The MTA obtains $ 68 billion in the state budget. What will the runners get?

A return from the summer of hell has been avoided. For the moment.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority will obtain $ 68.4 billion over the next five years within the framework of a budgetary agreement of the State – its largest fixed assets – to prevent the metro, the bus system and two railways to collapse.

But the completion of all budget projects, which was agreed in Albany on Monday, is far from being insured. The MTA has $ 14 billion in the Trump administration plan, which threatened to retain the financing of transport projects Unless the state ends its pricing program for congestion in Manhattan. And all the details on how the State intends to pay the plan – largely with an increased rate on an unpopular commercial tax – are not yet clear.

Now it is the responsibility of the MTA, an agency criticized for a long time for trembling finances, to prove that its criticisms are wrong and offer its most ambitious plan in 45 years in time and in budget.

Governor Kathy Hochul announced on Monday evening that the state legislature “would fully finance” the 68.4 billion dollars program, most of which are dedicated to the repair or update of the long -term components of the sprawling mass transport network of the New York region. The list includes the purchase of new trains and buses, by replacing almost centenary equipment and making the system more accessible to cyclists by handicaps and families with young children.

The approval of the plan came as a relief from supporters in public transport, who had warned that maintaining critical infrastructure would result in a repetition of the collapse of the service seen in mid-2017, when the dangerous overcrowding and the long delays, mainly in the metro, then led Governor Andrew Mr. Cuomo to declare a state of emergency. Politicians and writers called them “the summer of hell”.

Here is what the plan means for commuters and the wider economy.

What’s for you?

The five -year fixed assets plan, which takes place from 2025 to 2029, is full of little glamorous improvements to reduce delays and improve the reliability of services. More than 90% of the plan is dedicated to “state of good repair” projects.

Tom Wright, the president of the Regional Plan Association, an urban planning group, said that the financing of these projects is vital At a time when post-pandemic traffic rebounds. The metro holds approximately 75% of its prepondemic accessory during the week, with more returning passengers.

Without investment, “we were running directly in the more frequent failure teeth,” he said, which would not only affect 2.1 million runners who live near public transport and take it regularly at work, but the wider regional economy which depends on this workforce. Workers who rely on public transport to go to their job earn a quarter of all state wages and wages, and their expenses support hundreds of thousands of other jobs, Wright said.

The MTA plans to spend $ 10.9 billion to buy around 2,000 new wagons, an order that will include 1,500 metro cars and more than 500 for Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road. Part of the train fleet has not been updated since at least 1980, the year of the MTA fixed assets. 3.3 billion additional dollars will buy and support 2,261 new buses.

The plan includes $ 5.4 billion To modernize the metro signal systemwhich dates back to the great depression. In the past 15 months, the obsolete system has led to an average of almost 4,000 train delays per month, according to the MTA

About 7.8 billion dollars will correct the decrepit columns, stairs and other structures in public transport stations, and will add metro platform barriers – to divert falls and shoots on the slopes – at 100 stations by the end of the year. About $ 7 billion will be used to return at least 60 metro stations and six stations accessible to disabled people.

Billions of others will be spent to improve electricity substations, improve dozens of train and yards repair workshops and prevent the worst effects of climate change, for example, the attenuation of floods along the rail line of the Hudson river.

The new plan also opens the way to the expected length Interborough ExpressOr IBX, a 14 -thousand freight corridor which, in Governor Hochul, will be reused to serve residents in parts of Brooklyn and Queens.

A smaller element in the budget is a reminder of a different challenge for the transit authority. The MTA will spend $ 1.1 billion to install modern doors at 150 stations to prevent the escape from prices.

The escape of prices culminated in spring 2024, with 14% of metro runners and almost half of the cyclists who were not paid. The MTA said that it had lost almost $ 800 million in prices and toll escape last year.

Prices and toll income represents almost 40% of the annual operating budget of $ 20 billion in MTA, a silver pool separated from the investment plan that pays for daily expenses such as labor and public services. The operating budget also covers the cost of financing many agency projects, an expense that could make the ball if it was poorly managed.

The MTA recently reported progress on reducing the escape of rates on trains and buses, and plans to install tariff doors that are more difficult to take off at 20 stations in 2025 and 20 others the following year. This is added to a range of other strategies, including job guards to look at turnstiles, adding prices’ application teams to bus stops and maintaining an increased police presence throughout the metro.

The challenges to come

The budget is “incredibly short on details”, especially with regard to MTA, said Ana Champeny, vice-president of research at the Citizens Budget Commission, a civic surveillance group.

One of the biggest concerns, she said, is whether the Trump administration will contribute $ 14 billion that MTA has taken into account in its calculations.

Sean Duffy, secretary of the United States Ministry of Transport, threatened to retain the approvals and the financing of transport projects in the state if Ms. Hochul does not kill the New York congestion price toll program by May 21.

President Trump has promised to end congestion prices, saying, without evidence, that he is prejudicial to the local economy.

Such an intervention could force the legislature to review the budget later this year, leaving few options to the MTA.

“You must either spend less or go back to the same money pots,” said Ms. Champeny.

A payroll tax is one of these sources of funding on which those responsible have relied. A large part of the fixed assets plan, around $ 30 billion, will be paid with an increase in the tax on the mobility of the pay, an unpopular tax on New York companies and the surrounding counties that use public transport. Companies with a wage bill of more than $ 10 million will assume a higher rate while the tax on small businesses will remain the same or decrease.

The wage tax was increased for the last time for New York companies only two years ago to collect funding for MTA, and there would most likely be a limited political will to raise it again.

Washington’s increased indication, in at least one case, helped to mitigate the budgetary needs of the MTA. About $ 1.2 billion that would have been used for the reconstruction of Pennsylvania station will be rather applied to other transit projects, now that the Trump administration said it resume the renovation of the transit center.

Ms. Hochul also expects the MTA to offer $ 3 billion in “savings” to finance the investment plan, which would require authority to find up to $ 150 million in annual recurring savings and to borrow against him on the bond market.

In a statement, Avi Small, spokesperson for the governor, said that Ms. Hochul “has shown that she was going to go out with Donald Trump to fight for each dollar possible financing of transportation of transportation

An MTA spokesman did not answer questions about the budget, but said the plan should be discussed on Wednesday at a meeting of the board of directors.