Public Transit in the US Is About to Get Worse

Stand clear of the closing doors.

Please, When was the last time you took public transportation? Maybe you're sitting on a local city bus right now, or maybe even on an Amtrak train. Here in New York City, commuting often means taking the subway. And if there's one thing that unites New Yorkers, it's complaining about the subway, dirty stations, train delays, weekend schedule changes, overcrowding, crime, the list goes on, and remembering that you paid almost three dollars for this ride, you're left to wonder where

When the pandemic first rolled around these transitationcies across the country, and especially in the major cities, they took a serious drop in ridership.

New York subway ridership is down nearly ninety percent overall. City data shows it's.

Down by less in low income neighborhoods like the Bronx worl It only dropped by fifty five percent.

It's a ridership roller coaster for the Chicago Transit Authority. As COVID nineteen fears go up, the number of passengers takes a dip. That's an eighty seven percent dip on the rails.

Each agency saw different levels of numbers, but if you look at BART, for example, Bay Area Rapid Transit District out in San Francisco, basically like an up to ninety three percent drop in their ridership, and that is quite mind bogging, Like if you think about it, if you think about transit pre COVID and how you know you could barely get on a train it would be completely packed, to being face to face with complete strangers, to almost the complete opposite of that, to where maybe nobody's on

How much has ridership returned compared with pre pandemic levels.

The's been coming back at different levels across different agencies. If you look in New York with the MTA, I think ridership has been hovering on weekdays between like seventy to eighty percent. It's not exactly the pre COVID levels, but they're inching pretty closely. So ridership is slowly coming back as workers are starting to go back into the offices. And there's a lot of projections out there that say, you know, ridership still won't return to those pre COVID

And it also depends on what day of the week. Mondays and Fridays are ghost towns on public transit, whereas Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, you're back to squeezing in and breathing in someone's bad breath or under someone's armpit in my case. Apart from fair revenue, where do the transit agencies typically get their funding at the state, the local, and the fact levels.

The other key part for systems to receive funding is through different levels of taxes, so sales tax, some sort of local tax. It's those types of taxes that are being directed towards transit agencies. But at the same time, you know, they also still rely a little bit on funding coming from like advertising.

So during the pandemic and in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, the federal government gave some money to transit agencies. How much money did the federal government allocate and what did transit agencies across the country use that money for.

When the pandemic first rolled around, Basically the federal government had to jump in and offer a lifeline to these agencies. Just to get some context here, Historically in the US, transit agencies usually don't receive the operating funding from the

Across the country to various agencies.

So it's basically to keep them operating. I mean, it was the most basic operating funding you could ask for.

Exactly yeah, literally just to make sure that you know that, like they could still have trains running.

So now that the federal money is expiring or being phased out, what do these transit agencies stand to lose as results of budget shortfalls?

So it is actually a pretty scary picture especially if you are one who lives in a major metro city who is you know, dependent upon transit. I'm going to use the Metro system in DC as an example. So they're running up against the seven hundred and fifty million dollars budget shortfall that could start as soon as next July.

So basically next they have.

To you know, grow it away to balance their budget by April. But if that doesn't happen, then they're looking at massive service cuts across their bus network, trade massive layoffs. They're an agency of about twelve thousand people and that's looking to probably cut that by around twenty percent.

General Manager Randy Clark says that the transit agency must close the seven hundred and fifty million dollars budget gap in the first half of twenty twenty four or face some big changes. Some of those changes, all Metro train stations would close at ten PM. Typically they're open until midnight or later. Ten of Metro's ninety eight stations would

So a big part of it is that these systems are running up against having to do layoffs, service cuts, and then it could also impact safety and security. I think one thing that's been in the news a lot is how cities are kind of combating these perceptions that crime missrizing. What do the crime levels look like? So a lot of systems have had to increase their security

What are experts projecting when it comes to the federal money expiring and creating this vicious cycle that deepens budget woes for transit agencies.

Transit in the US has not really been the top priority in terms of funding, and this is raising that attention to like, look, if we are going to prioritize transit and the US and as we do, you know, for example, have these climate goals, Transit is one of

After the break, a look at some of the biggest public transit systems facing budget shortfalls. So when it comes to the MTA, that's the nation's largest mass transit system overall, it was already heavily indebted before the pandemic. What does its shortfall look like right now as federal age dries up.

So the Metropolitan Transportation Agency in New York has actually become like the kind of example that these other agencies are now trying to model themselves after. So basically, right now, what the MTA has planned is that they will receive funding from a payroll tax on businesses in New York City that will help fund the agency, and that's supposed

It's no secret you know this. The agency is in a deep fiscal canyon, and the governor's proposed budget now provides hundreds of millions of dollars to keep the buses rolling and the trains running. Governor Jokell proposed a small increase in what's called the payroll mobility tax that's paid by businesses, as well as a dedicated share of future casino revenue once Downstate Casino one.

Now the casino is still a work in progress, so it is kind of up in the air, but it's just another short term fix.

The fact of the matter is that New York's MTA is in this uncomfortable position. Its funding is set by Albany, even though mt operates in the city and the state has underfunded the MTA for decades. Can you tell us a little bit about why the MTA has been set up this way and how it has did a disservice to New York City residents as a result.

I think a lot of people when they have frustrations with the MTA, they're like, oh, the mayor should have been doing better with this.

The head of the NTI reports to the governor, not the mayor.

You mentioned Washington, the Metro and how the numbers they are really looking very dire. Why is the problem in DC particularly acute?

Though?

DC's interesting because it's still a major city, but they're struggling because I mean, you think of Washington, DC, all you can think about is the federal government, and like a lot of those federal government employees haven't really returned back to the offices and the same way that you might see in corporate America. They actually just relocated to

Aren't referring to the office, what are we going to do?

They're going to have to even start making cutbacks, and they're not even on the same scale as like an MTA, but they're still operating in a major city that still has to move people around.

You mentioned work from home and how that seems to be more common in a place like Washington than in New York. How about California and the Bay Area in particular, which had suffered some really horrible traffic in Silicon Valley to the city. We know that both the bart the Bay Area of Rapid Transit District and the MUNI, the San Francisco municipal railway are anticipating financial troubles. How much of that is tied to people staying home and not going into the office.

In the Bay Area, we think of big tech, and you know a lot of the tech companies they weren't necessarily rushing back into the office.

I think a lot of people in the Bay Area have moved to the surrounding suburbs a little bit.

Bloomberg has done a really nice job and tracking how people also are moving out of the Bay Area to Texas or even Florida.

Really twelve months people leaving the Bay Area and exodus, if you will, during this pandemic.

But where is everyone going? Is it Austin, is at Renos, at Las Vegas?

And at the same time, I think a lot of people also were buying cars and are driving places.

So how is.

The California state and regional government stepping in to help lessen the budget shortfall faced by Bart and Muni.

California Governor Gavin Newsom and the state legislator.

They've put together some short term funding that will be dispersed throughout the entire state. And I think that's one thing that's really interesting when you compare California in New York. So in New York, MTA is pretty much like the main transit operator, and in California you have so many different systems, so it's not just kind of like the governor can just be like, oh, Bart, you're going to get this amount of money.

They have to really divvy it up.

Across all the various networks that are all throughout the state, from northern California to southern California, at.

Least in the Bay Area.

They're looking to try and put some sort of long term funding plan on the ballot in an upcoming election in the next couple of years, so that way they can get voters input to try and then have some sort of long term funding.

When we return, will state and federal government step in to bridge the funding gaps facing public transit agencies. In the past, when I've ended up at the thirtieth Street station a track station, it's probably because I took the late train back from Washington and I slept through.

The Delaware stop literally not figured.

I only did it about four times.

President Biden, who we know, is a noted train travel enthusiast. He talks a lot about taking the train to Wilmington when he was a senator. He recently announced new federal funding for rail projects makes sense across the country. How much money are we talking about here, Skyler.

President Biden recently announced about eight point two billion for rail projects across the country. Now, this is everything from trying to kickstart high speed rail from Las Vegas and southern California to improving rail operations between Raleigh, North Carolina and Regimond, Virginia speed Rail.

The Biden administration is announcing eight point two billion dollars for projects on both coasts.

Folks. We've been talking about this project for decades.

Now we're really getting it done.

Three billion goes to bright Line West, linking the Los Angeles area to Las Vegas in about two hours. The two hundred and eighteen mile line will run along Interstate fifteen.

He announced this funding and hopes that, you know, they can try and start moving some of these rail projects forward.

So what a lot of.

President Biden has been announcing funding for infrastructure projects, and that money is going to help finance transit upgrades, repairs for signals, tracks, all of those things, because like the transit systems and the country, they need a lot of work, So a lot of that funding is going towards the

When you look at our transit systems versus how other cities have planned theirs out and how they've really maintained them, it's pretty striking the differences. Then part of it is funding as well. New York City is on the brink of implementing the nation's first congestion pricing scheme. We know that London, we know that Singapore, we know that other cities like Milan have used this. How will this program work to fund public transit in the city. What's the connection here?

So this would be a first for a US city, which would be a pretty big deal. And New York City has been trying to get congestion pricing going for decades now. It's just kind of run into a lot of political hurdles. But Basically, for drivers entering Manhattan below sixtieth Street, you would be charged charge a fee to drive around the Central Business District.

Congestion pricing has been a hot button issue ever since it was proposed by the Bloomberg administration years ago. Today, an advisory board proposed a fifteen dollars a day fee for cars entering below sixtieth Street in Lower Manhattan. Trucks would have to pay even more.

The billions of dollars raised through congestion pricing would go to the MTA.

I think if you've been to New York, you know how bad the traffic is. They're trying to reduce the traffic. It's supposed to help the environment with less cars from the road, and the money from tolling will go directly towards the MTA and capital upgrades.

So Skyler. When it comes to congestion pricing, which of course is still controversial, they're plenty people who don't like it. What kind of capital projects could the revenue from congestion pricing in New York City fund?

New York City, they're trying to build the Interborrow Express, which would be a rail to.

Connect Queens and Brooklyn.

So you know, congestion pricing could help finance that project and make crossing between the two burrows by.

Subway a lot easier.

It could also help finance something as small as making sure that tracks are up to date in signals and some of the new technologies that trads need nowadays, and same for buses as well.

So it's mainly to address operational issues, exactly the kind of stuff that the eight point two billion dollars that President Biden announced probably won't.

So the congestion pricing money you will be used for capital infrastructure related projects.

So New York City, if this congestion pricing scheme goes through, would be the first city in the US to implement this. Where else in the US is congestion pricing being considered.

There's been some kind of loose conversations that some cities haven't really like locked it in. Chicago kind of hinted at it a little bit. Los Angeles has also hinted at it a little bit. I mean, Los Angeles we all know is like car city, so they're really trying to find ways to cut down on their congestion.

What will you be looking for as you continue to report on the state of these public transit agencies across the US. What will you be listening for? What will you be watching out for?

I'll be watching out for. What's the conversation like long term? I think transit often sees short term solutions and as short term patches. So I'm curious what's happening long term here? And though you know, there's a lot of conversations to how we're going to keep these systems going, it's also very short term. Still no one has really found the right answer for like what can be done long term? And when I say long term, I'm talking let's jump

You know?

So I'm curious, like what do those conversations kind of look like? And really will we see something new from the federal government in terms of some sort of financing to help keep these systems moving forward.

On the operational side, a lot of.

These agencies have no choice but to focus on the short term because they're fighting it what feels like a daily battle. Are fare increases a short term solution? How much support do fair increases actually give these transit agencies?

They do help, But if you still don't have a ton of writers and you're raising fares, like, yes, it's going to help you, and yes it's going to give you some extra cash.

But they still will really need to see a.

Huge population of writers come back with those fair hikes for there to be like a real difference. But the fair hikes, that is something you are hearing that agencies are having to do on Metro and DC, they're going to have to raise fares. People feel strongly that public transit it's a public service and it is something that

Skyler Woodhouse, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you.

Skyler Woodhouse is a reporter at Bloomberg News. She covers, among other things, the public transit agencies. Thanks for listening to us. Here at The Big Take. It's a daily podcast from Bloomberg and iHeartRadio, and for more shows from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Bloomberg CarPlay, or wherever you listen. And of course we'd love to hear from you. Email us questions or comments to Big Take at Bloomberg