In Transit newsletter: NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani is pushing for free bus rides. Would it work on Long Island?

I love exploring New York City with my family, although taking in some art or culture with my teenage sons is typically limited to a visit to Midtown Comics.

Whatever we do, we often end up on a city bus, which allows us to enjoy a little more sightseeing through the windows, while also getting us where we need to go. At $3 a head, a ride on an MTA bus is a lot cheaper than a taxi or Uber.

And it’s an even better value for nearly half the other passengers on the bus, because they’re not paying.

As big a problem as fare evasion has been across the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in recent years, it’s been especially persistent on city buses, where about 48% of riders skip out on paying, according to MTA figures. While some riders have long sought to get around the cost of a bus trip by sneaking in through back doors, the problem has been made far worse in recent years, perhaps, in part, because the very people in charge of operating buses have trained riders to believe that they shouldn’t have to pay for riding on them.

Back during the height of the COVID-19 outbreak, the MTA — along with several other transit providers, including those in Nassau and Suffolk — suspended fares on buses, both because of health concerns over riders crowding around fare boxes and drivers, and as a means to support essential workers who had to continue using transit through the pandemic. As part of the temporary lifting of fares, riders were allowed to board buses from rear doors typically used only for exiting.

When the MTA, along with Nassau’s NICE and Suffolk County Transit, resumed fare collection on buses in the second half of 2020, many riders, now used to riding for free, cried foul. The genie was out of the bottle, and it was boarding the bus from the rear.

The MTA, as part of a systemwide crackdown on fare beating that began about three years ago, took several measures to try to get riders to pay, including deploying fare enforcement agents onto buses to issue fines. But, before those efforts could be effective, the MTA faced another obstacle to convincing bus riders that they need to pay: New York City's new mayor.

Zohran Mamdani was elected to office last year on a platform that included a vow to make New York City buses free. That campaign promise has led to some tension between Mamdani and MTA Chairman Janno Lieber, who last month blamed a recent spike in fare evasion on "all the talk of free buses."

Of course, "free" buses don’t mean there's no cost to operate them. In Mamdani’s vision, that cost — estimated to be between $700 million and $1 billion annually — would be borne, in part, by raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations.

Could such an idea get any traction here on Long Island? As many bus riders in Nassau and Suffolk, like those in New York City, live at or below the poverty line, there would almost certainly be support for such a measure among riders, although fare evasion has historically been less of a problem here. Suffolk officials said only around 2% of Suffolk County Transit riders don’t pay their full fare. NICE officials in November 2024 estimated their fare evasion rate at between 20% and 30%.

Leilani Cook, of the Riders Alliance — a nonprofit transit advocacy group — believes the case for free buses on Long Island is even stronger than in New York City.

"Out there, they rely on cars. So if they ain’t got a car, they've ... got to spend money that they don’t really have," said Cook, of South Ozone Park, Queens.

But Charlton D’souza, president of Passengers United, another NYC-based transit advocacy group, said offering free buses on Long Island would be especially fraught, because transit agencies are led, and funded, by county administrations that "come and go" regularly.

"If it's something that has to be renewed every year in a budget cycle, then that's a recipe for disaster," said D’souza, a bus rider who believes public officials' energy would be better spent expanding fare discount programs for low-income riders and making fare payment as simple as possible.

"Of course I want free buses and free subways. Who doesn’t?" D’souza said. "But I think the reality is ... people want options."

Transportation news

• Transportation tragedies dominated local news over the last few days, ranging from a deadly motorcycle crash in East Islip, to a construction worker killed in a Nesconset work zone, to a mother and her baby dying when a boat capsized in New York Harbor.
• Documents passed across the bargaining table shed new light on what triggered the LIRR's first union strike in more than 30 years. 
• Is riding the LIRR "kinda chic" or is the MTA's latest leap on the viral trend kinda cringe?
• If you got a red light ticket in Nassau County, don't hold your breath waiting for a refund.
• Mamdani and the MTA have an idea for making subway stations a little less miserable in the summer.

Travel watch

• The eastbound LIE will be closed between Exits 39 (Glen Cove Road) and 41 (State Routes 106/107-North Broadway) on Sundays through Thursdays from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. for approximately two weeks for repaving.
• LIRR service will again be impacted this weekend because of switch and signal work near Elmont-UBS Arena, particularly on the Hempstead line. There will also be extra service to and from Forest Hills for scheduled concerts there on Friday and Saturday.
• JFK AirTrain service is suspended from 11 p.m. Tuesday through 9 a.m. Wednesday between the Howard Beach, Lefferts Blvd, and Federal Circle stations for maintenance. 

Did you know?

As LIRR commuters were reminded Tuesday morning, train rails are vulnerable to breaking during extreme temperatures. In the frigid cold, the steel rails can contract, which can lead to fractures, especially at joints. In sweltering heat, like Long Island has been experiencing as of late, the rails can expand, causing them to compress, and sometimes buckle.

Do you think the LIRR is doing enough to protect its infrastructure from the elements? Let us know at transit@newsday.com.

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.