptroller warned in a new report Tuesday.
With the MTA facing giant budget hole after COVID-19 decimated its fare revenues, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said subway and bus fares—currently at $2.75 per ride—would need to increase to what amounts to more $3.50 per ride by 2026 to recoup the lost revenue.
The MTA is currently planning fare hikes of 4% in both 2023 and 2025. But DiNapoli said they won't be enough for the agency to reach the same level of fare revenue as 2019.
He said the MTA would need to raise fares by at least another 19%, on top of the two 4% fare hikes, to reach the pre-pandemic fare revenue.
In 2019, fare revenue stood at $6.4 billion, or 42.1%, of the MTA’s total revenue, according to the report. Today, fare revenue makes up only 24.5% of the MTA’s $15.7 billion in revenue, excluding MTA Bridges and Tunnels. The MTA's goal is to have fare revenue make up 32.2% of its total revenue by 2026.
MTA chair and CEO Janno Lieber told 1010 WINS on Tuesday that the way to fix the budget is to increase ridership, which is still only 60% of what it was pre-pandemic.
“The MTA is facing a fiscal cliff—a huge risk of a budget deficit—and we all know why, because ridership is down, it’s down about a third relative to pre-COVID. That is like a $2 billion hit to the MTA budget,” Lieber said.
He said the $15 billion in aid the MTA received from Washington—via three relief bills passed in 2020 and 2021—is down to about $4 billion.
Lieber wants the MTA's partners at City Hall and in Albany to work together on a plan that will avoid unnecessary service cuts and fare hikes for riders.
“We don’t want to raise the fare significantly,” he said. “We want to maintain the same high level of service. New York runs on mass transit. We need a financial solution from our partners.”
Related
Related
Related
