The MTA board on Wednesday approved an ambitious $68 billion plan to keep the region’s mass transit from falling into disrepair — enabling transit officials to carry out roughly $15 billion in projects per year to improve the subway, buses and commuter rail over the next five years.
The capital plan, which funds projects getting underway between 2025 and 2029, primarily invests in efforts to keep the city’s 120-year-old subway and its bus network functioning. Transit officials will spend $47.8 billion of the plan on upgrades to subway and bus systems, including 1,500 new railcars to replace 1980s models, elevators at 60 more subway stations and 2,500 new buses (including 500 electric models). The plan only funds one project that will majorly expand service: A $2.75 billion investment in the Interborough Express, a 14-mile light-rail that will link Brooklyn and Queens.
Gov. Kathy Hochul and transit officials secured $31.5 billion in new tax revenue to pay for the plan by increasing a payroll tax on businesses with more than $10 million in payroll in the MTA’s service area — modestly raising the tax on those companies from 0.60% to 0.89%. Another $14 billion is set to come from the federal government, with the rest covered by dedicated funds from the state and city, the MTA issuing new debt in the form of bonds and reducing costs elsewhere to rededicate those funds into the capital plan.
MTA board chair and CEO Janno Lieber said the spending plan doubles down on revitalizing the current, aging system instead of spending big on new projects to expand service.
“It is the first capital program to truly and unapologetically say we are prioritizing the state of good repair,” said Lieber during the MTA’s Wednesday board meeting. “We’re not waving around a ton of shiny baubles. We love new projects. They, no secret, have helped to transform and grow the system. But we must maintain, we must preserve the system.”
Here are some of the major upgrades and projects the plan will pay for:
– $10.9 billion on 1,500 new subway cars and 500 new Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad cars.
– $9 billion to repair structurally at-risk bridges and tunnels for vehicles and rail.
-$7.8 billion to update deteriorating subway and rail station platforms and infrastructure.
-$7.1 billion to make more subway and rail stations accessible with new elevators and other upgrades.
– $5.4 billion on new modern signal technology to run more frequent and reliable service on the subway.
– $4 billion to upgrade the MTA’s power systems.
– $2.75 billion to build the Interborough Express light rail project that links Brooklyn and Queens along mostly existing freight tracks
