Good afternoon. I’m Brian Fritsch, Associate Director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, PCAC.
PCAC was very disappointed to see that the USDOT chose to withdraw their federal support for congestion pricing, putting $15 billion of the MTA’s 2020-2024 capital plan at risk once again. As Chair Lieber said following the announcement, there is no contingency plan—congestion pricing is the way to invest in transit riders, raising an on target $48.6 billion in its first month. We’re also seeing the transformative benefits of the program in real time, with fewer cars entering the congestion relief zone, less traffic, and faster speeds on buses in and around the zone. We’re not going back, and we strongly support Governor Hochul and the MTA’s efforts to continue congestion pricing through legal action.
We’ve also been in Albany this month calling for state leaders to come up with a plan to fully fund the MTA’s 2025-2029 capital plan. There’s no question that the projects in the plan are critical: it’s largely made up of essential state-of-good-repair work, accessibility improvements, resiliency protections, signal upgrades that will speed up commutes, and rolling stock replacements to improve the ride. PCAC released a report this month called “Take Your Pick Albany,” with two dozen potential funding options that could raise a collective three-quarters of a trillion dollars when bonded.
Earlier this month, we testified at the MTA’s Capital Projects public hearing about the many projects seeking federal funding. Despite the unprecedented uncertainty surrounding federal funding overall and transit projects in particular, there is no shortage of projects in the MTA’s pipeline worthy of federal support. New subway and train cars and buses, improvements in power, tracks, and structures, plus the transformative Penn Station Access Project, the over $12 billion of work outlined is essential to keeping our system running safely and reliably for the millions of riders who depend on it daily.
This is a make-or-break time for transit investment, and riders need our leaders at all levels to step up. Our century-old infrastructure can’t wait any longer. Thank you.