America’s biggest transit system is in trouble

BEFORE THE pandemic, packed subway cars were signs of the vitality of New York City. Squeezing into a packed carriage just as the doors closed was the norm until mid-March. By the time a train reached Manhattan people would be wedged in, shoving past each other to leave. It is difficult to imagine anyone enduring that crush now. Yet it is also hard to see New York truly bouncing back without it. “The subway is the barometer of New York,” says Tom Wright, head of the Regional Plan Association. “If the transit system falls apart, New York will not recover.”

The system is on the verge of financial collapse. Pat Foye, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), the state entity in charge of the subway, buses and regional commuter lines as well as some bridges and tunnels, painted a bleak picture at a recent board meeting. The agency is losing $200m a week because fare revenues, tolls and subsidies are all down, while the MTA is shouldering new pandemic-related expenses (mostly shutting down the normally 24-hour subway for nightly cleaning). Passenger numbers collapsed as covid-19 spread and have risen only modestly as New York City has reopened. On August 31st 1.4m straphangers rode the subway, but that was still 75% below a typical weekday in 2019. The pandemic has taken a greater toll even than the Great Depression; passenger numbers declined by only 12% in 1929-33.