The explosion of farebeating on New York City’s subways and buses “tears at the social fabric” of the Big Apple, while taking an ever-mounting toll on the cash-strapped MTA that trickles down to paying straphangers, the agency’s chief, Janno Leiber, said Tuesday.
In a sit-down with The Post’s editorial board Tuesday, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority argued the combination of boosted fare enforcement and a flood of additional patrols by NYPD officers on overtime had helped restore straphangers confidence in the system.
But the rampant fare evasion that started with the pandemic remains a thorn in his side, and a problem that threatens to exacerbate an already $600 million deficit estimated for fiscal 2023, that could explode to $1.2 billion in ’24 and ’25 and to $1.6 billion in ’26.
“It’s not just a matter of money, although it is a huge, huge financial issue,” Lieber said. “Fare evasion tears at the social fabric as one way to put it.”
The MTA sitdown comes just a day after Lieber traveled to Albany to pitch state lawmakers on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s rescue plan for the agency, which has seen its persistent budget deficits explode as ridership struggles to recover following the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent explosion in the number of employees working from home.
“I look at the subway — and I’m a little bit romantic about it — it’s our public square. It is where people form opinions about, to a great extent, about what it means to be part of this crazy experiment,” Lieber said, making a philosophical argument for a farebeating crackdown.
“You’re in close quarters with all kinds of people. Can we all get along? Or do we have to ride around in separate automobiles with 10,000 pounds of steel protecting us from each other,” he continued. “When people start breaking the rules, it very quickly becomes: Why should I follow the rules?”
He concluded, rhetorically: “Why do I have to pay?”
Hochul’s budget includes $1.6 billion in aid for 2024 and at least $1.3 billion every subsequent year. That package would still require the MTA to hike fares and tolls by 5.5 percent this year, which would push the cost of a swipe to $2.90.
Roughly a third of the rescue package — $500 million annually — would come from City Hall’s budget, a proposal that Mayor Eric Adams is pushing back hard against.
Fare-beating has been a persistent problem at the MTA, costing the agency at least $200 million a year in the pre-pandemic era.
The then-chief of the MTA division that runs the city’s subways and buses, Andy Byford, launched a high-profile advertising campaign and pushed for additional enforcement to curb turnstile jumping.