How MTA’s 2025-2029 Capital Plan Will Benefit All New Yorkers

On an average weekday, 5.5 million rides are taken by subway, bus, or commuter train. Riders come from all walks of life and take transit for a wide range of purposes. Customer surveys, conducted twice annually by the MTA since 2021, show who transit riders are, what they care about most, and how they want their experience to be better.

Transit User Profile

MTA transit services reach all segments of the region’s population, linking people together across neighborhoods, generations, and communities. Whether by income, age, or race and ethnicity, riders of MTA services as a whole can be found in roughly equal proportions across many different demographic categories. However, the rider profiles of individual travel modes vary from each other, especially by income.

Transit User Priorities

Across all MTA services, service reliability stands out when customers are asked what matters most to them. Every delay, service outage, lengthy trip, and poor connection not only increases customer dissatisfaction and frustration. These disruptions rob transit users and their families of valuable time and add stress and uncertainty to their daily lives. The specific priorities of subway, bus, and commuter rail riders reflect the issues that most affect their experience.

Subway Riders

In the most recent survey, ​“more reliable service” was the most often selected improvement item for subway riders, with nearly half (47%) of the respondents including it among the three factors that would most improve their satisfaction. All service-related factors – service reliability, frequency of delays, waiting times, and crowding on trains – rose higher in their ranked importance compared to the spring of 2024, while safety and cleanliness attributes fell.

Bus Riders

The attributes bus riders felt were most important and most influential to their satisfaction were all related to service, namely wait times, service reliability, and frequency of delays. Half of the overall respondents and over half of respondents in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens felt that shorter wait times would improve their satisfaction.

LIRR and Metro North

On LIRR, riders prioritized ​“transfer experience” as most important unless they never transfer to another LIRR train, in which case they prioritized ​“peak service frequency” and ​“seat availability.” Those that were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with LIRR were much more likely to list service items as improving their satisfaction. Service reliability, on-time performance, peak service frequency, and seat availability were the four most important attributes of the Metro-North to its riders, though many (73% - 88%) were already satisfied with these attributes of the system. Those that were dissatisfied were much more likely to include ​“more frequent service” and ​“more reliable service” among items that would improve their satisfaction.

The transit system is essential to the economy and quality of life of the entire region, efficiently connecting business owners, employees, and customers to everything the region has to offer at the lowest cost to riders and the environment. Delays, service disruptions, and slow speeds don’t just impact transit riders. These are also a drain on the economy, limiting opportunities and incomes for everyone regardless of how they travel and making it harder for both transit and non-transit users to go about their daily lives.

Transit is essential to both regional and state economies

Transit allows metropolitan New York to be an economic center for the state, nation, and world. The twelve counties inside New York City, Long Island, and the Mid-Hudson Valley that are connected by MTA services have the highest density of jobs in the state and the country, with over 1,600 jobs per square mile compared to 200 jobs per square mile in New York State and 30 jobs per square mile in the United States.

It is no coincidence that the most job-dense and highly paid part of the region is also the place that is most highly dependent on transit. Manhattan encompasses almost a quarter of the region’s firms (24%), which account for over a third of the region’s jobs (35%) at an average density of over 4,000 firms and 100,000 jobs per square mile. Through transit, a business in Midtown can access a pool of 3 million working-age adults within 60 minutes. For all Manhattan workers, including those who also live in the borough, 70% use transit to access their place of work.

Over a third of all wages earned by residents of New York City’s suburbs–34% for residents of both Long Island and the Mid-Hudson Valley–are earned within the five boroughs, mostly in Manhattan. Without the access provided by LIRR and Metro-North, neither the number of high-wage jobs in New York City nor the high incomes of suburban residents could exist.

Upstate residents also benefit from tax revenue generated in the region that supports statewide government services. More than 80% of personal income tax and 65% of sales tax revenue in New York State are generated in the MTA region.

Job and wage impacts of transit riders

Almost three-quarters of all firms (74%) and over two-thirds (68.5%) of all jobs in New York State are in the MTA service area. Of the state’s jobs, more than a quarter, or nearly 2.5 million, are filled by workers who take transit to work, according to the 2023 American Community Survey microdata. These shares have been trending upward since the end of the pandemic as more people return to the office more days per week.

Of the 6.7 million people who work in the MTA service area, 37% take transit to work. Of workers within New York City, 56% take transit to work in all five boroughs. These transit commuters, who include workers who reside in New Jersey and other places outside of the MTA service area, earn $230 billion in wages and salaries each year, accounting for 40% of all such earnings by workers in the region and 54% of all wage earnings by NYC workers. Most businesses in the core of the region have employees or owners who use transit, or have customers who do.

Transit workers also earn a disproportionate share of wages in the region. The average wage for workers who commute by transit is 32% higher than the average wage for all workers.

The 2.1 million transit commuters who both work and live in the MTA service area earn $182 billion in wages and salaries annually. Business owners who commute by transit earned an additional $5 billion in addition to their salaries. Combined, this $187 billion in earnings is spent mostly in the home communities of these workers, supporting businesses and jobs in retail stores, banks, professional services, construction, and a range of other industries, and generating income, sales and property taxes for cities, towns, villages, counties and New York State.

In total, earnings spent by transit workers support an additional 680,000 jobs earning $45 billion in earnings.

• New York City transit commuters earn $154 billion annually; their spending supports 468,000 jobs which generate an additional $33 billion in earnings

• Long Island transit commuters earn $18 billion annually; their spending supports 69,000 jobs which generate $7 billion in additional earnings

• Mid-Hudson transit commuters earn $15 billion annually; their spending supports 48,000 jobs which generate $5 billion in additional earnings

Many of the region’s industries have commuters who depend on public transit to travel to work.

• Nearly one fifth of transit commuters in New York City, the Hudson Valley, and Long Island work in healthcare and social assistance, earning nearly $23 billion in total wages and salaries and $659 million in business profits.

• One in eight work in the professional, scientific, and technical services sector, which includes lawyers, consultants, and engineers, earning $36 billion in total wages and salaries and $863 million in business profits.

• One in ten each work in the education or the food and accommodation sectors, respectively earning $8 billion and $6 billion in wages and salaries in addition to $157 million and $112 million in business profits.

About half of trips on MTA services are taken for non-work related reasons, for example, going to school or the doctor, shopping, visiting museums or theaters, etc. These trips also make vital contributions to the region’s economy. They are particularly important to some of the region’s largest industries, including healthcare, tourism, bars and restaurants, and education.

Health and Affordability

Good transit service is also essential for maintaining and improving the health, affordability, and quality of life for all New Yorkers, whether they take transit or not. Buses and rail systems mobilize millions of people far more efficiently than private vehicles since they consume less energy and produce less air pollution and carbon. For example, it would take the equivalent of 10 additional highway lanes if all LIRR riders took those same trips by car. Without transit, roads would be hopelessly congested and air quality would be far worse.

MTA services provide an affordable means of transportation that helps to ease the high costs of nearly everything else in one of the country’s most expensive places to live. Because transit use is so high and it is much less expensive to take transit than to own and drive a car, the average household in the New York City metropolitan area spends 10.5% of their income on transportation ($12,863 per year), less than the 13% spent by the average household in the United States or the 18.2% spent by a household in Houston, for example. This is important both for New Yorkers who can’t afford a car and for those who want to drive less to save on parking, maintenance and fuel costs.

All of these benefits require maintaining and upgrading the MTA’s physical assets — its tracks, signals, tunnels, bridges, stations, power systems, maintenance facilities, railcars, and buses. Investment is needed not just to keep service from deteriorating. It is also necessary to keep up with a changing region, growing economy and new technologies, and to give New Yorkers the service they deserve.

Historic underfunding of MTA’s infrastructure have left components of the system in a state of disrepair, many of which are unseen and unsung in ensuring a smooth and safe trip. The cost cuts and stalled improvements of prior years remain to degrade service today. With many of these components beyond or nearing the end of their useful life, and even more of the system coming due for replacement, the MTA must maintain or accelerate the pace of investment underway from its 2020-2024 Capital Plan. With threats to Congestion Pricing, which funds the 2020-2024 Capital Plan, a strong commitment to addressing the condition of vital infrastructure is necessary for MTA to continue to provide safe and reliable service and meet the changing needs of the region’s population and economy.

The MTA has nearly 6 million assets with a replacement value of $1.5 trillion. The assets include trains, tracks, stations, tunnels and bridges, buses, bus depots, maintenance facilities, and power systems. The system is vast, old, and at-risk due to a changing climate, threatening basic functioning and continued safety. The 2025-2029 Capital Plan places a greater focus on addressing these basic threats, as well as improving the customer experience, than any Capital Plan in the last four five-year cycles.

An analysis of comparable private industries, including freight, utility, logistics and passenger airline companies, conducted for the MTA concluded that to comparably keep up with expected capital costs, the authority would need to invest around $16 billion each year. Additionally, a chronic lack of funding and resultant underinvestment over the years has left the agency’s assets in such a state of deficit that it would take an additional $7 billion per year for the next 20 years to eliminate the higher capital investment backlog, relative to MTA’s corporate peers. That translates to $80 billion over five years to properly maintain a system of this size if it were already in good repair, plus $35 billion to reduce the investment backlog.

Currently, the MTA invests 6.5% of its asset value in capital investments, less than the transit systems of Los Angeles (11.1%) and Boston (8.0%), and more than those of San Francisco (5.6%), Washington (5.5%), Chicago (5.1%), and Philadelphia (3.4%). However, it spends far less on a per passenger basis. According to J.P. Morgan, MTA’s $2 per ride per year in capital expenditures contrasts with $6 per ride for the Washington Metro and the San Francisco MTA, and up to $18 per ride for the Los Angeles MTA —which includes major system expansion commitments. The closest peers are Philadelphia’s SEPTA and Chicago’s CTA, which spend 50% more on capital needs per rider than the MTA does.

What’s at Risk

Capital investment to repair and maintain the network will do more than just keep the MTA’s physical assets in good repair and prevent service from deteriorating. The specific investments detailed in the Capital Plan will directly benefit MTA riders by improving reliability, reducing delays, enabling better and more frequent service, and creating a safer and more comfortable customer experience.

More reliable service with fewer power disruptions and other delays

Customer satisfaction surveys consistently show that service reliability is at or near the top of what riders value most, and what they most want to see improved. The most direct indicators of service reliability are the frequency and severity of train or bus delays. Capital investments cannot address many of the most common causes of delay — police actions and sick passengers for trains and traffic congestion for buses, for example. However, breakdowns of infrastructure and equipment are capital concerns that are the root cause of a large share of service delays, to be addressed in the current Capital Plan.

Like with many infrastructure systems, the MTA’s transit service is delivered with a complex network of components, many of which are never seen and oftentimes not even known to the users. Passengers aren’t necessarily aware that the signals are faulty; they know their train is delayed and over-crowded. The power substations are invisible until there is a malfunction, and so on. Repair of this unseen infrastructure is a big part of how the MTA’s 2025-2029 Capital Plan will improve service.

For subways, more than 13,000 delays are caused every year due to failures of capital equipment in need of replacement. Signal, track, and train failures are the most common types of breakdowns, but power equipment breakdowns are the most disruptive. On average, power-related incidents occur less than once per month, but each one delays an average of 34 trains, and some incidents can last for hours and affect hundreds of trains.

On May 1, 2023, for example, a nearly 100-year-old transformer at the W 99 Street substation caught on fire, delaying 238 A, B, C, and D trains and disrupting service for over four hours. This incident didn’t just keep train riders from getting to their destination — it created a travel mess for auto users, passengers on other transit lines, and pedestrians, not just on Manhattan’s West Side where the fire occurred, but also extending into Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. Employers were short-handed, stores and restaurants lost business, and parents had to scramble for child-care.

More recently, in December, 2024, a substation explosion required 3,500 passengers to be rescued from two F trains.

The MTA needs to greatly accelerate the rate of substation repair for its aging power infrastructure. Only 12 deficient subway substations were addressed in the 2010-2014 and 2015-2019 Capital Plans combined. In the 2020-2024 Capital Plan, this jumped to 23 substations repaired. Even with this increased rate of investment, the remaining backlog of substations in poor or marginal condition leaves an enormous risk of service disruptions.

The 2025-2029 Capital Plan would further accelerate the pace of investment on the subway and both commuter railroads. If fully funded and implemented, the 2025-2029 plan will fully renew or newly construct 32 substations (21 in the subway, six on LIRR, and five on Metro-North), replace or upgrade components in 55 other substations, and make other upgrades to the system, including the incorporation of new energy-efficient technologies. This would address the most vulnerable parts of this system, prioritizing the places where there is both older equipment and little redundancy for backup power or service in case of failure.

Better and more frequent service with modern signal systems

The subway and commuter rail signal systems are what tell train operators whether trains can move ahead, speed up, slow down, or stop to leave adequate and safe spacing between trains. Signal failures occur, on average, 285 times per month, among the most frequent causes of infrastructure-related delays.

Limited system automation and older equipment directly result in more delays. Without an efficient signal system and one that relies on more manual inputs and outdated technology, trains have to maintain greater distances to ensure safety and go slower than they otherwise could. Running trains farther apart means longer waits on the platform for passengers and more crowded trains.

Over two-thirds of the subway uses signal technology that dates to the opening of the subway system over 100 years ago. Some of the equipment itself is over 50 years old, and 24% of subway signals are now in poor or marginal conditions. The commuter rail signal systems are somewhat newer, but 43% of LIRR signals and 51% of Metro-North systems are in poor or marginal condition.

The 2025-2029 Capital Plan would build on the prior plan to repair aging equipment and upgrade or replace obsolete technology on the subways, LIRR, and Metro-North — and install entirely new technology on more subway lines. This advances progress toward modernizing the full system and meeting that standard set by transit systems throughout the world. Today’s standard for subway signals, called Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC), enables MTA to fully automate train operations, allowing trains to run faster and more evenly spaced. That in turn shortens customers’ travel times and reduces crowding in stations and onboard trains. It also enhances the system’s physical throughput capabilities, enabling MTA to run more frequent service during peak hours.

Both the 7 train and the L train are now fully converted to CBTC, as are sections of the E, F, M, and R trains on the Queens Boulevard and Culver lines. On these lines, trains are running faster and much more reliably. On-time performance has improved from 68% in 2018 to 91% in 2023 on the 7 Flushing line. E trains run 10% faster on the Queens Boulevard West line.

The 2025-2029 Capital Plan would replace at least 75 miles of aging signals with CBTC technology on the A, J, Z, N, Q, R, W, and Rockaway S lines. When this work is completed, 40% of the subway will be operated with CBTC.

When fully implemented, improvements on 2025-2029 Capital Plan CBTC-enabled lines would save riders a combined 12,000 hours every weekday while also enhancing service reliability. The MTA could run an additional 2 to 3 trains per hour on CBTC-enabled routes when warranted by ridership demand, absent other system constraints. On the 7 train, CBTC has allowed MTA to increase from 27 to 29 trains per hour during the morning peak, a 7% increase that reduced waiting times and crowding.

On the commuter rails, signal upgrades will result in less dramatic service outcomes, but maintaining and replacing aging equipment will make service more reliable and efficient. These include investments in centralized train control throughout the LIRR and upgrades of signals along 12 miles of the Port Jefferson Branch and 17 miles of the Montauk Branch. On Metro-North, signal miles in a state-of-good-repair will increase from 49% to 65%, while upgrades to the Operations Control Center and other infrastructure will improve reliability throughout the system.

Greater comfort and better communication with modern railcars and buses

Ideally, railcars would be replaced every 40 years and buses every 12 years. However, because prior capital plans were so constrained, much of the MTA’s fleet is considerably older, and beyond its useful life. The 2025-2029 Capital Plan will replace the MTA’s oldest rolling stock with new railcars and buses. This will not only improve service reliability and reduce maintenance costs — it will also give riders a more comfortable ride with better communications and real-time information systems.

New Railcars

One of the earliest and greatest successes of the MTA’s first capital plan in the 1980s was the dramatic reduction in the number of times trains needed to be taken out of service. New railcars and improved maintenance protocols boosted the average number of miles a railcar traveled without failure—a measure known as mean distance between failures (MDBF), from less than 10,000 miles in the early 1980s to over 50,000 miles in the early 1990s.

Continued purchase of new railcars with improved technology in subsequent capital plans allowed MDBF to keep rising before peaking at 178,000 miles in 2005.

MBDF has fluctuated and declined over the last 20 years, however, in large part because many earlier capital plans were underfunded, requiring older cars to remain in use for longer. Subway and railcar equipment failures are among the most frequent causes of infrastructure-related delays, representing 292 incidents per month on average.

In the 2025-2029 Capital Plan, the MTA will purchase 1,500 new subway cars and 500 new LIRR and Metro-North railcars. These would replace the oldest cars in the fleet, which are nearly 50 years old and break down every 50,000 miles, with the newest cars that can travel more than 200,000 before breaking down. A reduction or delay in these purchases would result in worse service, and requires 15% higher maintenance costs to keep older cars running.

New Buses

Few things can be more frustrating than having to get off a bus that is taken out of service, or waiting for a bus that never shows up. Fortunately, buses break down far less often than they used to. As with railcars, regular purchases of new buses have greatly extended the average number of miles that a bus can operate before running into mechanical problems.

Older buses need to be repaired about every 8,000 miles, while new buses can go more than twice as far. Relatively few buses were purchased in the 2015-2019 plan, and supply chain disruptions initiated by the pandemic in 2020 further impacted bus procurements. Today, a total of 1,191 buses, or 20% of the total fleet, is over 12 years in age, i.e., beyond what is considered their useful life.

More than 40% of the bus fleet needs to be replaced within the next five years. If fully funded, the proposed capital plan would authorize the purchase of more than 2,500 new buses, including both conventional and zero emission buses. These buses would not only break down less often, but would be cleaner, more comfortable, and more energy-efficient than older buses. Service delays can still occur for a variety of external reasons — but with new buses, supported by investments in maintenance facilities, bus riders should experience faster and more reliable service in the future.

A more accessible system with refurbished stations

Today, 150 subway stations are fully ADA compliant, serving 50% of passengers. By the end of the 2025-2029 Capital Plan, 253 stations, more than half of all stations, will be fully compliant and serve about 70% of passengers. On the LIRR, 114 of 126 stations are accessible today, and 98% of stations will be accessible once the investments in the 2025-2029 Capital Plan are completed. For Metro-North, over three-quarters of stations will be ADA compliant by the end of the 2020-2024 Capital Plan, and the new plan will keep Metro-North on track to reaching its goal of having 95% of full-service regional rail stations accessible by 2045.

With these investments, hundreds of thousands of additional customers will be able to enter the system through stations with more and better elevators, escalators, doorways, and ramps. Already, 25 of the initially identified stations in the 2025-2029 Capital Plan will provide transit access to over 19,000 children, adults, and elders with ambulatory disabilities within a quarter-mile of their homes. These improvements will benefit not just those with physical impairments, but anyone traveling with children, strollers, luggage, or just tired feet, near home, near work or school, or wherever they need to travel.

In addition to improvements in accessibility, investments in these and other stations will improve their structural integrity, appearance, and functionality. Components at more than 150 subway and 25 LIRR and Metro-North stations will be rehabilitated. Inside stations, customers will be greeted with improved signage with real-time information. Elevators, escalators, and staircases will be fixed. Deteriorating waiting areas and platforms will be refurbished. Fans and improved ventilation will help cool the hottest stations in the system.

A safer system with more secure fare entrances and platforms

Safety and fare evasion are among the top concerns for customers across the MTA system, and these concerns have escalated in recent years. The immediate tools for addressing these concerns are enforcement and outreach,but the 2025-2029 Capital Plan will significantly contribute toward making the system safer and more secure.

Platform barriers will be installed at over 100 subway stations. These are a low-cost way of preventing people from falling or being pushed onto the tracks.

Cameras have been installed in every subway and railcar to improve security and respond more quickly to incidents, and MTA has committed to installing more cameras in conductor cabs and on platforms over the next five years.

The MTA will also upgrade its fiber optic communications and security systems in the subway. This will improve the performance of riders’ personal devices while riding below ground, and enable more real-time monitoring and response to dangerous behavior and crime.

A system that is more resilient to climate change

Like most of the region’s infrastructure, the subways and commuter rails were not built to withstand the level of flooding and the number of extreme weather events that the region experiences now. These weather events will only get worse as the climate continues to get hotter and wetter and as sea levels continue to rise. Investments slated for the 2025-2029 Capital Plan will help make the system more resilient to storms like Sandy, Ida, and Ophelia, and increasingly common heavy rains and other weather events.

The MTA will rehabilitate shoreline structures, address erosion hotspots, stabilize upland slopes, and upgrade drainage along Metro-North’s Hudson Line, protecting more than 20 miles of the most vulnerable and highest-ridership segments. It will also improve drainage at Metro-North’s Mott Haven Yard, which was flooded 20 times between July 2016 and August 2024. Mott Haven Yard is not only a train yard, it’s also a crossing point for all Metro-North service into and out from Manhattan.

Even on a dry day, the MTA pumps 15 million gallons of water out of the subway system. Upgrades will help the system stay dry and return to normal service faster after major storms. Investments to make the subways more resilient to flooding include elevating stairs and vents to prevent water from entering the system, and rehabilitating pump rooms.

By making the transit system better, the 2025-2029 Capital Plan will benefit everyone who lives and works in the region. When transit riders have better service, they will have more time and energy for work and family, making the economy more productive and attracting more economic activity to the region. As more people are attracted to transit, there will be fewer cars on the road and less auto emissions. The transit system itself will be more energy-efficient and emit fewer pollutants and greenhouse gases.These proposed investments are all the more critical with ongoing threats to Congestion Pricing, which is set to fund accessibility, signals, and other improvements in the 2020-2024 Capital Plan.

A Stronger Economy with More Opportunity

With more than a third of the region’s workers taking transit to work, including more than half of New York City workers, a well-functioning transit system literally makes the economy work. When any part of it goes down, it disrupts business, tourism, education, and medical service, in addition to lowering morale and quality of life. With the investments in the capital plan, there will be fewer major disruptions and fewer people late for work, school and doctor’s appointments. Firms will be less likely to move from the region and more likely to relocate here from elsewhere. New and small businesses will find it easier to start and grow.

The $68 billion in capital spending will provide an immediate boost to the economy by generating $106 billion in economic output and more than 72,000 jobs across New York State. While the jobs created will be concentrated in construction-related industries, they will also extend to nearly every type of business and occupation in the state as manufacturers produce more equipment, distribution companies deliver more supplies, and workers spend their earnings on everything from groceries and restaurant meals to child care and home insurance.

The capital plan will also make a major investment in the New York region’s future by completing design and starting construction on the Interborough Express (IBX), a transformative rapid transit service connecting Brooklyn and Queens. When completed, residents in many neighborhoods will be able to take a light rail to destinations in these boroughs without having to first go through Manhattan. The line will connect to 17 subway lines, the LIRR, and more than 50 bus routes. Over a million people will live near IBX stations, and travel times for some users could be cut by as much as 30-35%. In addition to the convenience and time savings, the project will expand opportunity by increasing the number of jobs that are within commuting distance of people who use the service in either direction.

Cleaner Air and Better Health

Because of its extensive public transit system, the New York metropolitan area is one of the most energy efficient regions in the United States. Forty percent of transit users in the nation reside in the region. If everyone who takes transit drove to their destination instead, there would be 36 million more miles driven on an average weekday. That would mean 20 million more metric tons of carbon emissions released every year, as well as particulate matter that increases the number of people suffering from asthma, emphysema, and other respiratory diseases.

By improving service and encouraging more people to take a train or bus instead of a car, implementing the 2025-2029 Capital Plan is an essential part of keeping the region healthy and meeting New York State’s ambitious goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Fewer cars on the road results in more than cleaner air and fewer greenhouse gas emissions. It also reduces traffic congestion, thereby improving travel time by car, taxi, and bus. The reduction of even a small percentage of cars on the road can make a big difference in the flow of traffic, particularly when roads and highways are especially congested, such as the Long Island Expressway, I-87, and Manhattan streets during rush hour.

While New York’s subway is a national leader with the service it provides for the resources it consumes, the aging technology that supports it lags behind newer transportation systems. Even though the 625 pounds of carbon per a megawatt hour from the system is more efficient the 696 pound average of fourteen U.S. transit systems, it remains behind the San Francisco BART and the Los Angeles Metro (each 513 lb/MWh) as well as the Boston T (528 lb/MWh). If New York reduced the carbon content of its electricity by around 20% to match San Francisco BART and Los Angeles Metro, it could save nearly 220,000,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from polluting our atmosphere.

The MTA aims to reduce all emissions from its own operations by 85% by 2040, helping New York State to achieve its goal of reducing carbon emissions in the state by 85% by 2050. The 2025-2029 Capital Plan will reduce the amount of carbon emissions and pollution produced by its own vehicles with the purchase of 500 zero emission buses and the installation of electric charging stations at bus depots, especially in neighborhoods with high rates of air pollution and asthma. Along with 430 electric buses still to be purchased via the 2020-2024 Capital Plan, this will bring the number of zero emission buses from only 16 today to 1,030. With implementation of the plan, electric buses will constitute 17% of the MTA’s bus fleet as they continue to replace buses that run on diesel, natural gas, and hybrid fuel sources.

A Virtuous Cycle of Better Service, Greater Prosperity, and a More Livable Region

Capital investment can help create a virtuous cycle in which better service leads to more transit ridership, less auto congestion, and greater economic growth that will in turn generate higher fare and tax revenue that can support continued upgrades in service. Improved health and quality of life in the region will help attract more people, business and visitors to the region, maintaining New York’s status as a vibrant global center of culture, learning, and innovation.

Without sufficient capital investment, transit ridership will almost certainly decline as riders flee a deteriorating system. Some of those ex-transit riders will forgo trips that they want to make, and some may be likely to leave the region altogether. Others will take a car instead, exacerbating existing traffic congestion and raising the costs of maintaining roads, highways, and bridges. Quality of life will decline for everyone, transit riders and non-transit riders alike, and could contribute to a vicious cycle of declining population and jobs, leading to less fare and tax revenue, and resulting in further declines in service.