by Gilbert B Norman
The NYMTA reports they have enjoyed a 40% farebox recovery - better than any mass transit system. Now, as The Times in the linked article reports, what if the riders never come back?
New York Times
Fair Use:
Lest we further not forget, there are many another business interests also "waiting".
Clearly, COVID has changed our "landscape" more than any public health crisis has in over six thousand years of recorded history. Sure others - even as late as the 1918-19 influenza pandemic have killed more, because so much more of our economy was agrarian than technology, the impact was less severe.
New York Times
Fair Use:
Today ridership on the subway has crept back up to about a third of its usual levels, from an all-time low of 7 percent last spring. An infusion of billions of dollars in federal aid has kept the Metropolitan Transportation Authority afloat. And the agency, which operates the subway, buses and two commuter rail lines, was further lifted by another $6 billion in President Biden’s sweeping rescue plan.Now I think its premature to blanketly state "they're never coming back", let's see to what extent "Corporate America" HQ'd in large cities dependent upon mass transit embrace WFH. Several around here, as well as several newspaper columnists I read, have stated "how they can't wait to get back".
But the M.T.A.’s long-term survival depends on the return of riders and their fares, which make up the agency’s largest funding source. Nearly 40 percent of the agency’s operating revenue comes from fares, a higher percentage than almost any other major American transit system.
Lest we further not forget, there are many another business interests also "waiting".
Clearly, COVID has changed our "landscape" more than any public health crisis has in over six thousand years of recorded history. Sure others - even as late as the 1918-19 influenza pandemic have killed more, because so much more of our economy was agrarian than technology, the impact was less severe.
