Federal Aid Ensures MTA Will Not Have To Cut Service or Jobs

By Yehudit Garmaise

  Although public transportation has suffered a 70% drop in ridership caused by the pandemic, which caused the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to lose billions of dollars, the agency will not have to cut any services or layoff any workers at least through 2022, thanks to the financial help of the federal government.

   For months, to get out of its $44.8 billion debt, MTA officials have been wringing their hands over whether to cut service, raise fares and tolls, and/or let go of 9,000 transit workers.

   In an exciting turnaround, however, $8 billion in federal funding, $3.4 billion in loans, and better-than-expected finances have staved off immediate fiscal disaster, MTA Chairman Pat Foye told agency board members today.

    “We have been able to eliminate the worst-case service reductions that had been previously on the table for 2021,” Foye said. “With improved financial results from last year, we are now able to take these worst-case reductions off the table in 2022 as well.”

    In addition, the MTA’s $51.5 billion modernization plan, which the pandemic had forced public transit officials to temporarily suspend, has been re-launched with $6 billion investment, the Wall Street Journal reported.

    Although future cuts are always looming in the distant future for the MTA, Foye expressed optimism that cuts could be avoided when he mentioned that US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that President Joe Biden’s proposed COVID-19 relief bill would add provide another $8.8 billion to the MTA’s financial woes.