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MTA bus-fare retreat could doom all NYC public transit
NY Post ^ | 11/01/26 | Post Editorial Board

Posted on 11/02/2026 6:15:42 AM PST by Libloather

It looks like Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s getting a wish-granted monkey-paw style: MTA buses are now de-facto free — at the price of making them increasingly dangerous and blowing a disastrous hole in the agency’s finances.

Not to mention the larger consequence of surrendering to farebeating.

MTA chief Janno Leiber last week suspended the EAGLE fare-verification program after a couple of ugly incidents, presumably under political orders not to upset the anti-policing left.

And NYPD flacks say the cops have “no plans” to step in; officers haven’t been issuing more than handful of farebeating summonses for some time, and the city’s district attorneys have given up on prosecuting them.

Few bus drivers are in any position to enforce; it means risking their lives.

With nothing making anyone pay, ever-fewer riders are.

Fare-skipping bus riders cost the agency $568 million in 2024, estimates the nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission; 2025 was likely worse.

And that’s not just an immediate hit to the agency’s bottom line: Its finances also depend on regularly issuing bonds backed by expected fare collections.

With bus revenues rushing to zero, who’s going to bid much when the MTA attempts its next bond auction in a few weeks?

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Outdoors; Science; Society; Travel
KEYWORDS: madmani; nyc; public; transit

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1 posted on 11/02/2026 6:15:42 AM PST by Libloather
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To: Libloather
Free crap really is free

Free crap really is crap seems more fitting for this story.

2 posted on 11/02/2026 6:18:43 AM PST by PAR35
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To: Libloather

Well, the good news is that it will reduce the homeless burden on the libraries. Why sit in a library when you can ride the bus all over the place.

And your bus ride will be worth every penny.


3 posted on 11/02/2026 6:30:44 AM PST by NonValueAdded (First, I was a clinger, then deplorable, now I'm garbage. Feel the love? )
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To: Libloather

They are running out of other peoples money.......................


4 posted on 11/02/2026 6:32:19 AM PST by Red Badger (Iryna Zarutska, May 22, 2002 Kyiv, Ukraine – August 22, 2025 Charlotte, North Carolina Say her name)
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To: Libloather

Without charging fares, these buses will be little more than rolling shelters for homeless people.


5 posted on 11/02/2026 6:33:23 AM PST by T.B. Yoits
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To: NonValueAdded

“Well, the good news is that it will reduce the homeless burden on the libraries. Why sit in a library when you can ride the bus all over the place.”

Not really. The buses don’t have much of a homeless problem. If they are going to use public transport as shelter they use subway.


6 posted on 11/02/2026 6:35:06 AM PST by JSM_Liberty
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To: T.B. Yoits

I think perhaps you miss the point

They are not homeless. They are bus dwellers


7 posted on 11/02/2026 6:38:38 AM PST by bert ( (KE. NP. +12) Quid Quid Nominatur Fabricatur)
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To: Libloather

It sounds like if you rude their transit, you may need to be armed.

That sounds exciting.


8 posted on 11/02/2026 6:49:40 AM PST by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: ConservativeMind

“Ride” = “rude”

Typo.


9 posted on 11/02/2026 6:50:34 AM PST by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: Libloather

Just imagine when the first sane mayor takes over NYC. He or she is going to be faced with an MTA that has no viable buses or subway rolling stock; they all will be broken down and dilapidated shelters for the homeless. The new mayor will need to invest a massive amount of money in them to get them to the point where they are clean, safe and secure enough for average, working New York City residents to use them again. This is always the case with Socialism. It is like a locust that eats away and destroys what prior generations built up and leaves future generations nothing other than the need to rebuild from the wreckage.


10 posted on 11/02/2026 6:51:25 AM PST by Opinionated Blowhard (When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.)
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To: bert
They are not homeless. They are bus dwellers

The new subcategory of the "unhoused" are the "unvehicled".

They can have build social workers' stations right into the design of new buses.

Instead of bicycle racks on the front of the busess, they can add racks for shopping carts.

Add stops at liquor stores, soup kitchens, and the morgue.

11 posted on 11/02/2026 7:02:25 AM PST by T.B. Yoits
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To: PAR35

One thing I have noticed about MTA busses in Manhattan, at least, is how efficient they are at navigating the crowded streets. The drivers are aggressive, to say the least, which is exactly what’s needed in that congested traffic. They are well aware of how imposing their diesel behemoths are to all smaller vehicles and they use it to their best advantage.


12 posted on 11/02/2026 7:46:54 AM PST by PUGACHEV
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To: PAR35

Exactly.


13 posted on 11/02/2026 8:07:39 AM PST by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as )
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To: Opinionated Blowhard
will need to invest...

Buying a depreciating asset is not an investment.

It's an expense.

14 posted on 11/02/2026 8:45:25 AM PST by HIDEK6 (God bless Donald Trump)
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To: PUGACHEV

They have their own bus lanes. They have no problems navigating.


15 posted on 11/02/2026 8:52:31 AM PST by 1_Rain_Drop ( ~~ TRUMP is right about EVERYTHING ! ~~ )
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