Instead, the mayor is proposing a screening program that Albany lawmakers seem open to paying for.
“We are encouraged by the discussions we are having with the governor and legislative leaders to take action on that in 2026 as a first step,” said Mamdani in an interview with POLITICO on Tuesday.
The comments are an acknowledgment that was already clear in Albany and City Hall: Free buses will have to wait.
The mayor said he is “totally committed to making buses faster and more comfortable.”
The mayor was able to hail the day care pilot as a success. But the bus driver will study again as an MP in 2023, when he will help get money from the budget to test free bus routes in each of the five boroughs. He praised the success of that campaign for free buses across the city. But internal disputes between Mamdani and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie over the housing deal in next year's budget led to the program's demise – rather than an extension – in 2024.
Both the state Legislature and Senate budgets support affordable buses, although the Senate's language is less specific than the Assembly's, which has a dollar amount and stronger language about another pilot.
Meanwhile, some Democrats have been offering alternatives to Mamdani's free bus plan.
City Council Speaker Julie Menin and Gov. Kathy Hochul supports expanding the discount program for subway and bus riders with low incomes.
Supporters of the program, known as Fair Fares, say it can bring more help to people who need it the most because it also includes train rides. State lawmakers may also like it because it is currently funded by the city.
But Mamdani never fully rode.
Although Mamdani supports the expansion of the program, he has a tendency to dislike money-based programs.
In 2024, he specifically singled out Fair Fares and said “means-tested programs will never reach everyone they're meant for.” This political momentum was also reflected in the pilot program of free childcare and the opening of a free school in one of the wealthiest areas of the city.
The current version of Fair Fares offers only half-price fares, serves about 400,000 people and costs about $96 million a year. Expanding eligibility and offering free fares would cost about $150 million more — but that estimate is based on only a fraction of the people who are eligible to sign up.
State Sen. Jeremy Cooney, a Rochester Democrat who chairs the federal Transportation Committee, said lawmakers want to do something to make transit affordable, but “making every bus in New York City free is not financially feasible.”
“I can tell the mayor this: I know he cares about the most vulnerable,” she said. “This is a way – working within the existing system – that we can increase support for the most vulnerable and start there, and then look to expand that.”
Cooney also said there may be room to help the city pay for Fair Fares, but he would tie it to more funding for northern transit projects.
There are also indications that, given the other problems facing the city, the mayor has been putting the wider rollout of free buses on the back burner for weeks.
During the March Council budget hearing, Council Majority Leader Shaun Abreu asked Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO Janno Lieber about the idea of having free buses during this summer's World Cup.
“We will not read things that are not on the agenda of the city and the government and other powerful players,” said Lieber. No one has asked me to give free buses to people who pay a $1,000 ticket from other countries. No one has asked me that so far.”
Likewise, Cooney said that although Mamdani has asked him for certain things, he has never had a “specific request” from the mayor for free buses.
During MTA board meetings, city representatives at the transit agency were also not pushing for free buses.
Transportation advocates appear to support both free buses and expanded Fair Fares.
“Transportation affordability is a big part of making New York more affordable and that's the appeal of both the free buses and the reformed Fair Fares program that brings free and affordable fares to more New Yorkers,” said Danny Pearlstein, a spokesman for the Riders Alliance.
Mamdani also pledged to speed up the buses. Lieber said the MTA is working with the city on that.
Jason Beeferman contributed to this report.
