[KennyBlanken]

The NYC transit system costs $20BN/year to operate, serves a population of almost 9M people and pre pandemic had nearly 10 million passenger trips a day; currently 5M.

Montana spends $1BN/year on roadways and receives another $3BN/year in federal funding and serves a population of 1M people.

The NYC subways system moves five times the population of Montana every day and costs half as much per capita.

Do go on about how subways are a waste of money.

[NovemberWhiskey]

Subways are not a waste of money: throwing money at the NYC subway system under the current set of parameters is a waste of money.

P.S. you're also comparing apples and oranges; you're only looking at the MTA operating budget; not the operating + capital budget which the Montana numbers represent.