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> fares only cover a tiny portion of the operating budget This varies a lot by city and transit system. For example NYC subway + bus + train fares under the MT

> fares only cover a tiny portion of the operating budget This varies a lot by city and transit system. For example NYC subway + bus + train fares under the MTA umbrella amounted to $6 billion in 2019, which accounted for 38% of the total system budget [1]. The SF Bay Area's BART is another system that's largely fare-funded, with $485 million in fare revenue covering 52% of the 2019 budget [2]. It's definitely possible to eliminate these, but you'd need substantially more dedicated tax revenue. [1] https://new.mta.info/budget/MTA-operating-budget-basics https://new.mta.info/budget/MTA-operating-budget-basics [2] https://www.bart.gov/sites/default/files/docs/Fiscal%20Year%202020%20Preliminary%20Budget_2019-03-29%20FINAL.pdf https://www.bart.gov/sites/default/files/docs/Fiscal%20Year%... (p. 11)

asdff 5y ago
Wow, I didn't realize these major systems were still so reliant on the farebox revenue. I thought that was what ultimately killed the private subway operators in NYC: a lack of subsidies or any other revenue for private companies beyond what they could make from the farebox. It seems like funding transit on dedicated tax revenue is the way to go. LA metro is building more transit projects than any agency in the country by far, and they are emerging from the pandemic with a 1.4 billion dollar larger budget than what they had before the pandemic in 2019. NYC subway can barely do regular maintenance, on the other hand. Sales taxes just make sense for funding infrastructure like transit, considering we all benefit from transit even if we don't personally use it. Transit alleviates congestion, improves air quality, and chances are if you live in a city, you probably rely on someone in your day to day life who themselves relies on transit to get around. It doesn't make sense to force the low paid worker to pay for the bulk of transit when their high paid bosses depend on them coming to work reliably on transit.

asdff 5y ago

Wow, I didn't realize these major systems were still so reliant on the farebox revenue. I thought that was what ultimately killed the private subway operators in NYC: a lack of subsidies or any other revenue for private companies beyond what they could make from the farebox. It seems like funding transit on dedicated tax revenue is the way to go. LA metro is building more transit projects than any agency in the country by far, and they are emerging from the pandemic with a 1.4 billion dollar larger budget than what they had before the pandemic in 2019. NYC subway can barely do regular maintenance, on the other hand. Sales taxes just make sense for funding infrastructure like transit, considering we all benefit from transit even if we don't personally use it. Transit alleviates congestion, improves air quality, and chances are if you live in a city, you probably rely on someone in your day to day life who themselves relies on transit to get around. It doesn't make sense to force the low paid worker to pay for the bulk of transit when their high paid bosses depend on them coming to work reliably on transit.