MTA board members seemed baffled as to what U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Saturday when he visited a sinkhole in New Jersey.

“In 36 hours, she could clean up the subways, could be a nonissue,” Duffy said of Gov. Kathy Hochul. “Send law enforcement in, kick out the homeless, get rid of the drugs, cops on the beat making sure there is no violence, make sure people aren’t afraid of getting stabbed, pushed into a train. This isn’t hard.”

“So what is our transportation secretary talking about?” Haeda B. Mihaltses, an MTA board member, asked at the New York City Transit meeting Monday. “If our numbers are saying one thing, they’re saying something else. I mean, where are they getting their numbers from?”

The latest numbers as of Sunday from the NYPD show crime are mostly down in all major categories year-to-date versus last year. Even felony assaults are down 4.4%. The exception, three rapes versus two last year. Crime is also down overall almost 24%.

NYPD Chief of Transit Joseph Gulotta says it is still about perception and quality-of-life.

“We see the same thing over and over again and we’ve really focused down on that quality of life, those transit rule violations to make it a safer system and then really to work on the perception,” Gulotta said. “I think we’re moving very much in the right direction.”

And so does New York City Transit President Demetrius Crichlow, who wouldn’t directly take on the secretary’s comments this past weekend.

“The overnight resources targeting improving conditions on the overnight is a really big change from the NYPD,” Crichlow said. “We are going to do what’s necessary to make sure our customers not only see the numbers as being safe but also feel safe.”

Whatever the perception, ridership increased 9% over last February, according to officials. However, the increase didn’t hurt congestion pricing revenue, which was higher than January’s haul, bringing in $51.9 million gross — over $2 million more than projected. While expenses were about $5 million less than projected. The net revenue is also $40.4 million.

“That tells us that we’re on track to deliver $500 million of net operating revenue from congestion pricing,” Jai Patel, co-chief financial officer for the MTA, said. “Overall, on a net operating basis year-to-date, we’re at $78 million.”

Sixty-six percent of the revenue came from passenger cars, 24% from taxis and for-hire-vehicles and 9% from trucks.

The rest: motorcycles and buses. And both January and February were shorter, so the MTA expects the March revenue will increase.