Tropical Storm Irene did some of its worst damage to the MTA’s bottom line.
Last month’s tempest cost the cash-strapped transit agency $110 million in operating and repair costs, officials said yesterday.
About half that money — $50 million — is needed to fix Metro-North’s Port Jervis line, which suffered such extensive damage that it won’t be fully repaired for trains until next fall.
The MTA spent another $10 million on shuttle buses to ferry passengers while the line was down.
The storm also cost the MTA an additional $50 million in operating costs.
That figure includes lost subway and toll fares, as well as massive overtime costs incurred in shutting the system down in preparation for the storm.
The funds for the Port Jervis repairs will come from the agency’s strained capital budget.
The MTA is hoping to get some funds back from FEMA and its insurance policies — although it’s unclear what the reimbursements will be.
Meanwhile, the MTA also claimed yesterday that about 95 percent of subway and bus riders were either unaffected or only minimally impacted by the 2010 service cuts.
Those drastic cuts completely redrew the bus maps in certain parts of the city and shuttered several subway lines.
Despite that, the MTA said it lost only about 1.7 percent of its bus customers — most of whom went to the subway system. Subway ridership grew by .3 percent.
In total, they attribute the loss of 22,000 bus rides on an average weekday to the service cuts.