By Mark Ein, CityLab Transportation : Bloomberg – excerpt (includes video)
- Without help, agencies warn of higher fares, service cuts
- Top transit systems see total $6.6 billion shortfall by 2026…
The post-pandemic reality for America’s public transportation is bleak. Work from home has solidly set in, leaving transit agencies that rely on fare-box revenue facing a fiscal cliff.
As pandemic aid dwindles, the nation’s biggest transit systems face a roughly $6.6 billion shortfall through fiscal year 2026, according to a Bloomberg tally of the top eight US transportation agencies based on passenger trips. Rising labor costs and inflation are hitting as farebox revenue stagnates after ridership collapsed. Those eight agencies serve regions that combined contribute about $6 trillion annually to the national economy…
Local officials are pressing for help. Last month, the California Transit Association asked the state for $5.15 billion over the next five fiscal years. Without more money, transit officials across the country warn that the public can expect steep ticket price increases and drastic cuts to train and bus schedules, while long-planned expansion projects are on the chopping block. That pleading worked for New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority when state lawmakers recently approved a massive bailout.
“If it doesn’t get the kind of funding it needs not just to survive but thrive, service will decrease, people will be unable to rely on it, they will be forced to buy cars if they can, take on massive debt to afford those cars.” said Stephanie Lotshaw, acting executive director at TransitCenter, a public transit advocacy group. “All of these outcomes that we are trying to rectify will get worse if we don’t, if we let these systems fail.”…(more)
Proof that we were always working for them (the public transit industry). They were never working for us. Government claimed their goal is to cut traffic, especially comuter traffic jams. COVID did that for them by creating work-from-home options. At the same time large corporations realized they did not need to spend huge amounts of money on rent if their workers worked from home, and given the large number who can and do, they cut back on traffic and commuters. Many of the essential services jobs require a personal vehicle so that is what you have left. Now it is up to the governments to figure out how to re-purpose all those empty office spaces they built, against the wishes of some communities. Not too many people will weep when the building investors go bankrupt. They did their share of bankrupting a lot of people on their way to the top.