WPIX reports on last week’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority virtual board meeting, during which chairman and CEO Patrick Foye called for an increase in police presence in subway stations. While Foye acknowledged that subway crime statistics are down, he said transit customers and employees “don’t feel it’s down” and need additional assurances of safety. He also discussed MTA management’s decision to proceed with consideration of a toll rate hike while postponing any changes in transit fares.
WCBS talked with Mr. Foye after the meeting. He said the agency is “out of the woods” financially for 2021 thanks to the $4 billion in federal aid it will receive under the most recent COVID-19 relief law. Foye gave several reasons for the push to raise tolls by four to eight percent: MTA needs revenue to subsidize the transit services that low-income essential workers depend on; bridge and tunnel volume has returned to 90 percent of pre-epidemic norms; and the authority wants to encourage more commuters to choose transit ridership for the sake of the environment.