New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is backing away from one of the central promises of his mayoral campaign, conceding he will not be able to deliver citywide free buses this year and shifting his sights to a far more modest pilot program.

The retreat marks a major reversal for a mayor who rode the free-bus pledge to City Hall, having championed the issue since co-launching a small Queens pilot in 2023. Mamdani now says he is focused on reviving a pared-down version — three free bus lines per borough at a cost of $45 million — contingent on Albany including it in the state budget, which is already a week past its deadline.

The climb-down is not for lack of trying to spin it. “We’re absolutely committed to making buses fast and free,” Mamdani insisted — eventually.

But the obstacles are formidable. Gov. Kathy Hochul has been cool to the idea since before Mamdani took office, and on Wednesday she made clear that housing and auto insurance reform are higher budget priorities than buses. MTA CEO Janno Lieber has called the mayor’s plan half-baked and likely to cost far more than advertised. And Mamdani himself effectively torpedoed an earlier expansion of the program after picking a fight with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie over affordable housing, prompting Heastie to pull the initiative from the budget entirely.

The free bus promise now joins a lengthening list of first-term reversals for the mayor, who has spent his first 100 days in office pushing a combined $23 billion in new taxes while watching signature campaign commitments slip away.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)