Beset by low ridership since the coronavirus pandemic began, the Metropolitan Transit Authority is facing financial ruin, Chairman Pat Foye said, imploring the federal government to provide $10 billion in aid through 2021. 

“I described the MTA financial situation as a four-alarm fire,” Foye said during an MTA board meeting Wednesday. “But that, frankly, doesn’t do justice to the severity of the damage the virus has inflicted. We are in the midst of a once-in-a-100-years fiscal tsunami.” 

Ridership has plummeted over the last four months: July subway ridership is down nearly 80% relative to the same period last year, agency data shows, and bus ridership now stands at nearly half what it was in July 2019.