The bill for “free” has arrived faster than anyone at City Hall planned for — and the man who runs New York’s transit system just said so out loud.
MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber told reporters Wednesday that the campaign drumbeat for fare-free buses has fueled a surge in fare evasion, sending paid bus ridership down a staggering 7.7% in June compared with a year earlier, according to a New York Post report on the agency’s board meeting.
Lieber never said Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s name. He did not need to.
“There’s a trend that broke out,” Lieber said. “With malice towards none I say all of the talk of free buses, it has an impact.”
The numbers behind that understatement are ugly. June 2025 saw 1.32 million paid bus riders; last month’s figure fell 7.7% below it. May was worse — a 10.4% year-over-year collapse. In January, weekday paid rides came in at 1.21 million, down 8.1% from the prior year. Agency documents show paid ridership sliding year-over-year for at least three months of 2026.
“I’m not blaming anyone, I’m not trying to tell anyone to shut up,” Lieber added. “But we need to reestablish this.”
What he wants reestablished is the idea that a $3 fare is an obligation, not a suggestion — and he pointedly declined to pretend the fare-jumpers are all people who cannot afford the ride.
“For all the people who are on their way to office jobs, who are making a good income, who walk by the bus driver and don’t pay or get on the back and don’t pay, I say it’s time to be New Yorkers,” Lieber said. “You’re just passing along the cost to another taxpayer. Somebody’s going to have to pay for that ride.”
“Don’t pass along responsibility to somebody else who’s probably not as well off as you are,” he continued. “Take responsibility for this precious system.”
“Fast and free buses” was a centerpiece of Mamdani’s 2025 campaign and became shorthand for his broader agenda. Since taking office in January he has continued to promote the plan, pointing to the MTA’s own 2023 pilot on five routes as proof of concept. The agency’s review of that pilot found something less flattering: it mostly increased trips among people already riding buses rather than pulling drivers out of their cars, and it cost the MTA more than $16.5 million in lost revenue.
Scaled citywide, the Independent Budget Office puts the price of free buses at roughly $1.1 billion. The MTA — controlled by the state, not the city — is already projecting deficits of $160 million in 2027, $243 million in 2028 and $306 million in 2029. Lieber has argued repeatedly that the agency cannot absorb the cost, and he reiterated it Wednesday.
None of which required a single dollar of the plan to be enacted for the damage to start. The promise alone was enough to teach riders that paying is optional, and the revenue walked out the back door of the bus.
“Without rancor and without blame, I do think that we have to now turn as a city to reestablish the principle that everybody shares in the responsibility for contributing to this system,” Lieber said.
Somebody, as he put it, is going to have to pay for that ride.
Source: nypost.com
