MTA May Have to Cut 40% Service after COVID Losses

By Yehudit Garmaise

   While the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) waits to hear from the federal government about the  $12 billion it requested to compensate for steep losses during the COVID-19 pandemic, the MTA might have take make drastic budget cuts that can result in cutting 40% of its service, resulting in dramatically longer wait times for subways and buses.

  The Riders Alliance, a grassroots organization that works for reliable, affordable, and world-class public transit in the city, just put out a statement that worries that “federal austerity” will “dictate doomsday transit cuts that will “strand millions of transit-dependent New Yorkers.”

     If the MTA is forced to make drastic budgets the Riders Alliance foresees that the wait times for subway rides will increase by more than 15 minutes and the wait times for bus rides will increase by 30 minutes.

   Healthcare workers and other essential workers who cannot work at home, will be the hardest hit by the MTA’s cuts, the grassroots organization said.

 Stephanie Burgos-Veras, the organizing manager with Riders Alliance suggests that instead of cutting service, which would hurt mostly people of color who work in low-wage or hourly jobs, “the MTA should look internally to reduce bureaucratic costs.”

   “Doomsday MTA cuts will harshly transform the lives of New Yorkers,” the Riders Alliance statement said. “[The cuts] will rob hundreds of hours each year from millions of hard-working [New Yorkers] trying to get to and from their job. The White House and Congress must act now to avoid this unprecedented calamity for the nation’s largest city.”

Photo: Marc A. Hermann / MTA New York City Transit