MTA President Demetrius addresses transit fare hike: ‘We are doing our best’

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Facing serious backlash over the upcoming fare hike in 2026, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) President Demetrius Crichlow attempted to address commuter concerns directly last week.

Crichlow is the first Black man to hold the president’s position in the MTA’s history. A lifelong New Yorker, he is the third generation of men in his family to work in transit. He started his career in 1997 as an assistant signal maintainer for the Long Island Railroad (LIRR).

The Amsterdam News caught up with Crichlow and his leadership crew at the 42nd Street station, just below the bustling tourist junction that is Times Square, at their usual Transit Talk event. He spoke with people about phasing out MetroCards, fare hikes, major infrastructure improvements, subway crime, and other issues. Some listeners were amiable. Others were not convinced the train was worth the price of admission.

Here’s what he had to say to the AmNews in a short interview. (Questions and answers have been shortened or edited for space and clarity.)

AmNews: Why are you here today?

Crichlow: The reason why we’re here is that one or two times a month, my team — my executive leadership team — goes out and hears the concerns of customers. [We] talk to customers directly, and we engage with them. What I found is most people want to be able to have a face that they can talk to, and have someone who’s actually a part of the organization — someone who has the experience to be able to say, I had this issue before, I changed this, I’m looking at this. Having someone like the head of buses to talk to you about issues that we have with bus service or the head of subways to talk about issues that you have with subway service is the way that we really speak to our customers. We do this either once or twice a month, and we’ve gotten a really good response.

AmNews: With the MetroCard being phased out, a lot of people who don’t have smartphones, bank cards, or the One Metro New York (OMNY) card might have a hard time paying for the subway or bus. How are you making sure these people aren’t left behind?

Crichlow: OMNY is, to me, the future of our system in terms of fair collection. The reality is the token was a way of the past. The MetroCard is now going to be a way of the past. Being able to tap into a system and go is the efficient way of being able to get through the system. We’ve done a number of outreach events to be able to talk directly with customers. We have done a couple things directly with customers. The first thing we did was to open up 15 customer service centers. We staff them with station agents and train them, especially how to deal with customers when customers have questions about OMNY.

In anticipation of OMNY rolling out fully [next year], we’re going to increase that to 30 customer service centers out around the system where customers can go and have any of their questions answered, so you don’t have to have modern technology, a phone to be able to ask questions, because we’re bringing people with the answers to you in your neighborhoods, your towns, to be able to address the concerns that you have. You don’t need to have a bank account to use OMNY. You can purchase an OMNY card at a machine, just like you purchase your MetroCard. There are so many advantages to OMNY that we are offering. Once customers get comfortable with using it, I think it’ll be great.

AmNews: How do you deal with people who are really upset about the MTA’s price increase?

Crichlow: I’ve been here 28 years, and I don’t know one instance where an individual was happy about a fare increase. I can remember when I went to the gas station and gas was 99 cents, and I was like, Oh, man, I hope it doesn’t break a dollar. No one likes to have things go up in price. The only thing I can say is we are doing our best to make sure that for the $3 that it takes to be able to ride our system, we give them service that customers deserve. It’s an aging system. It requires a lot of work to be able to get there.

We’ve been providing customer service at levels that we’ve never provided before. We used to have common complaints, like the cars are not clean. The number of complaints against things like car cleaning and things like that have reduced drastically because we’ve changed the way we clean our cars, where they get clean, how many people we have at terminals cleaning — really taking a serious look at how we improve service for customers. We want to make sure that $3 you spend is worth every penny of it.

AmNews: What about the status of two infrastructure projects — the Second Avenue subway up in Harlem, and in Brooklyn, the Interborough Expressway? Just curious if you have any information about that.

Crichlow: They’ve been projects that have been determined to be great for the community, or for a lot of benefit, not just for now, but for the future. I think we’ve done a lot of research about what’s best for people, what people want to see. I’m hoping that they continue to progress as they’ve been scheduled.

AmNews: Do you think there will be issues with funding?

Crichlow: I won’t get into the funding. I think people should speak about what their needs are for transportation. Ultimately, we’ve determined based upon what ridership looks like and what housing looks like. We believe that it’s needed for the environment and for the people.

AmNews: Would you consider implementing a citywide free bus service, which was proposed by mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani?

Crichlow: I won’t get into the politics of the plan. It’s a race that’s continually running … I do think that there are opportunities to make sure that those who actually need the help, those who are in our lower-income areas who need that service, can take advantage of opportunities like Fair Fares. I think there are opportunities to make sure that the service is great for people who need it.

AmNews: The woman who walked away [from the Transit Talk event] did make a good point about some of the subway’s systems being unbearably hot. What do you plan to do about that?

Crichlow: I think the reality is the majority of our subway system, which is the lowest part, is not air conditioned, but 99% of our fleet is. When you get in the subway, the goal is to have great enough service that as soon as you hit the platform, something’s coming in your way that you can get on and you can get away from the heat. That’s what my commitment is to you: Don’t stand in the station, come ride my train.

AmNews: About subway safety — people are pretty worried about crime. What’s the real story, and what are you doing to keep riders safe?

Crichlow: [We’re doing] a couple of things. I think the partnership with the NYPD has been amazing. [NYPD Transit] Chief [Joseph] Gulotta really cares about the system and ways that we can improve it. He’s been really great about sending resources that we need. He’s introduced having cops on the overnight tour to be able to address some of our more problematic areas and problematic times. They have been really good at providing support, not just at the turnstile, but on platforms, riding on trains. I think that partnership is key to being able to have a safe system.

One of the things we did was install barriers on the platform. The commitment is to do 100 by the end of the year. We’ve heard from customers that they feel a lot more safe in the system when they have a barrier they can stand on. It kind of protects them from the end of the platform.

We’ve changed the lighting at different stations. People tell you right out, they feel more comfortable when the system has more light. We started changing the lighting on all of our older cars, so that people get a sense of security.

We have cameras in every train car. When something happens, we make sure that it is on cameras and we give that information to officers so they can investigate it immediately. All of our stations — every single one of our stations has cameras.

I think there are a number of different efforts that are ongoing to make sure that customers feel safe.