Recently Approved MTA Capital Plan to Focus on Transit Upgrades Between 2025 and 2029

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) $68 billion capital plan recently approved by the MTA board represents a “departure from past plans” since the majority of the funds will go towards upgrades to the subway, buses and commuter rails between 2025 and 2029. A total of $47.8 billion will go towards “keeping the city’s 120-year-old subway and its bus network functioning,” while the planned $2.75 billion investment to build the 14-mile Interborough Express light-rail to link Brooklyn and Queens along mostly existing freight tracks will be the only new project investment to majorly expand service. Funding of the capital plan includes a mix of $31.5 billion in new tax revenue generated by a modest raise in payroll taxes from 0.60% to 0.89% on businesses with more than $10 million in payroll in the MTA’s service area; $14 billion in federal government funding, dedicated funds from the state and city, and the issuing of new debt in the form of bonds by the MTA along with a rededication of funds into the capital plan from reduced costs elsewhere. Over the next five years, some of the major upgrades and projects to be funded include the construction of elevators at 60 more subway stations, 2,500 new buses, of which 500 will be electric models, as well as:

$10.9 billion on 1,500 new subway cars and 500 new Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad cars.
$9 billion to repair structurally at-risk bridges and tunnels for vehicles and rail.
$7.8 billion to update deteriorating subway and rail station platforms and infrastructure.
$7.1 billion to make more subway and rail stations accessible with new elevators and other upgrades.
$5.4 billion on new modern signal technology to run more frequent and reliable service on the subway.
$4 billion to upgrade the MTA’s power systems.

A more recent announcement in early June brought news of an expansion of cell service within the subway tunnels “along the northern half of the G train, between Court Square in Queens and Hoyt-Schermerhorn in Brooklyn,” which will link nine subway stations, and “4 and 5 lines traveling through the East River tunnel between Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn” as part of the MTA’s goal of cell connectivity in all tunnels by 2032. The project launched in 2022 is not being funded by taxpayers, instead London-based Boldyn Networks is privately funding the $600 installation of cell cables and equipment along 418 miles of underground track. Progress of work has been moving slowly, primarily due to the challenges of the firm “getting track access for their buildout, which we all know is tough in our subways” according to a reported statement by Jessica Matthew, a senior advisor for special projects at the MTA. Currently, the “only stretch of tunnel that has cell service is the Midtown shuttle between Grand Central and Times Square, which went live in September 2024.” As part of the contract agreement with the MTA, free wireless internet will also be expanded to 191 above-ground stations and to 21 Staten Island Rail stations. Similar to Boldyn’s approach in 2017 which brought cell service to 281 underground station platforms at a cost of roughly $300 million, the company “plans to monetize the infrastructure and pay for the project by leasing out fiber optic cables to network providers — having already partnered with Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile, collecting licensing fees and selling data about how users utilize its system,” according to reported details within contract documents. The expansion of cell service by the MTA follows in the footsteps of “other major cities such as Chicago and Washington, D.C. which provided cell service throughout their metro systems since 2015 and 2021, respectively.”

Source: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/transportation/mta-greenlights-68b-plan-modernize-mass-transit

Source: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/transportation/subway-cell-service-slated-upgrade-after-years-waiting