The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has warned for months that the agency will be forced to make draconian cuts, including slashing New York City’s subway service 40 percent, as the pandemic plunged the nation’s largest public transit agency into its worst financial crisis. But as Joseph R. Biden Jr. prepares to move into the White House, Congress in recent days seemed to be edging closer to reaching a compromise on a federal aid package that would likely provide $4 billion to the M.T.A., allowing the agency to avoid, for now, imposing its doomsday plan. Patrick J. Foye, the chairman of the agency, said the M.T.A. continued to seek $12 billion in federal aid to help stabilize its finances, which have been decimated by a ridership that has rebounded to only 30 percent of pre-pandemic levels. Beside huge cuts to subway service, the agency has also proposed slashing commuter rail service in half and laying off over 9,000 transit workers.

Source: New York Times December 17, 2020 14:37 UTC