Buses in New York City are not free. Mayor Zohran Mamdani campaigned on eliminating the $3.00 bus fare citywide, but as of mid-2026 free buses in NYC remain a proposal, not a policy. The mayor cannot make buses free on his own: the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is a state public authority, and only Albany can change fares or approve the taxes Mamdani wants to use to pay for the plan. In April 2026 Mamdani himself conceded the pledge “won’t happen this year.”1Politico. Mamdani on Free Buses
Why the Mayor Can’t Do This Alone
The MTA sets bus fares, and the city has no authority to override it. Both of the revenue sources Mamdani has proposed to cover lost fares also require state legislative approval: a 2% income tax surcharge on New Yorkers earning more than $1 million a year, and an increase in corporate tax rates on large firms.2Washington Times. Zohran Mamdani Concedes Free Bus Pledge Won’t Be Fulfilled This Year Without Albany, there is no funding mechanism and no fare change.
Governor Kathy Hochul has reportedly ruled out the income tax increase. She has shown some openness to the corporate tax piece, but nothing close to a deal. MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber went further at a February 2026 budget hearing, calling the universal free bus concept a “campaign bumper sticker” and arguing that money would be better spent expanding discounted fares for low-income riders.3Politico Pro. Albany Hearing Highlights Rift Over Mamdani’s Free Bus Plan
What Mamdani Proposed
The pitch is simple. Riders board without paying, and the MTA gets reimbursed for the lost fare revenue from new state taxes. The estimated annual cost has shifted with the counter. Mamdani’s administration has put it at $600 million to $700 million, revised down from an earlier $800 million figure. The MTA puts the number closer to $1 billion once the agency factors in increased ridership and associated costs. The New York City Independent Budget Office landed at $652 million a year, accounting for lost bus revenue, lost subway transfer revenue, and modest operational savings from ending fare collection.4NYC Independent Budget Office. Estimating the Cost of Fare-Free Local Bus Service
Mamdani has framed the plan as both an affordability measure and a way to speed up service, since eliminating fare collection would allow all-door boarding and cut the time buses spend at each stop.
What Happened in Albany in 2026
Not much, on the fare side. Both chambers of the state legislature included fare-free language in their one-house budget resolutions. The Assembly proposed $15 million to fund one fare-free line per borough. The Senate proposed expanding an earlier pilot. Neither committed to citywide fare elimination, and neither survived final budget negotiations with the governor.5amNewYork. Fare-Free Bus Push by State Lawmakers and Mamdani By the end of the 2026 legislative session, the proposal had barely reached the negotiating table.6City & State New York. What Mamdani Got and Didn’t Get in Albany This Year
A smaller ask also went nowhere. Mamdani’s team floated making all city buses free for the five weeks of the FIFA World Cup, which New York hosts in the summer of 2026, at a cost of roughly $100 million. The governor’s office and the MTA declined to comment, and as the tournament approached, no agreement had been reached.7Sports Business Journal. Report: Mamdani Proposes Free Buses Across NYC During World Cup8New York Times. NYC Free Buses World Cup Mamdani
One piece of progressive revenue did pass. A pied-à-terre tax approved as part of the state budget in May 2026, with support from both Hochul and Mamdani, is expected to generate up to $500 million annually from second homes in the city valued at $5 million or more. The revenue is aimed at closing the city’s budget gap and is not earmarked for transit.9Wall Street Journal. New York Lawmakers Pass Pied-à-Terre Tax
What Has Moved Forward Instead
The “fast” half of Mamdani’s “fast and free” slogan is where the administration has actually acted. In April 2026 he appointed Elizabeth Adams as the city’s first Senior Adviser for Fast and Free Buses. Adams previously served as deputy director of public affairs at Transportation Alternatives and has a background in government relations and work with the City Council.10NYC Mayor’s Office. Mayor Mamdani Names Elizabeth Adams Senior Advisor for Fast and Free Buses
Adams reports to First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan and is charged with coordinating across city agencies and with the MTA to speed up service. Her early priorities include 45 bus priority corridors targeted for a 20% speed increase. Active projects include offset bus lanes on Fordham Road in the Bronx, a center-running bus lane on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, and an extension of the Madison Avenue bus lane from 42nd Street to 23rd Street in Manhattan.11NY1. Meet Mamdani’s Senior Advisor for Fast and Free Buses
Mamdani also nominated Janette Sadik-Khan and Melanie Hartzog to the MTA board. Sadik-Khan is the former NYC transportation commissioner under Mayor Bloomberg who oversaw the launch of Select Bus Service and Citi Bike. Hartzog previously served as deputy mayor and budget director under Mayor de Blasio. Mamdani said the appointees would “help ensure that this city gets fast and free buses.”12NYC Mayor’s Office. Mayor Mamdani Recommends Melanie Hartzog and Janette Sadik-Khan for MTA Board Their influence is expected to focus on bus speed and service quality rather than the fare question, which remains a state decision.13Streetsblog NYC. Guess Who’s Back: Janette’s Back
What the Last Fare-Free Pilot Showed
The city has already tried a smaller version. From September 2023 through August 2024, a state-funded pilot eliminated fares on five bus routes, one in each borough: the Bx18A/B in the Bronx, the B60 in Brooklyn, the M116 in Manhattan, the Q4 in Queens, and the S46/S96 on Staten Island.14MTA. Fare-Free Bus Pilot
The MTA’s one-year evaluation found ridership rose on all five routes, but most of the gain came from existing riders taking more trips rather than from new riders. Bus speeds actually fell, down 2.2% during school months and 4.3% in summer, as longer dwell times slowed service. The pilot cost about $16.5 million, including $10.8 million in lost farebox revenue and $2.8 million in additional Access-A-Ride costs. Assaults against bus operators on the pilot routes dropped 31.9%, compared with a 15.4% systemwide decline.15MTA. Fare-Free Bus Pilot 1-Year Evaluation
The MTA deemed the pilot a failure and did not seek renewal. Lawmakers let it expire, and fare collection resumed on September 1, 2024.16CBS News New York. NYC Free Bus Routes End as MTA Cites Fare Evasion That history sits behind Lieber’s and Hochul’s resistance to a citywide version.
The Fare Evasion Backdrop
The debate plays out against an unusual reality: a large share of bus riders already do not pay. The bus fare evasion rate averaged 47% in 2024 and stood at 44% in the first quarter of 2025.17NYS Comptroller. MTA Financial Report The Citizens Budget Commission estimated unpaid bus fares cost the MTA $568 million in 2024.18Citizens Budget Commission. No Fare MTA EAGLE enforcement teams have intensified inspections, sometimes holding buses for up to 10 minutes to scan riders’ OMNY cards.19Planetizen. NYC’s MTA Cracks Down on Bus Fares, Slowing Buses to a Halt
Fair Fares: The City Council’s Alternative
Rather than universal free buses, the New York City Council has pushed to expand Fair Fares, which gives low-income New Yorkers a 50% discount on subway and bus rides. The program currently serves residents aged 18 to 64 with household incomes at or below 150% of the federal poverty level, roughly $23,940 for a single person. About 376,000 New Yorkers had enrolled by 2026, though officials estimate nearly a million qualify.20NYC Fair Fares. Fair Fares NYC
Council Speaker Julie Menin has proposed making rides entirely free for Fair Fares participants and expanding eligibility to 300% of the federal poverty level. Council Member Crystal Hudson introduced Int. 0248-2026, which would automatically enroll eligible New Yorkers using data from other city benefit programs like SNAP and Medicaid. The bill has 51 co-sponsors, though the Mamdani administration raised privacy concerns at a May 2026 hearing about sharing benefit-recipient data across agencies.21ABC7 New York. City Council Leaders Rally for Fair Fares22PoliticsNY. Mamdani Admin Officials Say City Council’s Fair Fares Automatic Enrollment Bill Raises Privacy Issues
An IBO analysis released in June 2026 found that even the most generous Fair Fares expansion would cost roughly $500 million less than universal free buses, but would reach fewer riders.23PoliticsNY. Fair Fares IBO Reports Show Expanding Transit Discount Program Would Be Cheaper Than Fare-Free Buses but Reach Fewer Riders Targeted discounts for lower-income riders versus a universal benefit for everyone has become one of the defining transit policy debates of the Mamdani era.
What You Pay Now
The base fare for subways and local buses rose from $2.90 to $3.00 in January 2026, timed to coincide with the system-wide transition from MetroCards to OMNY tap-to-pay technology. The MTA introduced automatic fare capping at the same time: after 12 paid rides in a seven-day period, all further rides that week are free, with a weekly maximum of $35.24NBC New York. New MTA Fare Hike
The only permanently fare-free bus route in the city is the Q70 LaGuardia Link, which has been free since May 2022. It connects the Jackson Heights subway station to LaGuardia Airport terminals.25Governor of New York. Governor Hochul Announces Q70 Bus to LaGuardia Airport Will Be Free Every other city bus still charges a fare, and any change to that will come from Albany, not City Hall.