Free-ride follies New York Post

20.02.10

What a superfluous!

About 15,000 retired transit workers get a stunning free pass on the subways and buses for life, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday -- which at full value is good at least $16 million annually to the cash-strapped MTA.

And the Transport Workers Union retirees get just as noble a break on the railroads.

On the Long Island Rail Road, 4,900 of them get free passes, along with 3,700 of their spouses.

And 3,000 Metro-North retirees and spouses have comped cards also, according to stats compiled by Bloomberg's area.

The Metro-North numbers were not broken down, and the number of NYC Transit spouses with free cards was not available.

"I'm just pointing that out. It turns out that MTA is required to give the TWU retirees a free MetroCard once they start receiving their pension payments," he said on his weekly radio show.

"And for some groups, that could be as early as 50 years old. For some, it's as recent as 62 years old," he said.

Transit retirees generally get the cards at age 55, a source said.

The MTA is in the mid-point of a massive budget crunch. The agency has proposed service cuts that would eliminate bus and subway lines, away free student MetroCards and scale down service for riders who are disabled.

The perks have been doled out for decades, and Bloomberg said only collective bargaining between the MTA and gang would be able to change the

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