Public transit advocates gathered in Pershing Sq., near Grand Central Terminal, on Feb. 2, 2025, demanding Albany leaders completely fund the $68 billion slate of vital capital upgrades.
Image by Gabriele Holtermann
A coalition of transit advocates, riders and elected officers gathered Sunday near Grand Central Terminal to demand that Gov. Kathy Hochul ensure the MTA capital program for transit enhancements is funded throughout the new state funds.
On Jan. 21, Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled her $252 billion funds for the 2026 fiscal yr—the most important in state historic previous. Nonetheless, the governor has however to go looking out $33 billion in additional funding for the MTA’s 2025-2029 capital plan — or a minimal of $2.2 billion in new annual recurring earnings to secure the plan’s future.
Even with congestion pricing tolls trickling in, the MTA faces fundamental financial challenges in holding certainly one of many world’s oldest and busiest public transit methods, which contains 472 stations on 25 routes, spreading alongside 665 miles of observe, rolling for over six million every day transit riders. The MTA has to modernize the subway system’s getting previous infrastructure attributable to years of disinvestment.
Updates embrace new alerts on the A, J, N, Q, R, S, W, and Z subway traces, accessibility upgrades at 60 subway stations, altering 2,000 outdated apply automobiles from the ’70s and ’80s, and renewing the nearly 100-year-old development holding up Grand Central Terminal, which is on the verge of collapsing.
Public transit advocates gathered in Pershing Sq., near Grand Central Terminal, on Feb. 2, 2025, demanding Albany leaders completely fund the $68 billion slate of vital capital upgrades.Image by Gabriele Holtermann
Danny Pearlstein, the Riders Alliance’s protection and communications director, recognized that the MTA Capital program addressed a very long time of deferred maintenance.
“Albany has heard the governor’s executive budget, which at $252 billion so far, does not include funding for the MTA capital program, and experts have estimated that the program needs at least $2.2 billion in new recurring revenue in order to meet even this baseline level of needs,” Pearlstein acknowledged. “There’s been ample analysis of all of the myriad ways that the capital programs could be paid for, but we have the money, and we can afford it.”
Advocates recognized that the capital plan would moreover positively have an effect on the state’s monetary system on account of new buses and subway automobiles are inbuilt factories in upstate New York, providing jobs for New Yorkers.
Danny Pearlstein of the Riders’ Alliance speaks at a rally with public transit advocates in Manhattan on Feb. 2, 2025.Image by Gabriele Holtermann
Rachael Fauss, senior protection advisor for Reinvent Albany, generally known as the MTA Capital Program a “win-win” for New York State, producing earnings for the state.
“There is no better economic development program than funding the NTAS infrastructure. The 33 billion that is needed to fund this plan go directly to jobs across the entire state of New York,” Fauss acknowledged. “The billions of dollars that will fund the next capital plan will go back into New Yorkers pockets.”
State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal (D-Manhattan) addressed his colleagues throughout the legislature who reside open air New York Metropolis and have been “clutching their pearls” on the thought of funding the MTA.
“I say to them, your economy is dependent on a fully functioning mass transit system In New York City,” acknowledged Hoylman-Sigal, who could be working for Manhattan borough president. “This is about the economic engine for the entire region, and it is so important and incumbent on the legislature and our governor to make sure that we fill that $33 billion void.”
Assembly Member Tony Simone (D-Manhattan) acknowledged New York Metropolis’s public transit system must be “second to none,” investing further in public transportation in “transportation deserts” so working New Yorkers wouldn’t should rely on their automobiles.
Assembly Member Tony Simone speaks at a rally with public transit advocates on Feb. 2, 2025.Image by Gabriele Holtermann
“A nurse should be able to get on a bus from the end of Queens [and travel] in a rapid manner to the other end of the five boroughs,” Simone acknowledged. “We spend billions of dollars and waste so much money on so many other things. We should have the best transit system in the world.”
Advocates moreover recognized the MTA’s Capital Plan would assure subway accessibility as promised throughout the MTA’s historic Folks with Disabilities Act settlement, which states {that a} minimal of 345 subway stations have to be ADA-accessible by 2055. Presently, solely one-quarter of New York Metropolis’s 472 subway stations are completely wheelchair-accessible -and the fewest are in low-income areas.
Justin Wood, director of protection for New York Attorneys for the Public Curiosity, acknowledged the dearth of accessible subway stations was a shameful statistic for a worldwide metropolis transit system in 2025.
“Too often, people with limited mobility, or people with children, or people who need to haul things on the subway, need to meticulously plan every trip, budget substantial extra travel time, which can be exacerbated by general service problems and broken elevators,” Woods acknowledged.
Assemblymember Harvey Epstein (D-Manhattan) and NY Senator Jabari Brisport (D-Brooklyn) echoed Wood’s sentiment.
Public transit advocates gathered in Pershing Sq., near Grand Central Terminal, on Feb. 2, 2025, demanding Albany leaders completely fund the $68 billion slate of vital capital upgrades.Image by Gabriele Holtermann
Epstein acknowledged a very funded public transportation system would provide “transit equity.”
“I know this is such a critical time. We’re in the middle of a budget conversation, and we need to ensure that all elevators at every station across the city are accessible for all of us. How many times I talk to a constituent who says, ‘I can’t get on the subway because I don’t have accessibility,’” Epstein acknowledged.
Brisport impressed the group to take care of up the “fight” for public transportation funding.
“We have a budget now. We have a multi-billion dollar hole to fix. We deserve the best trains. We deserve elevators. We need quick service. We need all of it,” Brisport acknowledged.
