It still costs $3 to ride the MTA’s buses, despite Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign pledge to make them free for everyone.
But don’t tell that to a growing number of New Yorkers who are evading the fare. The MTA last week reported paid bus ridership fell nearly 8% in June compared to the same month last year, despite the subway and commuter railroads bringing in more fares.
During Mamdani’s first six months in office, the fares the MTA collected from bus riders fell by $31 million compared to the first half of 2025. And MTA Chair Janno Lieber suggested Mamdani’s campaign pledge wasn’t helping.
"With malice towards none, I say all the talk of free bus has an impact, it does have an impact,” Lieber said following the MTA’s board meeting on Wednesday. “Without rancor and without blame, I do think we have to now turn as a city to re-establishing the principle that everybody shares in the responsibility for contributing to this system.”
Lieber said many of the people skipping the fare can afford to pay, which passes “along responsibility to somebody else who’s probably not as well off as you are.”
Bronx resident Brenda Charles, 64, took a free trip on the M2 bus in Harlem last week on her way to help a homebound friend. She knows the buses aren’t free. And knows she’s risking a ticket if she gets caught by an MTA enforcement agent, but said she can’t afford to pay every time she rides.
“ Normally I pay, I got an OMNY card, it's just that it costs me a lot,” said Charles.
“I go a lot of places on the bus, and I'm not qualified for the half fare yet,” she said, referring to the senior discount she’ll be able to get once she turns 65. “But right now it builds up. If I go three, four places a day, It's a lot.”
Lieber on Wednesday said “we’re going to have to create a system which feels a little fairer with enforcement.” He’s previously vowed to crack down on fare evasion through the agency’s EAGLE teams. Now that MetroCards are no longer accepted on buses, the agency plans to use devices that check whether riders’ phones or cards were used to pay — and issue tickets to farebeaters.
Mamdani made his campaign pledge to make the buses free, even though the mayor has no power to deliver on the promise. The MTA is run by the state, not the city.
Mamdani spokesperson Jeremy Edwards didn’t respond to Lieber’s suggestion that the mayor’s call for free buses led to fewer people paying, but instead defended the proposal.
"Fare evasion has been a persistent problem for years and the fact that some people are unable to afford bus fare highlights the affordability crisis in our city,” Edwards said. “This is exactly why Mayor Mamdani is pushing for a fare free system."
MTA bus drivers do not enforce the fare under a labor agreement put in place after a bus driver was murdered in 2008 while trying to get a rider to pay. Now, the MTA estimates about half of bus riders don’t pay. But some advocates have raised concerns over the years that the crackdown will in effect criminalize poverty.
“ There's no money. That's the problem. Nobody has any money, including me,” Nelson Ramirez, 65, said after boarding an M7 bus without paying. “I got problems even to pay my bills, so that's why we take chances.”
He said he tried to sign up for the city’s Fair Fares program that provides half-priced rides to low-income residents, but had trouble navigating the system and gave up. The City Council expanded the income limit to qualify for the program in June, but a one-person household making more than $31,920 is still ineligible.
Lieber said if fewer people pay the fare, the more the MTA may have to raise its prices to cover the difference.
“We want to keep it affordable,” he said.
