The report delves into the high costs of swaps-related debt at 12 transit agencies nationwide, including authorities in Boston, Chicago, Detroit, New York, San Francisco and Baton Rouge, La. In these 12 systems alone, swaps deals are costing riders $529 million a year, the study says. That’s the difference between the fixed rate paid by the issuers and the floating rates they receive.

This difference certainly adds to the burden that cash-starved transit agencies already shoulder. A 2011 study by the American Public Transportation Association found that of 117 transit agencies surveyed, half had cut service or raised fares. Money that might go toward services is going to swaps instead. So think of these swaps as a kind of Wall Street-driven austerity measure. Everybody else — workers, riders, taxpayers — makes concessions. Banks give up nothing.

When issuers do decide to escape these snares, the hefty termination fees are typically paid for with new debt deals. For example, of the $243 million that New York State paid to terminate its swaps deals recently, $191 million was financed by new debt issuance. This may dull the immediate pain, but it only adds to taxpayers’ burden by piling an interest rate onto the termination cost.

The trillion-dollar question is why debt issuers don’t push the banks to cut or reduce these exit fees. Yes, swaps are contractual arrangements that were agreed to in better days. But issuers that raise a lot of money in the debt markets have considerable leverage, given how much they pay Wall Street banks to underwrite their debt.

In New York, for example, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to issue $2.2 billion in new debt this year and may refinance an additional $6 billion.

Why doesn’t the M.T.A. use that leverage to prod banks to lower exit fees on some of the $3.3 billion in debt issued with swaps? Patrick McCoy, the M.T.A. finance director, was asked precisely that when testifying in a recent arbitration case between the Amalgamated Transit Union and New York City Transit.

First, Mr. McCoy expressed surprise at the idea. Then he said he had no plans to use any leverage the M.T.A. might have, like suggesting that the agency wouldn’t place new bonds with a bank unless it agreed to renegotiate on the swaps.