Agreed, it's a public service, it should not "have" to be 100% profitable and yes it should be kept in a good position via state revenue. It is a state agency, it's the governor's and senate's responsibility to keep it in good working order and to hold bad actors (i.e. inefficiency) accountable. Highways purely from a budget perspective lose billions, we toll few of our highways and still have unpaid bridges all around the city. The subway could lose billions too, but without it the city would crumble since you could not move the millions of workers around.