MTA warns of 40 percent reduction in New York subway and bus service, thousands of job losses

New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) warned Wednesday that it faces major service cuts and job losses if it does not receive $12 billion in federal aid.

MTA Chairman Pat Foye told NBC 4 New York that the service is now losing $200 million per week as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has led many New Yorkers to avoid public transportation, including the city’s buses and subway system.

The losses are greater than the city has ever experienced, including during the Great Depression, Foye added to NBC 4. He told state lawmakers at a Tuesday hearing that ridership remains at just 25 percent of pre-pandemic levels.

“Expenses cannot be reduced quickly and significantly enough to offset the 40 percent reduction in revenue we have experienced and are expecting,” the MTA said in a statement.

“If the Senate doesn’t act we will have no choice,” Foye told the news outlet. “Draconian measures would be needed, with massive job cuts and service cuts in the weeks and months ahead.”

Should the transit authority not receive federal funding, a request for which comes as the Senate appears deadlocked on how to proceed with the next phase of a coronavirus relief package, the MTA estimated that it could cut up to 650 positions and institute major service reductions on some lines, Foye told the news outlet.

More than a dozen Republican lawmakers in New York’s congressional delegation have called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to include a bailout for the MTA in the next economic recovery package, thought such a deal appears to be far away as Democrats and Republicans have failed to make progress in talks.