MTA board approves massive construction plan, sending Gov. Hochul $33B invoice

The MTA board on Wednesday unanimously signed off on the agency's $65.4 billion capital plan designed to prevent the city's mass transit infrastructure from falling into disrepair — effectively sending Gov. Kathy Hochul an enormous bill in the process.

Transit officials said they still need state lawmakers to find ways to cover at least $33 billion of the cost of the plan, which is scheduled to run from 2025 to 2029.

“The spirit of this program is very conservative,” MTA Chair Janno Lieber said after Wednesday’s vote. “It's focusing on protecting riders from a decline in service due to infrastructure that's been, for whatever reason, neglected or left unfixed, and I think Albany folks recognize it and I am optimistic they will do what they need to do.”

Much of the plan focuses on basic repairs, like upgrading decades-old electrical equipment and repairing elevated subway structures. There’s spending for new turnstiles and 2,000 new subway and commuter railroad train cars. The plan also tacks on funding to eventually begin construction on Hochul’s pet transit project, the proposed Interborough Express light rail line between Brooklyn and Queens.

Both the plan's package and the need for state funding come less than four months after Hochul abruptly paused the MTA’s congestion pricing tolls, which were supposed to finance $15 billion of the agency’s current capital plan. Hochul has said she’ll work to fill that funding gap once the Legislature returns to session in January.

"Gov. Hochul must now find every last dollar to build the projects approved today, deliver the fast, frequent and reliable trains we've been promised, and prioritize investments in communities cheated over the decades out of the care and maintenance of basic public infrastructure that New Yorkers deserve from Far Rockaway to Fordham," Betsy Plum, executive director of the advocacy group Riders Alliance, wrote in a statement.

Fiscal watchdogs at the Citizens Budget Commission argue the MTA should focus on maintaining the existing transit system instead of committing billions of dollars to expansion projects like the Interborough Express.

“The plan is larger than can be accomplished in the next five years,” the group wrote in an email. “Also, the $8.6 billion in proposed and previously planned expansion projects, while beneficial, diverts resources from essential rebuilding and improvement efforts.”

If the MTA doesn’t get the funding it needs from Hochul and other lawmakers, Lieber said the agency would likely be forced to remove expansion projects like the Interborough Express from the capital plan.

“There isn’t a lot of fat in this,” Lieber said. “This is the minimum program that we believe was necessary to achieve the goals of protecting the existing system, complying with our accessibility requirements, moving forward towards zero-emissions buses and having a signaling system that wasn't built for Warren Harding [served as president of the United States from 1921-1923]. This is not a grandiose program.”