After reading From $2.90 to $3: How the MTA Plans to Spend the Rise, you asked “Are riders footing MTA's debt?”
Fare Revenue & MTA's Debt Burden: What Riders Subsidize
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By 2027, 24% of MTA revenue will service debt, with fares alone unable to cover it and riders subsidizing the gap.
Are riders footing MTA's debt?
It's not just fares covering today's service. A slice of what we pay, plus other revenue sources, goes directly to servicing the MTA's massive debt load. In fact, debt service (the cost to pay interest and principal on past borrowing) is baked into the MTA's operating budget.
By 2027, the MTA expects 24 percent of its pledged revenue to go toward debt service, more than double the 11 percent figure from 2022. Their debt burden is projected to expand from ~$42 billion in 2023 to nearly $60 billion by 2028.
Still, fare revenue alone can't shoulder it. Only about 40 percent of the operating budget comes from fares, tolls, and transit user charges. That means subsidies, taxes, or state support fill the gap, and when those can't keep pace, riders (via fares) are often pushed to make up the difference.
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Published October 2, 2025
Sofia Chennow is a contributor for Tunnel Vision.
This article is part of the Fares series.