Is the MTA getting worse?

Now, the MTA faces a harsh reality: Its decades-old methods for managing money it owes have been broken by the COVID-19 pandemic. Ridership is down roughly 30% from pre-pandemic levels, meaning the city's mass transit systems are clocking about 2.7 million fewer rides per day than in 2019.



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Losses to the MTA's operating budget are staggering, with nearly $700 million in revenue not collected in 2022 alone. This includes $315 million lost in bus fares, $285 million in subway fares, $46 million in bridge and tunnel tolls, and $44 million in railroad fares.

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Key Findings: MTA's outstanding long-term debt climbed from $11.4 billion in 2000 to $42.3 billion in 2022 and will reach $56.7 billion by 2028.

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About the report on MTA Fare and Toll Evasion Losses to the MTA's operating budget are staggering, with nearly $700 million in revenue not collected in 2022 alone. This includes $315 million lost in bus fares, $285 million in subway fares, $46 million in bridge and tunnel tolls, and $44 million in railroad fares.

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The current crisis: MTA is projecting a $2.6B annual funding gap in the near future. After debt restructuring and operating efficiencies are implemented, they still expect the gap to be $1.2B. The table below illustrates the 2019 actual and 2023 expected revenue.

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Over the past five years, 4,592 MTA injury cases have been resolved, forcing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority payouts of over $431 Million in MTA lawsuit settlements.

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New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority is buried under a $48 billion mountain of debt — and paying it off threatens to undermine the agency's core function: running mass transit for more than 5 million people a day.

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Fare evasion on buses accounted for nearly half of the estimated $700 million the MTA lost to non-payment in 2022. “All of a sudden, buses have become the No. 1 fare evasion problem,” said MTA chairman Janno Lieber.

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Virtually every public transportation system in the world loses money. Public transportation systems aren't for-profit businesses, they are public agencies, run by the government, intended to provide a service to the general public.

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New York MTA's multi-decade state monopoly model is no longer producing good transit service. New York City's transit has been in a perpetual “summer of hell.” Media outlets coined this phrase in 2017 to describe the state of different regional services, with their maintenance backlogs and decay.

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Fare evasion is considered a civil case issue and not a criminal case issue. Meaning there's not gonna be any cops hunting you down to put you in jail or anything if that's what you're worried about. What'll most likely happen is the fine and penalties will be reduced to a default judgment accruing interest annually.

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“About 400,000 riders enter the subway each day without paying–a problem so big that enforcement alone cannot solve it,” the panel reported.

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The largest share of MTA revenue — $7.222 billion — comes from dedicated taxes and subsidies the Authority receives from the cities and states that we serve. Another $6.870 billion comes from fares and tolls.

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Just how dirty is the subway? Measured in colony-forming units per square inch NYC finished at the front of the pack of the filthy five. San Francisco's trains had 483 CFU, Boston's had 10 CFU, Chicago's had 180 CFU, Washington's had 30 CFU and New York City had 2,000,030 CFU.

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