The MTA receives 68 billion US dollars in the state budget. What will drivers get?

A return of the summer of hell was avoided. Currently.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority will receive 68.4 billion US dollars in the next five years as part of a state budget agreement – the largest capital plan of which – in the next five years to prevent the U -Bahn, the bus system and two commuter railway from falling apart.

However, the completion of all projects in the budget, which was agreed in Albany on Monday, is anything but insured. The MTA counts on 14 billion US dollars of the Trump administration plan, which threatens to hold back funds for transport projects, unless the state ends its backlog in Manhattan. And all the details of how the state wants to pay the plan – mainly with an increased interest rate for unpopular business tax – are not yet clear.

Now the responsibility at the MTA, an agency that has long criticized for shaky finances in order to prove the opposite of their critics and to create their ambitious plan in 45 years and in the budget.

Governor Kathy Hochul announced on Monday evening that the state legislature would “fully finance” the $ 68.4 billion program, most of which repair or update long-distance components of the extensive mass transit network of the New York City region in the New York region. The list includes the purchase of new trains and buses, replacing almost centuries -old devices and reaching the system for drivers with disabilities and families with young children more accessible.

The approval of the plan came as a relief for supporters of the mass transfer, which had warned that the failure to maintain a critical infrastructure would lead to a repetition of the middle of the service, which was observed in mid-2017 when dangerous overcrowding and long delays, mainly in the subway, then governor Andrew M. Cuomo led to explain a state. Politicians and headline writers called it the “summer of hell”.

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

What is in it for you?

The five -year capital plan, which runs from 2025 to 2029, is full of improvements to reduce delays and improve service reliability. More than 90 percent of the plan are devoted to the “State of Good Repair” projects.

Tom Wright, President of the Regional Plan Association, an urban planning group, said that the financing of these projects was of crucial importance at a time when the post -pandemical driver is recovered. The U -Bahn has around 75 percent of its pioneer Wednesday days, with more passengers returning.

Without the investment “we would run directly into the teeth of more frequent mistakes,” he said, which would not only affect the 2.1 million drivers who live near the mass transit and work regularly, but also the wider regional economy that depends on this workforce. Workers who rely on public transport to achieve their work earn a quarter of all state wages and salaries, and their expenses support hundreds of thousands of other jobs, said Wright.

The MTA expects you to spend $ 10.9 billion to buy around 2,000 new railway cars, an order that includes 1,500 subway 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 first capital plan of the MTA. Another 3.3 billion US dollars will buy and support 2,261 new buses.

The plan comprises 5.4 billion US dollars to modernize the signal signal that goes back to the Great Depression. According to MTA, the antiquated system has run an average of almost 4,000 train delays per month in the past 15 months.

About 7.8 billion US dollars repair dilapidated columns, stairs and other structures via transit stations and add 100 stations at 100 stations by the end of the year to prevent falls and shovels on the routes. Around 7 billion US dollars are used to make at least 60 more U -Bahn stations and six train stations accessible to people with disabilities.

There are billions more to improve electricity voltages, improve dozens of access bans and yards and prevent the worst effects of climate change, for example by alleviating floods along the Hudson Rail line.

The new plan also paves the way for the long-awaited Interborough Express, or IBX, a 14-mile corridor that governor Hochul hopes that they will serve the residents in parts of Brookly and Queens.

A smaller status in the budget is reminiscent of another challenge for the transit authority. The MTA will output 1.1 billion US dollars for the installation of modern gates at 150 stations to prevent the fare.

The driving price system reached its peak in spring 2024. 14 percent of the U -Bahn driver and almost half of the bus drivers who do not pay. The MTA said it lost almost $ 800 million in the tariff and toll output last year.

The tariff and toll kit make up almost 40 percent of the annual operating budget of the MTA in the amount of $ 20 billion, a pool of money that is separated from the capital plan that pays daily expenses such as work and care companies. The operational budget also covers the costs for the financing of many agency projects, an effort that could take off if the administration is incorrect.

The MTA has recently reported and plans to install and plan progress in reducing the fare in trains and buses to install 20 to 20 pictures at 20 stations in 2025 and the following year. This is done in addition to a number of other strategies, including the setting of guards to observe hubs, add collective bargaining teams at bus stops and increase the police throughout the subway.

The challenges in front of us

The budget is “incredibly low in details”, especially with regard to the MTA, said Ana Champeny, Vice President of Research at the Citizens Budget Commission, a Civic Watchdog group.

One of the biggest concerns, she said, is whether the Trump administration will contribute the 14 billion US dollars that the MTA has included in its calculations.

Sean Duffy, the Secretary of the US Transport Ministry, has threatened to withhold permits and financing for transport projects in the state if Ms. Hochul does not kill the fee program for traffic jam prices in New York by May 21.

President Trump swore to end the congestion prices and claimed that it was harmful to the local economy without evidence.

Such an intervention could force the legislator to visit the budget later this year and to leave the MTA with just a few options.

“You either have to spend less or return to the same money pots,” said Ms. Champeny.

A salary account tax is one of these sources of financing that the officials have relied on. A large part of the capital plan, around 30 billion US dollars, is paid with an increase in wage and salary accounting tax, unpopular delivery of companies in New York City and the surrounding counties that use mass traffic. Companies with a salary statement of over 10 million US dollars will take over a higher sentence, while the tax on smaller companies will remain the same or decrease.

The salary billing tax was last increased for companies in New York City two years ago to increase the funds for the MTA, and there would most likely be a limited political will to increase it again.

In at least one case, the increased examination of Washington has contributed to reducing the MTA budget needs. Instead, approximately 1.2 billion US dollars that would have been used for the reconstruction of the Pennsylvania Station are applied to other transit projects after the Trump administration has explained that it will take over the renovation of the Transit Hub.

Ms. Hochul also expects the MTA to achieve “savings” of $ 3 billion to finance the capital plan, which gives the authority of up to 150 million US dollars of annual recurring savings and loans on the bond market.

In an explanation, Avi Small, a spokeswoman for the governor, Ms. Hochul “showed that she would go with Donald Trump from Toe-to-toe to fight for every possible dollar transit financing,” and added that the Republican members of the Congress delegation are located for their voters who are on the MTA

A MTA spokesman did not answer questions about the budget, but said that the plan would probably be discussed on Wednesday at a board meeting.