A new analysis from the Citizens Budget Commission estimates the MTA lost about $1 billion to fare and toll evasion in 2024, underscoring a persistent financial strain on the transit agency even as evasion rates began to improve toward the end of that year into 2025.

The watchdog group calculates that, in 2024, the MTA lost roughly $568 million in unpaid bus fares and $350 million in unpaid subway fares.

What You Need To Know

  • A new analysis from the Citizens Budget Commission estimates the MTA lost about $1 billion to fare and toll evasion in 2024

  • The watchdog group calculates that, in 2024, the MTA lost roughly $568 million in unpaid bus fares and $350 million in unpaid subway fares

  • At least $46 million was lost in unpaid commuter rail tickets, in addition to at least $51 million from unpaid bridge and tunnel tolls, the analysis found

At least $46 million was lost in unpaid commuter rail tickets, in addition to at least $51 million from unpaid bridge and tunnel tolls, the analysis found.

The losses, the group says, siphon money the agency could use to improve service or fund capital work and complicate efforts to close an approximately $800 million structural operating budget gap.

The report does credit increased enforcement and operational changes with helping reverse course in late 2024 and early 2025: Losses declined each quarter from the third quarter of 2024 through the second quarter of 2025 as fare evasion rates dropped while ridership grew. If the trend holds, total evasion losses in 2025 would dip to about $900 million, the report found.

The MTA said that while fare evasion remains a major financial problem, efforts to crack down on it are showing results.

“We agree with the report that fare evasion is an existential issue that not only harms the MTA financially but also violates the spirit of mutual respect and fair play that makes New York not just a great city but a great community,” the MTA’s chief financial officer, Jai Patel, said in a statement.

“In the last few years, we’ve made important progress. Overall, subway fare evasion is down 29% this year, and where there are gate guards at stations it’s down 36%,” Patel added. “Evasion rates on buses have also fallen in every quarter since the second quarter of 2024 despite rising ridership. We have no plans to let up on this crusade any time soon.” 

The CBC report noted a broader shift in tactics by the MTA: civil summonses rose from 13,607 in the third quarter of 2021 to a high of 38,422 in the third quarter of 2024 before easing to 29,046 in the first quarter of 2025. Arrests jumped from 655 in the fourth quarter of 2022 to 4,092 in the first quarter of 2025. 

The MTA also expanded deployment of its “Evasion and Graffiti Lawlessness Eradication” bus inspection teams and altered station layouts, “delaying exit gate egress and modifying turnstiles” to make farebeating harder, according to the report.

Despite the progress, the scope of the problem remains massive, the report says: In 2024, an estimated 330 subway fares and 710 bus fares were evaded every minute.

The commission urged the MTA to speed up its rollout of new fare gates and a proof-of-payment system, consistently publish data on its progress toward reducing evasion and determine whether its efforts are cost-effective.

It also advised the MTA to work with the city “to assess the cost-effectiveness of, and consider expanding, Fair Fares NYC,” a program that reduces transit costs for low-income New Yorkers.