For decades, the MTA followed a straightforward practice: keeping the express bus fare at double the cost of a local bus or subway ride. If the local fare was $1.50, the express bus was $3. At $2.25 locally, the express was $4.50. The logic was simple: Staten Islanders, who lack subway access but rely on express service into Manhattan, paid more, but not disproportionately so.
That balance has now been broken.
The MTA is proposing $3 for a local fare and $7.25 for express buses. This is not just another fare hike. It is the widest gap in the system’s history, and it unfairly targets Staten Islanders. While other parts of the city discuss free bus service, no one is talking about relief for the 40,000 Islanders who depend on express buses every single day. For us, there is no alternative. Staten Island is a transit desert.
The impact on students is especially severe. Families already make sacrifices so their children can attend specialized schools outside their home borough. Today, CUNY students and young people traveling to schools like Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech, LaGuardia where I went to school, or private schools, such as Xavier and Regis, must pay full price on express buses and fast ferries. Instead of burdening them with higher fares, we should be supporting their education and encouraging their success.
The same holds true for working families. Staten Islanders who commute daily already shoulder some of the highest transportation costs in the city. Many spend thousands of dollars a year just to get to work. Yet the MTA continues to celebrate “fare capping” on subways and discounts on commuter rail, with no comparable relief for our borough. That is not equity.
A truly fair system must recognize Staten Island’s unique dependence on express service. For tens of thousands of commuters, the express bus is not a luxury. It is the only connection to opportunity, and it is long past time the MTA treated it that way.
Restoring fairness is not complicated. The MTA should return to its long-standing practice of tying express bus fares to the local fare. This simple change would bring predictability, consistency, and a measure of justice to a community that has been ignored for far too long.
If the rest of New York City is debating free buses, then Staten Island deserves fair ones.