At this key moment in our fight against climate change, the New York League of Conservation Voters is strongly encouraging the state’s Capital Program Review Board, Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature to support the MTA’s new capital plan.
The MTA’s $68.4 billion 2025-29 capital plan was released on September 18 and now is in front of the Capital Program Review Board, which has appointees from the Governor and the Legislature and has until the end of year to accept or reject it. If the plan is approved, it will then be up to the Governor and the Legislature to ensure next year’s budget includes enough funding for the full capital plan to move forward with no cuts or budget gimmicks.
NYLCV believes the amounts proposed are needed to modernize and upgrade the New York metro-area transportation system, so it becomes safer and more reliable, encouraging more people to use mass transit instead of driving as a way to reduce our collective carbon footprint.
The plan allocates important funds to make the transit system more resilient in the face of more frequent extreme weather fueled by climate change. The plan also would provide tens of billions of dollars to upgrade the overall transit system – subways, buses and commuter trains – to make it safer and more appealing for people. Increasing consumer use is an important step in reducing our greenhouse gas emissions from auto use, because the transportation sector, at almost 30 percent, is the one of the top emitters of greenhouse gasses in New York State.
In 2023, there were more than 1.5 billion paid passenger trips on our mass transit system: 1.15 billion on the subways; 426 million on NYC buses; 65.2 million on the Long Island Rail Road; and 60.1 million on Metro-North trains. The more reliable the system, the more people who will use it.
“We cannot drive our way out of the climate crisis, and resilient, high-quality mass transit is the only way to get people out of their cars and onto clean transportation,” said NYLCV President Julie Tighe in response to the MTA Board’s approval of the Capital Plan. “While plans are important, without a major increase in dedicated funding — including, critically, from congestion pricing — improvements in resilience, to say nothing of system expansion, will go unfinished and everyday New Yorkers will be left holding the bag in the form of worsening delays below ground and worsening air quality above.”
Major rain storms in the New York area in recent years – from Hurricane Ida to Tropical Storms Isaias and Ophelia and others – caused subway flooding at 200 stations, almost half the system, and in 2023 alone, 88 stations sustained some form of flooding, according to NBC News.
Years of neglect and underfinancing have led to an MTA system in significant disrepair. The MTA said a study by J.P. Morgan concluded that the MTA needs to spend $23 billion a year to maintain a modern mass transit system “in line with industry peers.”
Among the findings in the MTA’s 20-year needs assessment study:
- 69 percent of the subway system relies on a signaling system more than 100 years old;
- 81 percent of the NYC transit power substations are in poor or marginal condition;
- 95 percent of the structural supports of the Grand Central transit artery are in poor or marginal condition; and
- More than 50 percent of Metro-North’s Harlem Line stations and more than 75 percent of Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) bridges, tunnels and viaducts are in poor or marginal conditions.
The proposed $68 billion plan includes $47 billion for NYC subways, buses and Staten Island railway; $6 billion for the LIRR; and $6 billion for Metro-North.
More specifically, the plan allocates the following:
- $10.9 billion for the purchase of 2,000 new rail cars, including 1,500 subway cars and 500 new cars for Metro-North and the LIRR;
- $7.8 billion to repair, fully renovate and/or add safety features to hundreds of subways stations and replace more than 100 miles of the subway’s fiber optic network;
- $7.1 billion to make an additional 60 subway stations and at least six railroad stations ADA accessible; and
- $5.4 billion to modernize the subway signaling system.
Regarding specific actions to deal directly with the impact of climate change and the increasingly severe rain storms that the New York area is experiencing, the MTA’s plan includes $700 million to protect the subway system from stormwater flooding.
The city’s infrastructure of storm drains, catch basins and sewer pipes was designed to handle 1.75 inches of rain per hour. In the past 20 years, 34 torrential downpours have exceeded this limit, causing flooding and delays. In its proposed plan, the MTA wrote that it has made some advances, citing Tropical Storm Ophelia, where “45 percent of subway trips still ran on time.” But that means that 55 percent, a majority, did not.
According to the plan, the $700 million would be used to elevate stairs and vents at street level, repair leaking tunnels, rehabilitate and expand pump rooms, and replace drainage infrastructure equipment. The MTA also would be working to fortify the MTA’s decades-old communications system, spread across the five boroughs in 495 sites, against extreme heat, which can cause power outages and delays.
In addition, $1.4 billion is allocated to modernize and upgrade the city’s bus fleet, including adding 500 zero-emission buses, with the ultimate goal of reducing MTA carbon emissions 85 percent by 2040.
The MTA plan also allocates $800 million to protect the MTA’s Hudson River train line, which carries 10 million passengers a year. With more than half of the 74-mile line vulnerable to coastal flooding, the plan includes rehabilitation efforts to upgrade drainage and stabilize the shoreline.
While New York City has not yet been hit by a paralyzing storm this hurricane season, we can look south to our most recent wake-up call.
Hurricane Helene killed at least 190 people, making it the second deadliest hurricane to hit the U.S. in 55 years, and caused tens of billions in damage. Storm-surge and rainfall records were broken throughout the region. In Busick, N.C., 31.33 inches of rain fell in three days.
Storms like this labeled “biblical” and “once-in-a-thousand-year storms” are becoming cliche.
We urge everyone who has a say in whether the MTA’s $68 billion 2025-2029 Capital Plan becomes reality to get on board, work to obtain the funding and get it approved. We urge voters to reach out to the governor and their state senators and assembly members and encourage them to support this plan.
We need smart investment in our future to combat climate change. This $68 billion MTA plan is one such smart investment.
Peter Aronson, a volunteer writer at the New York League of Conservation Voters since September 2022, is a former journalist and retired attorney. He is the author of Mandalay Hawk’s Dilemma: The United States of Anthropocene, a novel for middle-grade readers about kids fighting global warming. Kirkus Reviews, in a starred review, wrote: “A scathing work and an essential blueprint for youth battling climate change.” To read more about Peter, visit his website www.peteraronsonbooks.com or to purchase his book, click here.