The free rides on the B60, BX18, M116, Q4, S46 and 96 routes end this Sunday. © Chris Day/The Commercial Appeal / USA TODAY NETWORK
(New York, NY) – Free rides on select city buses came to an end this weekend. The MTA has ended the year-long pilot program which has let riders skip the fare on one route in each of the boroughs. The initiative was funded by the state budget in 2023.
MTA officials said that weekday ridership increased by 35 percent and assaults against drivers dropped on those free routes , but the agency is concerned the program sent a message to bus riders that all the routes were free. This coming as the MTA says bus fare evasion rates grew to 48 percent costing the agency more than 300 million dollars a year. The transit system is also struggling to fill a multi-billion dollar gap in their budget that was left after the controversial congestion pricing plan was scrapped by Governor Kathy Hochul.
