MTA Chairman Janno Lieber signaled his opposition Wednesday to one of the signature policy proposals of Democratic mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani — fare-free buses.
Mamdani, a state Assembly member representing Queens, has made “fast and free buses” a key plank in his affordability platform, saying it would cost the MTA $700 million to $800 million a year to fund the program.
But Lieber questioned that figure in an interview on NY1 Wednesday, saying it was based on last year’s farebox revenue from the New York City bus system — a number that he expects will increase.
“Our projection is that bus revenue is going to start to push closer to a billion dollars a year in the next couple of years, as we’ve gotten customers back and, frankly, as we’ve pushed back on fare evasion on buses,” he said.
In another interview, released Wednesday on Substack by the New York Editorial Board, a group of veteran journalists, Lieber cautioned against “bumper-sticker decision-making.”
“It is, you know, one of the things that makes New York affordable,” Lieber said of the transit system. “I want to make it maximally affordable to those in need. I don’t really have the option, because of the economics of this system, of saying I want to talk about free transit.”
Speaking to reporters at a meeting of the MTA’s board on Wednesday, Lieber said that the MTA would study the free bus proposal.
“Any proposal of this scale and complexity needs to be studied. We will study it,” Lieber said. “I know that the folks who are running for mayor understand that.”
“We don’t take a position as long as campaigns are going on about specifics,” Lieber continued, noting Mamdani has been a “big supporter of transit.”
The Mamdani campaign did not immediately respond to questions about Lieber’s comments Wednesday.
Independent mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo, asked about Lieber’s comments Wednesday, used the opportunity to attack Mamdani’s proposal.
“What he’s saying is take a lot of years to study,” Cuomo said of Lieber, “which is a politic way of saying, ‘It’s a dumb idea.’”
Disagreement on free buses between the progressive Democrat and the transit boss is nothing new.
Lieber and other MTA brass were skeptical of a pilot program co-developed by Mamdani that ran a fare-free bus route in each borough last year.
“There was a lot of fanfare on this pilot,” then-acting NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow said at the conclusion of the pilot program last July. “Our hope was that this pilot would get people out of their cars and onto buses on these routes. We did not see anything that aligned with that initial intent.”
Mamdani, however, declared the pilot program a success.
“This pilot achieved exactly what we hoped it would — to bring economic relief to working-class New Yorkers,” he told the Daily News at the time. “This pilot allowed New Yorkers to take the trips they wanted to take and live their fullest life.”
Lieber said Wednesday that bus improvements may necessitate a larger fleet — and more.
“What’s not being discussed is the possibility that, if a lot more people are riding the bus, are we going to need more buses?” Lieber told NY1. “Are we gonna need more bus drivers? Will we need extra depots?”
As previously reported by the Daily News, many bus depots are in need of extensive repairs, and the overhaul of several depots is covered by capital dollars in the current MTA five-year plan.
Any salary for additional bus drivers would come from the MTA operating budget, which is partially funded by farebox revenues.
With Chris Sommerfeldt
