$trapped MTA eyes service cut

The MTA is mulling service cuts in the coming years, despite receiving nearly $15 billion in federal aid since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said Wednesday.

Transit leaders anticipate a multibillion-dollar deficit as soon as 2025 since the MTA is expected to skip this year’s planned fare increase, Chief Financial Officer Bob Foran said at the agency’s monthly board meeting.

“We’re going to run out of federal aid by 2024 and we’ll face a $3.5 billion cumulative deficit in ’24 and ’25,” Foran told board members.

“At some point, we need to figure out where is our ridership needing us to take them, what are the levels of service that we need to provide to meet the needs . . . so that we don’t have to do some last-minute, desperate, massive layoffs.”

MTA board member Larry Schwartz, an appointee and key aide of Gov. Cuomo, declared Monday that “there’s not going to be a fare hike in 2021.”