MTA Acting Chair and CEO Janno Lieber appeared on FOX 5’s Good Day New York with Rosanna Scotto and Bianca Peters to discuss a range of transit topics.

A transcript of the interview appears below.
 

Rosanna Scotto: Good news if you ride the MTA, expected fare hikes and service cuts are off the table. At least for now. 

Bianca Peters: That's still good news. But it's all thanks to the $1 trillion infrastructure bill signed by President Biden. 

Scotto: Joining us this morning, MTA Acting Chair and CEO, Janno Lieber. Nice to have you here. Fellow Brooklynite’s in the house. 

Janno Lieber: Amen. 

Scotto: All right. So as Brooklynites, we like to talk real, right. Okay, so what's going on with the fare hikes because I saw on the paper that you said we're not gonna have fare hikes right now fantastic, but six months down the road, what's going to happen? 

Lieber: The MTA it's no secret. The MTA is coming out of this period where we basically lost $200 million a week because people weren't riding during COVID. We did our job, carried essential workers, we kept New York going. We have to deal with this budget problem. What's happened is that we got serious money from Washington. And now we're able to say number one, we're not going to cut service. We're going to keep providing top tier service and services better than ever more on time and more service than there's been in quite some time. And we're not going to raise the fare, for the time being. We have to figure out how do we get back. We're seeing ridership coming back. We see how do we get back to a balanced budget. That's really the key. 

Scotto: Do you think that crime in the subway is a deterrent? 

Lieber: You know, crime is way down in the subway versus last year. We, in fact, had the lowest level of serious crime in the subway in like 25 years, Rosanna, you know what you and I both know, that's a serious accomplishment. But we're also seeing a spate of these weird incidents where people get pushed onto the tracks, and so I called the police commissioner yesterday. I’d spoken to the governor about this. We really want the cops, and we love our cops, and there actually are more cops in the system than there have been. But we want them down on the platforms, we want them on the trains where people feel more vulnerable. That's the key. So I'm going to work with the police department to make sure that there's more visibility of the police presence because the cops are out there. Riders need to see them. 

Peters: Yes, certainly so. I think I've seen an increase. I ride the subway a lot and the presence has made me feel safe. But again, you talk about some of these incidents where people get pushed onto the tracks; three this past week.  And grand larcenies are up and they spiked in September, they've been the highest that they have been throughout the pandemic. So when would we see that enacted?  I guess the increase in police presence? Is that something that you can say that would happen right away? Or is it something that's going to be phased out? 

Lieber:  But you know, we're dealing with the PD, the NYPD who has principal responsibility for policing the subways, and it's a city agency, but they are our partners, and I believe, I spoke to Dermot Shea, the Police Commissioner, I think he's committed to this idea of visibility for the cops. That that is a deterrent, and it also reassures riders. All of a sudden, riders are coming back to the system. Interestingly, Bianca and Rosanna, you know, people talk about we only got 55% of our ridership during the rush-hour, but on the weekends and on nights in the off hours, we're at 70%.  So people are ready to ride. People are ready to come back to mass transit. They're kind of waiting for the offices to open, in the meantime, we want them to feel safe and be incentivized to come back. 

Peters: And we just talked about this. The offices are open. People are telling their workers to come back, but it's not looking like how we thought it would. I think below 10%. But we're still seeing a whole lot of traffic, and you kind of touched on that as to why that is when we're not back at full capacity – yet the streets are packed. 

Lieber: It's a good point. What we're seeing is the actual office work especially in the center of Manhattan in Midtown are a little bit downtown. There aren't as many people coming into those offices. But people are doing all kinds of things. They're back to living their lives. They're making discretionary trips, they're going shopping, they're taking kids to school, so people are moving around the city.  We're still waiting for the office employers to really call people back to the office. It's been happening slowly since Labor Day. We're expecting a big jump after New Year’s. 

Scotto: Alright, so once again, fare hikes off the table right now. What about tolls on bridges and tunnels? 

Lieber: Well, we raised tolls on the bridges this year because, honestly, we don't have an unlimited amount of space in Manhattan. At this point, we're really full. We're back to even as much congestion as there was before COVID. That's not good for our society. That means that buses can’t get in to get around, Access-A-Ride vehicles can't get around. Even all the trucks that deliver materials so we can get our economy back and we can get all that stuff from Amazon delivered, can't get around. So we need to manage congestion. Congestion Pricing is a major way of doing that. 

Scotto: Right. So $10 billion, that the MTA is getting, you know, and the congestion pricing. Well, what were you thinking about, $15? 

Lieber: Well, that's going to be worked out. 

Scotto: I mean, that's a lot of money. 

Lieber: It is Rosanna, but I'll tell you, they've done it in Europe, and it's been a huge success. 

Scotto: But London is like this about congestion pricing. Like they don't say that it's a complete success. 

Lieber: Well, you know, there's difference of opinion on this. A lot of people think that this is absolutely essential because otherwise we're going to choke ourselves to death on traffic and on air quality. Remember, we have bad air quality, that's bad for kids. That means more kids with asthma. We have to start dealing with the reality that there isn't an unlimited amount of space on the road. So we have to prioritize our buses and trucks are getting people the goods that they want, and medical vehicles -- if they can't get around our society starts to fall apart. So we have to manage congestion, and this is a proven and effective way of doing it. That is that is you know going to be worked out, that we're doing a very sort of systematic outreach to the entire region, New Jersey, Long Island, Connecticut. So everybody has a say, and then we'll come to a decision. 

Scotto: Yeah, because everybody's concerned there's going to be so many exemptions, exemptions for this group and that group, and then who's left carrying the bag, you know, the everyday New Yorker who just wants to go and, you know, go to work or whatever. 

Lieber: But we have to be honest with ourselves, that all the stats suggests that basically driving into central business district, Manhattan. That's a rich man or a woman's game, that the majority of New Yorkers, like 90 plus percent, are taking mass transit. So we need to raise money to make sure fares don't have to go up, that we can maintain the system, make it modern, and we have to manage traffic because otherwise we're gonna choke on it. 

Scotto: MTA Acting Chair, CEO, Janno Lieber. Nice to have you on Good Day New York. Tell us something about you that we don't know. 

Lieber: Well, I started riding the bus to school when I was a kid with my brother when we were six and seven. And twice, I met Babe Ruth’s widow and on the bus. As a baseball fan to meet Babe Ruth's wife was a pretty big deal, and I kept running into her on the bus. She lived in the neighborhood. 

Scotto: What bus and what school did you go to? 

Lieber: It was the M-17, 79th Street Crosstown bus. Since I lived on the West Side, I went to school on the East Side, and we took we took two buses to get there, and you just never know what celebrities you run into. 

Scotto: I like that. That's good. That's gonna make me smile. All right. Nice to see you. 

Lieber: Good to be with you.