NY MTA Chief Says Fare Evasion an ‘Existential Threat’
- System-wide paid ridership in December is at 65% of 2019
- Fare evasion costs the MTA about $700 million a year
Riders paid 68.4% of subway trips in December, the sixth straight month where paid ridership fell below the target rate.
Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesNew York City subway and bus riders who skip paying fares are threatening the fiscal health of the nation’s largest public transportation provider and its ability to improve service, the transit authority’s chief executive said Wednesday.
“This is a fundamental, existential threat to our ability to provide first-class public transit and make it better, more frequent, more reliable,” Janno Lieber said during the agency’s monthly board meeting. “And so we got to push back.”