It's strange to me to hear people blame turnstile jumping for the decline of the MTA. Its budget for operations has been repeatedly cut or diverted to large cap

It's strange to me to hear people blame turnstile jumping for the decline of the MTA. Its budget for operations has been repeatedly cut or diverted to large capital projects, which do nothing to improve service if operations are poor. Declining ridership and fare intake were a reflection of the poor operational state of the system - in 2017 and 2018, as the number of delays and major incidents skyrocketed, ridership went down. And when operations improved over the latter half of 2018 through 2019, ridership went up again. Even if a low farebox recovery rate were the problem, the solution isn't increased policing. Many people in NYC simply can't afford to ride the subway, and you're not gonna magically squeeze money out of them.