MTA proposes five-year capital plan wish list to improve subways, buses and more
LOWER MANHATTAN (WABC) -- The Metropolitan Transportation Authority released its proposed 2025-2029 Capital Plan, outlining a $68.4 billion investment in the region's subways, buses, railroads, bridges, and tunnels over the next five years that ensures New Yorkers continue to have access to reliable, accessible, and sustainable transit.
This comes after the MTA said the 120-year-old subway system has assets in "real danger of failure."
The MTA wants to replace all 1,500 subway cars and construct a new network of signals to replace those that are decades old.
"There's a lot of the MTA that has never been addressed that's falling apart that's over 100 years old," MTA Chairman, Janno Lieber said.
The agency is proposing a five-year, $68 billion dollar plan to maintain and upgrade the transit system. This included rebuilding elevated subway lines, protecting commuter lines from heavy rains, and even adding electric buses to the city streets.
One billion dollars is dedicated to modern entry gates to prevent fare evasion at certain stations and $2.5 billion to design and begin construction of a light rail system linking Sunset Park with Jackson Heights. But agency officials admit the plan is barely half-funded.
"The point is, we have to propose a capital plan that will serve New Yorkers. Albany has to resolve how to fund that capital program," Lieber said.
The MTA is still counting on congestion pricing tolls-although Governor Kathy Hochul suspended the plan earlier this year. If Hochul doesn't reinstate it, she has promised to find the money elsewhere.
But on Wednesday she was non-committal.
"We will review the MTA's proposal for the upcoming 5-year capital plan," she said, "and fight to secure as much funding as possible." Tonight, transit advocates say the governor needs to deliver."
"Congestion pricing is the only immediately available source of billions of dollars to make the trains reliable and accessible. The governor has to turn it on, and she has to find other money besides to deliver the transit system we deserve," Danny Pearlstein of Riders Alliance said.
When asked specifically about funding, MTA officials have repeatedly said they take the governor at her word. But if they don't get what they need-and they may not-riders will see the difference in the years to come.
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