NYC NOW - Did Mamdani’s Free Bus Promise Lead More Riders to Skip the Fare?

Episode Date: August 19, 2026

[Heads up: technical issues affected the audio quality on this episode. Thanks for bearing with us — the conversation is still worth it.]   The MTA says far fewer bus riders are paying the fare since Mayor Zohran Mamdani took office.  Fare evasion has been a problem in the city for years, but MTA Chair Janno Lieber says Mamdani's campaign promise to make the city's buses free isn't helping. Mamdani has a different assessment, and blames the issue on the affordability crisis. WNYC and Gothamist transportation reporter Stephen Nessen and editor Clayton Guse explain what may be driving the issue and what comes next as the MTA plans to step up enforcement. Photo: Stephen Nessen - WNYC/Gothamist Got any questions, comments or story ideas? Send us a message at [e-mail].  Episode Notes: Bronx man faces federal hate crime charges in Central Synagogue attack New Staten Island trash complex lets city make way for hundreds of new homes Luigi Mangione admitted to killing Brian Thompson. Why does NY still want a trial? Mamdani hasn't made NYC's buses free. Riders stopped paying anyway. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From WNYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Jene Pierre. Some New Yorkers who ride the bus aren't paying the $3 fare. On today's show, we look into who's to blame. Spoiler alert, the head honcho at the MTA is pointing the finger at a guy whose name rhymes with Mohan Zemfani. Hmm, wonder who that could be.

Before you take a quick guess, here's a few headlines we're watching. A Bronx-Mexamination. already facing state hate crime charges after an attack at Central Synagogue is now also facing federal charges. Prosecutors alleged that 46-year-old Larry Montez punched a congregant, then used a racial slur before spitting on and headbutting a black security guard. Montez is charged with two hate crimes in damaging religious property. A Staten Island sanitation garage is being torn down and replaced with a massive new apartment building. The plan will bring two.

232 apartments and a grocery store. It's welcomed news for North Shore residents who have walked out of their front doors to the hot and funky smell of garbage for years. Sanitation workers will instead park their trucks at a brand new $230 million facility at Fresh Kills. Last week, Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty to federal stalking resulting in death for the killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Now Mangione's defense attorneys are trying to get estate charge. dismissed. They say he should be shielded from further prosecution under New York's law that protects people from being prosecuted twice for the same offense. A judge will make a decision on the case later this year. So when people say buses can never be free, don't ask him to take a hike.

Ask him to take the fair. On June 24th, let's get some more free transit. That was Zoramamandani in a campaign ad last year. For a year, he campaigned on a clear promise. Eliminate the $3 dollar fare and make every city bus free to ride, just like the Staten Island ferry. Fast forward to today, Mumdani is mayor, but the plan still hasn't become policy. In fact, during his first six months in office, the MTA collected $31 million less from bus riders than it did over the same stretch last year. Transit ridership has been slowly recovering since the pandemic. Paid ridership continued to rise on the subway and commuter rails,

But on buses, it's a different story. Many people just stopped paying this year. But let's be clear, fair evasion on buses is not new. The MTA estimates about half of bus riders skip the fair. MTA chair, Jano Lieber says Mamdani's call for free buses isn't helping. And that plenty of riders who can afford the fair are choosing not to pay it. With malice towards none, I say all the talk of free buses has an impact. It does have an impact.

and I'm, again, not blaming anyone, not trying to tell anyone to shut up. Asked about that, Lumdani said the problem is affordability. We're talking about the cost of living prices in the city where one in five New Yorkers struggle to afford a fare at $3. Now the MTA is preparing to step up enforcement. So which is it, dear listener?

Did a campaign promise change the way people behave? Or is the MTA blaming a politician for something that was already happening? To help us answer, these questions, I'm joined by WNYC in Gothamish transportation reporter Stephen Nesson and editor Clayton Goussa. Hello, Jane. So Stephen, basically, the MTA is missing $31 million. What exactly does that figure measure? So that's how many fewer people paid for the first six months of the year. We're comparing that to the first six months of last year. So there's $31 million

short compared to that. And it is a drop. The MTA keeps these bus fare evasion statistics on their website, something I like to keep a close eye on, one of my hobbies. Yeah, I know you have to keep an eye on that for the job. The requirement of the job. Yeah. But it has been going down since 2025. Nearly half of bus riders still don't pay for the bus fare. And June's number is quite staggering in a way because paid ridership dropped by 8% compared

to June of last year. And in that same time, Janaya, you'll remember that's when the Knicks won the NBA championship. Oh, yeah. Yeah, never forget. That's Nixon 5. That's when World Cup came to our area. So there was an increase in ridership on the subways and the long island railroad. But for some reason, it looks like bus ridership, it appears to have dropped, at least the amount of money they brought in dropped significantly.

Yeah. Right. The MTA has been raising the alarms about fewer people paying to ride the bus for years now. And they've said that it's been, you know, hovering around 50% for a while. Then a lot of those estimates that they put out, you know, they have cameras, They have surveyors that go out and trackers on the bus that give you a rough sense. But the actual real, when it comes under brass tax, the amount of money that the buses are taking in is a really strong indicator because they need to report those figures to their stakeholders, to bondholders, to people that lend the MCA money that's backed by some of these fair revenues. So they really, these are pretty airtight consideration.

And the MC is saying that the amount of people who have ridden the bus this year have gone up. A lot of people who have paid have gone down. And you can really take the overall ridership and the success, I guess, financial success of the city's transit system is kind of a litmus test for how the city is doing historically. Right. And we've slowly been recovering to activity in New York after the pandemic, you know, really plummeted and changed the way of life here six years ago, right? So subway riderships continue to recover. Commuter Railroad riderships continue to recover. Employment is a little bit up.

Back to office is still a little bit up. But the paid bus ridership, the farebox at the buses is an anomaly. And it's going down. And there's a couple things there that DMTA, as you pointed out, Jan O'Lebrough, has pinned that on Mondani's campaign promise. There's a direct correlation between him coming into office and these numbers going down. At the same time, as you point out, Mondani has said that this is an affordability. issue, but that fair box revenue going down could just as well be a litmus test for how much people are struggling in the city. Yeah. And, you know, I don't know if this is a public service announcement for people who are listening, but

Mamdani has not made good on this promise. The buses are not free. I see a lot of people just walking on the bus. And, you know, since Momdani has become mayor, I'm wondering, is there, is this, is there any truth to this finger pointing? by Jan O'Leaver. Is Mamdani the source? I mean, I was out talking to riders and I asked them this very question and definitely a lot of people said, yes, we know the bus is not free.

Okay. But they do evade the fare for a variety of reasons. I did meet some riders who said, yeah, the mayor said it's supposed to be free. I'm going to make good on his promise whether he does or not. But definitely a few people

believe that the mayor wants it to be free. I'm going to make it free. So do you think it's a little bit his fault for at least putting in people's heads that it should be free? Mm-hmm. And I know some people can't afford to pay the fare. There's a lot that can't afford it. I mean, the service is not that great either.

You know what I'm saying? So maybe they feel that way. I'm not sure. I'm Janet. Taylor. There's no money. That's the problem. Nobody has any money, including me. I'm trying to get something from Social Security to help me out.

Because I got probably even to pay for my bills. you know, take chances like getting a ticket, you know. Yeah. But you have to take the bus. I have to take the bus to get from point A to point in. Can I get your name, sir? Nelson, Ramirez. It's the law of the streets.

I suppose it's an unwritten rule that you can get away with it, and there are few consequences, although there are consequences. The MTA does have some efforts to tamp down on this, but they pale in comparison to what they've done on the subways. I feel like subway riders know you really can't help the turnstile because they actually made it more difficult to help the turnstile. They redesigned them with these annoying paddles. And they put spikes on the side.

Spikes. So if you try to put your hands to hop over like the old days, you know, you get spiked. I've seen a video of Spider-Man getting over it. But there's still an element of deterrence that just doesn't exist on the buses. And also there are police officers that are going to ticket you or give you a warning the first time. But if you get gone the second time, we'll give you a little. We'll give you a fair evasion ticket on the subway. I mean, there's four and 72 stations on the subway. You can't staff them all, but they've deployed police officers to crack down on fair evasion

at many of them. On the buses, there are thousands of buses in the city. You cannot staff them all. But as this problem has continued to get worse, Jan O'Leber has said, you know what, we're going to start deploying our own enforcement agents. He complains that, you know, by, you know, people who can afford the fare, but don't pay it. He complains that they're, you know, taking advantage of a system and passing along the cost to people who really can't afford to pay it, right? Because every tax dollars, fair revenues, people have to pay for the system somehow.

There's so many workers, so much physical infrastructure, so much maintenance needed. And the fares account for a lot of that, a lot of the way we pay for that. I just want to add, though, we know that congestion pricing was put in effect to help with all of these infrastructure problems that we're having here, right? So even more can be done with $31 million that's missed. Yeah. And I mean, the MTA is eventually going to say, hey, if we're not getting enough from the fare on the bus level, we might have to raise it in other places. I mean, but let's be honest. Aren't they going to raise the fare anyway?

There's it about 4% every two years. Exactly. So that's like part of the plan. But it comes down to how much money they're bringing in. This could affect labor negotiations. The TW.L. 100. The subway and bus worker contract is up. That's under negotiations.

The amount of fare they're bringing for that really comes into play when they, you know, sandwich money they have available for that contract too. I mean, I've been out there riding the buses, and I have to say, you know, when you ride from the more wealthy neighborhoods into the poor neighborhoods of New York, you do see a difference. Like in the wealthier neighborhoods, the vast majority of people who ride the bus pay for the bus. And as you get to the less well-off neighborhoods, you see it. It just drops off.

People pay less. I somewhat dispute Janelle Lieber's characterization that people who can afford it are not paying it. because I see people who can afford it appear to be paying it. And then when you get to the poor neighborhoods, you know, folks don't pay and they don't pay for a variety of reasons. Yeah, let's talk about those reasons. What did they tell you about why they weren't paying?

Well, one of the most common things I saw was that a lot of folks ride the bus several times a day. And so they don't want to pay $3 every time they just want to go three blocks to run to a store or visit a friend. They say, they'll pay if they're going for a long distance, But if they're just going a few blocks, they kind of use the bus as a shuttle. They just hop on, hop off. Yeah.

And I suppose that's, you know, a different way to use the bus. But for someone whose income is quite limited, paying three bucks for a three block trip, just doesn't make any sense. Yeah. Maybe they have mobility issues. It's their older folks. Like they just, they just can't walk that. So that's how they use the bus. That's an unofficial way, I suppose, to use the bus.

Something you also hear a lot for people is that, you know, the subway fare and the bus fare are both $3. And the bus is a far inferior, like it's a way worse service. Absolutely. It's slower. It's less frequent. Yeah. Less reliable. It's less comfortable.

By any measure, it is a less efficient way to get where you need to go. But it does fill in gaps in the map that the subway doesn't serve. So there is like that value proposition that you see a lot of people responding to. And part of the reason why Mom Dani called to make the bus is free in the first place. Yeah. We're going to take a break here. But when we get back, there's a problem. program that could cut fares in half for a million New Yorkers, but only about a third of them are signed up.

Plus, the MTA's plan to crack down on fare evasion. That's ahead. Stay close. Welcome back. Before the break, WNYC Transportation reporter Stephen Nesson and editor Clayton Goussa were breaking down why so many riders skip the bus fare. I want to talk about affordability here because there is a program to help people who can't afford, bus fare, train fare, whatever. Can you talk a bit about Fairfares, the program? Yeah, sure. It's called Fairfares. Essentially, it offers half-priced Metro cards, or I guess, Omni cards now for low-income riders, folks who live below the federal poverty level.

And apparently in New York, at least a million people qualify for this program, perhaps even a little bit more. Yeah. But the number of people enrolled is something like a little more than 330,000. Why is that? So there's quite a gap. Yeah. And I don't know. I've spoken with folks who want to enroll and they say for whatever reason they've fallen through the cracks. Maybe they've moved apartments or they're homeless or a variety of reasons. They just couldn't quite get through the paperwork gauntlet to get that going. So they just gave up. So they just gave up.

And I've heard that for many people. Some people say, well, I'm almost 65 and I qualify for free subway rides anyway. So I'm just going to wait until then. Okay. So they commit fair evasion until they hit that 65 threshold. But the Fairfares program really is designed by some great organizations in the city. The MTA helps out with it, HRA, where folks get their food stamps and other benefits are supposed to help them sort of automatically enroll if they're qualified. But a lot of times it just doesn't happen.

And it's a program that's been around for a while. It was put in a place under DeBosio, so two mayors ago. And it's really the city's response to the affordability. It's a city-funded program. It's passed by the city council just this year. raise the income limit to qualify. It's still quite low. It's like 35,000 for a single person or something like that. So you need to be really on the lower end of the city's income spectrum to pay for it. But it is what the city has done to try to reduce fares for the neediest people or its neediest

residence. When it comes to actually making the whole bus fare free, it's worth reminding our listeners. Mardi doesn't have the power to do that because it's the MTA is a state-run agent. Yeah. Now, he has proposed providing in the city budget in annual subsidy, then providing the MTA with that money that is equal to the fair box revenue that it gets, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars a year. That didn't come this year. Given the city's budget crunch, I wouldn't expect that to come in the years to come. But he's really been focused on. He's almost kind of like slowly backed off the free bus rhetoric this year and really focused on adding new bus lanes to improve service to make it a better value proposition.

Oh, the bus ways, right? Yeah. That said, he's still committed to it. And when we asked about it, they say they're still pushing. for free buses. Okay, yeah, because again, we know Mom Dani built his campaign on free buses, but he, as you mentioned, Clayton, doesn't have control of that. The MTA does, the state does. What can Maldani actually do to move his promise forward? Make some friends at Albany. He has one, I guess. Ultimately, he'll need subsidies probably on the city level and out of Albany.

He'll need the governor and the MTA chair and the MTA board. He has four representatives on the MTA board, but it's a minority of the appointees. And we need to get them to sign off on it. There's also a big question of kind of the way that the MTA's findings this work, because these fair box revenues, like we mentioned earlier, are used to pay off certain loans and bonds that the MTA takes off to pay for construction projects and all kinds of things. So if you disrupt these contracts that say, hey, the MTA's fair revenue is going to be used to pay us back every year, including the interest on these loans, well, then you might need to go to these bondholders and these banks and say, we might need to renegotiate the terms of this contract. So there is like this network that would be required to make the buses free.

The best mechanism that he has right now is to continue to expand and fund the Fair Affairs program and boost enrollment so that you can make it free. for some, if not free for all. You talked about all the friends that Momdani has to have to make free buses a thing in New York City. We know about his relationship a little bit with Governor Kathy Hokel. But what is his relationship like with MTA chair, Janel Lieber? It actually seems somewhat amicable. They show up at events together and they appear smiling. They both have the same goal of, you know, improving transit for sure.

Okay. I think they both want the buses to be more efficient. And the MTA also relies on the city for fast buses because the city is the one that has to adjust the roads, deal with all the pesky city council members and community boards to really make buses fast. So it is a partnership where they have to work together and rely on each other. But when it comes to tampering with Clayton was saying with the fare revenue, I think that's a more touchy subject than making buses faster. Yeah. And generally, the whole basis of this episode, too, is to highlight how he's kind of. criticize Mamdani.

Oh, yeah, point in the finger. Yeah. Hey, maybe he's partly to blame for our drop in bus fare revenue by campaigning and calling for buses to be free for so long. So he's made some public criticisms of the mayor. You haven't really seen as much come from the other side, at least publicly. And a lot of mayors, you know, the MCA historically has been a punching bag for mayors. It's been a state agency. So mayors can say, don't blame me for the problems with subway service.

It's their fault. Don't play me for the problems with railroad or bus service. It's the MTA's problem. But you've ever really seen Moundani do that again because I think there is a genuine interest in speeding up bus service? And the one thing that the mayor does have control of is the city's streets and the street lights and adding bus lanes and timing lights to speed up bus service. And add all this other street infrastructure so that when the MTA does run its buses, they don't get stuck in traffic. So there is like an honest collaboration on that level in a way that you didn't really see under Adams or even de Blasio. Okay.

You know, anytime we talk about fair evasion soon after we're going to be talking about enforcement, right? And I know that the MTA says that they plan on stepping up enforcement on the buses. What does that look like? So they have these things called Eagle Teams. Some listeners may have already experienced it. It's basically the MTA workers who will board a bus. completely stop it from moving. And they have these devices,

kind of like a credit card scanner or whatever. And they go through the bus and they basically check everyone's device, everyone's credit card, everyone's Omnicard to see if you're paid or not. It's a complete hassle. It shuts down service for up to 10 minutes. Again, like you talked about, why do people skip the fare?

It's like you've paid for the bus fare. Now you have to sit and wait while Eagle Teams checks everyone's devices. Are Eagle Teams from the NYPD or no? They're from the MTA. Occasionally they are paired with NYPD officers in case there's any trouble during this sort of checkup on everyone. But the funny thing is not all the devices process the payment at the same time. So I've heard from people who pay with Apple Pay, for example, that it takes a few minutes for the thing to sort of go through the whole system.

So when they scan it, it shows that they haven't paid, even when they have paid. Right. So people are getting kicked off the buses after paying this. So you can again imagine why someone might want to skip the fare after going through this ordeal. Yeah. They have fines. I think the first time it's like a warning, second time, $50, and it can go up to $150. The MTA says that enforcement needs to feel fair.

What does that mean, like in practice? And that's a general lever quote. And that's, I think he was getting back to we want to make a system that feels fair, because he's made that point where, you know, he's argued for a long time that it's not fair for people who can't afford the fare to pass off that subsidy and make someone pay who has a much harder time. For all the people in the, you know, 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. You know, there's no, you know, you're just passing a loan

the cost to another taxpayer. Somebody's going to have to pay for that ride, or at least a portion of the cost of that ride because we know that the fare doesn't cover the full cost of a ride. Don't pass along responsibility to somebody else who's probably not as well off as you are. It's more of an economist's logic. Okay. It's like a social contract. Yeah. Everyone has to pay so that we can keep running this paying for our system.

Yeah. That's WNYC's Transportation Reporter Stephen Nesson and editor Clayton Gusa. Thanks so much, guys, for stopping by. Thank you, Jay. Thank you. A quick note before we go, we are hosting our very first live podcast event. So please join me this Thursday, August 20th in Queens for the latest NWNYC's series in Conversation, The Affordability Crisis.

We'll explore the issues facing tenants and homeowners struggling with rising costs and we'll also explore solutions together. That's going to be my favorite part. I already know it. Please come out and support us as we host our very first thing. live podcast event. You can meet us at the Hanuk Harmony JVL older adult center in Astoria. You can learn more at WNYC.org slash events. I hope to see you there. Thanks for listening to NYC now. I'm Jenae Pierre. See you next time.