The bipartisan infrastructure bill approved by the Senate this month is the latest effort to inject federal money into public transit agencies. But all that money likely won’t buy what transit really needs: more riders, the Wall Street Journal reported. Unless ridership recovers from its pandemic-induced drop, agencies will again confront large budget deficits once the federal money runs out in three or four years, analysts say. That could mean service cuts and fare increases, according to transit agencies. “As soon as the money stops flowing, transit agencies are going to be in the same position as they were before,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, a transportation policy expert at the libertarian-leaning Reason Foundation. New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, for instance, expects to use up its $14.5 billion allocation of federal aid by 2024, at which point it will face a $3.5 billion two-year shortfall. Transit ridership nationwide fell by 78% between February and April 2020 as the rise in COVID-19 cases prompted people to stay home. Agencies pared back their services but still lost crucial revenue. Fares account for about a third of operating costs, according to the Transportation Department. In response, Congress passed three COVID-19 relief bills signed by both former President Trump and President Biden totaling $69.5 billion to help transit agencies. That is $15 billion more than the country’s 2,200 agencies spent combined to run their systems in 2019, the last year before the pandemic hit. The relief bills were intended as a bridge until riders returned. But riders haven’t returned in great numbers, and it is unclear when, if ever, they will. Transit trip levels in June were roughly half what they were in June 2019, before the pandemic, according to the Transportation Department. The bipartisan infrastructure bill directs another $39.2 billion to agencies for maintenance and expansion projects. But agencies can’t use it for day-to-day operating expenses such as paying salaries or buying fuel.
