The MTA has spent the bulk of nearly $4 billion in emergency federal funds — and desperately needs billions more by next month, the troubled transit agency’s leader declared Monday.

“The MTA is facing financial calamity. I can’t be any clearer than that,” MTA Chair Patrick Foye said. 

Foye’s grim forecast came as the city entered Phase 2 of its coronavirus comeback Monday, lifting work-from-home restrictions on up to 300,000 people.

Mass transit use was expected to exceed Friday’s figures, which marked the first day of two million subway and bus commuters since the COVID-19 pandemic caused ridership to collapse by over 90% in March. Prior to the crisis, the subways and buses carried 7.6 million riders a day.

“This is a significant milestone,” Foye said.

It comes, though, amid relentless financial pressure, with Foye saying the MTA expects to exhaust by next month what’s left of the $3.9 billion in emergency federal funding the agency secured in March.

THE CITY reported Sunday that, in addition to massive losses of fares and tolls, the MTA is also down hundreds of million of dollars in projected revenue from the dedicated taxes and subsidies that for half of its nearly $17 billion annual operating budget.

“We can’t afford to wait and urgently need action and leadership from the Congress,” Foye said.

CARES and Fares

Transit agencies from across the country are pushing for more stimulus funding from the U.S. Senate as part of the CARES Act, which would deliver another $3.9 billion to the MTA and help make up for its 2020 operating deficit.

Without another bailout, advocates have warned of a possible $9 fare, though Foye said last week that a “pandemic-related fare increase” is not on the table.

Transit advocates predicted in April that the MTA could face an operating shortfall approaching $12 billion, and that more money would be quickly needed beyond the first wave of federal funding.

“It’s in the nation’s interest,” said Rachael Fauss, a policy analyst with the watchdog group Reinvent Albany.

Advocates have warned of a possible $9 fare, without a bailout.

Fauss pointed to her organization’s “Investing in the MTA is Investing in America” report, which last week noted how $8 billion in MTA spending from 2011 to 2018 created an estimated 100,000 jobs in states beyond New York. 

That included $22 million for railroad ties from West Virginia, $24 million in Florida for bus cameras and $1.7 billion to New Jersey construction firms.

“In 47 of the 50 states, the MTA has made payments,” Fauss said. “That’s huge.”

MTA officials are expected to present a more detailed report on the transit system’s sorry state of financial affairs at the agency’s Wednesday board meeting.