By Alfonso A. Castillo, Newsday; April 16, 2020
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which has lost more than 90% of its riders, including on the LIRR, could take an $8.5 billion hit from the coronavirus, and needs another $3.9 billion in federal aid to stay afloat, MTA officials said Thursday.
The financial request comes a month after the MTA asked for, and received, $4 billion from Congress. MTA chairman Patrick Foye, speaking in a streamed web conference Thursday, said the agency’s initial estimated losses from the pandemic were “conservative, given the information we had at the time.”