PCAC Statement on release of the 2025-2029 MTA Capital Plan
Riders depend on a healthy transit system to get us where we’re going safely, reliably and on time. Subways, buses, LIRR, Metro-North and Staten Island Rail are all part of the fabric that holds together our way of life and our region’s economy: every $1 billion invested brings a five-to-1 economic return. The MTA’s 2025-29 capital plan will deliver critical accessibility projects, vital upgrades to power, significant improvements to signals, essential train cars and buses, much needed track and station work, new fare gates to help reduce fare evasion, and robust resiliency efforts to ensure the future of the system. It will be $65 billion well spent for the region’s riders – but we can’t help to wonder how much better it could have been if Governor Hochul hadn’t stuck the MTA with a $16.5 billion hole in the current plan.
The FY25-29 plan shows that the MTA has smartly used the 20-year needs assessment as designed to rank projects, and while maintaining what we have in a state of good repair is critical, it isn’t enough. State of Good Repair – the literal nuts and bolts of maintaining the system – should always come out on top, but we are left wondering what’s left on the cutting room floor that would have benefited riders due to Governor Hochul’s pause?
The challenge will remain how to fund the next capital plan, while there is still a huge deficit in the current plan. There are a number of creative options being explored in different states, and we look forward to working with our elected leaders to find the way forward. But when it comes to fixing the hole in the FY20-24 plan – and reducing traffic and improving air quality – only congestion pricing checks all the boxes. Governor Hochul: unpause the pause!