Back to bus-ness
Free local rides will soon come to an end
The free ride is over.
Straphangers will again have to pay fares on local buses starting Aug. 31, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials announced Tuesday.
Local buses have been free since March 23, when the agency blocked off areas near bus drivers with yellow chains to help them social distance from riders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then riders have been directed to board through rear doors, requiring them to skip the fare box.
Fares have been required on select and express bus routes throughout the pandemic — but it’s unclear how many riders actually paid them.
Free bus rides during the subway’s 1 to 5 a.m. closure are also coming to and end on Aug. 31, officials said. Subways have been closed overnight since May 6 for cleaning and removal of homeless people.
Transit officials said the free fares have cost the agency roughly $159 million over the last five months.
MTA officials acknowledged that paying the fare will be tough for many in the city’s pandemic-ravaged economy — but said the agency’s pockets are empty.
“We are in the worst economy that this country has seen in decades and decades and decades. I absolutely understand that,” said Interim NYC Transit President Sarah Feinberg.
“The reality is that we have to go back to collecting fares because we have to survive as a transit agency.”
The MTA has asked Congress for $12 billion in relief by the end of 2021 to offset revenue losses from low ridership.
MTA bridge and tunnel police officers will be redeployed to buses to enforce fare collection, and will be aided by the agency’s in-house “Eagle” security team, officials said.
Transit cops and security guards will not be permitted to make arrests for fare evasion. But riders caught skipping the fare could be issued a summons for up to $100.
Bus operators are not allowed to enforce fares, a rule put in place after a Brooklyn driver was stabbed to death in 2008 after confronting a man who declined to pay.
NYC Transit agents have not issued a single summons for bus fare evasion since the start of April, officials said. NYPD data show summonses for fare evasion on the subway were down by 94% between April and June compared to the same period in 2019.
“There’s no change to how we do fare evasion and what the consequences of what fare evasion are,” said MTA chief safety officer Pat Warren, who said transit guards will initially “remind” riders about the return of the fare.
Officials said the front areas of the buses will be reopened to passengers, and each of the MTA’s 5,900 buses will get “enhanced barriers” to better protect drivers, including plastic shields and clear vinyl curtains.
The barriers will complement the current barriers that separate drivers from passengers, which do not extend all the way to bus dashboards and sometimes leave operators exposed to assaults and unruly passengers’ spit.
High-quality air filters will also be installed on buses in the coming weeks to help contain the spread of the virus, said NYC Transit Senior Vice President of Buses Craig Cirpriano.
Bus drivers were hit hard by COVID-19 during the height of the pandemic. At least 131 MTA employees died from the disease, including 41 people who worked in the agency’s bus departments. Transit officials have reported no deaths from the virus since June 8.
Warren said it’s not clear whether bus operators were exposed to the virus by riders or in cramped break rooms at bus depots, but noted there have been no coronavirus clusters tied to public transportation.
A Brooklyn bus operator who asked not to be named said he and his colleagues were not happy about the return to front-door boarding — and said the curtains installed in some buses pose a safety risk because they impair drivers’ ability to see.
“It’s bad out here, and people are already in a bad mood because of everything that’s going on and they take it out on us,” the driver said. “People already act like it’s our fault that they have to wear a mask. They’re going to act like it’s our fault that they have to pay the fare.”