New York’s MTA Plans to Delay Fare Hikes for Six Months

(Bloomberg) -- New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to delay scheduled fare hikes for six months and will suspend potential service cuts “indefinitely” as the agency is set to receive billions of dollars in aid from a $1 trillion federal infrastructure bill.

The MTA’s board will consider those changes at its monthly meeting Wednesday. The agency will postpone the fare increases for at least six months, Janno Lieber, the agency’s acting chief executive officer, told board members Monday during a public committee meeting.

New York will receive $10.5 billion for transit infrastructure in the federal bill, with the bulk of that going to the MTA to finance capital projects to expand and modernize its subway system and make it more accessible.

The federal infrastructure bill will help fund “critical, long-overdue” projects in New York State, Governor Kathy Hochul said at the Albany International Airport Monday on her way to Washington to see President Joe Biden sign the measure.

The federal money from the infrastructure bill is an addition to $14.5 billion the MTA is set to receive in federal relief money to cover revenue losses during the pandemic when subway ridership fell by as much as 90%. Even with those allocations, the MTA is facing budget deficits as subway ridership isn’t expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024 or later.

“We’re responsible for making sure there’s a balanced budget and we’re going to have to work with our partners in Albany, including the legislature, to address the MTA’s emerging needs brought on by the Covid crisis,” Lieber told board members during a committee meeting for subways and buses.

The MTA planned to boost transit fares in 2021 as it usually increases those fees every two years. The board and the agency have put off voting on such hikes to help encourage ridership.

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