The MTA on Wednesday released an ambitious $65.4 billion plan to keep New York’s mass transit system from falling into disrepair — but agency officials said they still need Gov. Kathy Hochul and other lawmakers to find new money to cover more than half of its cost.
The proposed capital plan, which would run from 2025 to 2029, doesn’t center on new rail lines, but instead on work to simply keep the city’s creaky subway and bus systems up and running.
“There are assets within this system that are in real danger of failure,” Jamie Torres-Springer, the MTA’s president of construction and development, said at a press briefing Tuesday.
Both the plan’s release and the MTA’s dire warning come as Hochul’s order to halt congestion pricing in June leaves a $16.5 billion funding hole in the agency’s current capital plan , which runs from 2020 to 2024. The money from the proposed Manhattan tolls were required by law to finance mass transit upgrades, and the governor has not announced how she plans to replace the money.