US News Metro Long Island Politics

Sports NFL MLB Olympics NBA NHL College Football College Basketball WNBA

Entertainment TV Movies Music Celebrities Awards Theater

Lifestyle Weird But True Sex & Relationships Viral Trends Human Interest Parenting Fashion & Beauty Food & Drink Travel

Health Wellness Fitness Health Care Medicine Men’s Health Women’s Health Mental Health Nutrition

Science Space Environment Wildlife Archaeology

Today’s Paper Covers Columnists Horoscopes Crosswords & Games Sports Odds Podcasts Careers

Email Newsletters Official Store Home Delivery Tips

Switch between CA and NY editions here.

Bus-fare evasion is just the start of Kathy Hochul’s looming MTA cash woes

See more of our coverage in your search results.

Last week, Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief Janno Lieber pointed to one culprit behind the steep deficits that loom for the state-run transit system: Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s free-bus push, which spurred more people to stop paying. 

Gov. Kathy Hochul will have to use her leverage to neutralize the mayor’s rhetoric — and to fix the upcoming $22.8 billion MTA budget for 2027, whose woes aren’t Mamdani’s fault, but hers.  

Lieber is right that bus-fare evasion is a crisis: With more than 48% of riders not paying, it’s nearly five times the rate of subway evasion.  

Yet the NYPD and the MTA had been making progress (respectively) via uniformed and civilian enforcement of fare rules: Evasion inched down from above 51% two years ago, before Mamdani won office last fall.  

As Lieber said Wednesday, “All the talk of free buses, it does have an impact . . . I’m not blaming anyone, I’m not telling anyone to shut up.” 

It’s no surprise that the mayor who wants the buses to be free doesn’t care that people aren’t paying for them. 

As Mamdani said in July, with Hochul and Lieber looking on, “We’ll continue not only to believe, but to work towards making our bus system free as well.”  

This year, NYPD tickets for theft of services on the bus are down........

© New York Post