New York is pretty unique because of the way the MTA works. It’s public authority created by merging a bunch of public authorities created by the infamous Rober

New York is pretty unique because of the way the MTA works. It’s public authority created by merging a bunch of public authorities created by the infamous Robert Moses with the then-destitute NYC transit and the commuter rail portions hacked off the the corpse of the Pennsylvania and New York Central railroads. The MTA board is controlled by the governor of the state. This is key because the capital, and most state jobs, are in provincial Albany. The people and cash are in NYC. So MTA is a valuable political tool for patronage. On the operational side, you also have the TWU (transit workers union) and other unions which are competent and active they aggressively vacuum any money they can. On the capital side, you a whole ecosystem of unions, contractors and various interests who want a vig from the massive MTA capital budget. You have MWBE contractors, some real, some not so much. You have insane bidding rules with multiple prime contractors, weird wage tables, contractural minimum staffing, etc. Also remember these institutions are old by American standards. The Long Island Rail Road is one of the (if not the) oldest operating railroads in the country. That means old stuff, engineering debt and weird legacy processes. As an example, when they bored tunnels a few years ago, 50-60 workers were “manning” a TBM. In Paris at the same time with the same machine… 12. It adds up. Everyone knows it’s a shitshow, which is why many people DNGAF about fare evasion. The cops only care about it as mining operation for overtime. If some dude is making $90/hr for 30 fake laborers, why are you hassling a 17 year old for $3? The $500 ticket costs $2500 in NYPD labor.