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MTA warns of delays to crucial transit repairs due to lawmakers' veto of construction plan
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Dec 30, 2024
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Spencer Platt/Getty Images
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Dec 30, 2024
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The MTA may be forced to delay crucial subway maintenance due to state lawmakers vetoing its proposed construction plan that was slated to launch Jan. 1, the agency’s Chair Janno Lieber wrote in a letter on Monday.
Lieber’s letter to Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said he needs the two lawmakers to sign off on its $65 billion capital plan by New Year’s Day or else track repair projects and the agency’s order of new train cars would be stalled.
The two lawmakers rejected the MTA’s proposed plan last week, saying they wouldn’t approve it because more than half of the money needed to fund it had not yet been identified. The plan intended to replace aging infrastructure in order to keep the city’s mass transit system from falling apart.
Heastie and Stewart-Cousins hold two of the four seats on a board required by law to sign off on the MTA’s construction plan every five years.
Lieber's letter said the lawmakers’ veto was the product of an “almost insurmountable Catch-22 scenario” that requires the agency to submit a construction plan whether or not lawmakers have identified a funding source.
“We acknowledge and share your concern that the 2025-29 Plan is not fully funded at present,” the letter said. “Funding uncertainty at the outset makes MTA projects difficult to plan for and award and could have a cascading effect into later years. However, an approved plan immediately unlocks access to resources that keep MTA projects on target and minimizes the cost of delays.”
Lieber asked Heastie and Stewart-Cousins to withdraw their veto.
“Upon approval, the MTA can advance design and development for a wide range of projects, enabling quicker implementation once full funding is made available,” the letter said. “In the subway system alone, that includes power upgrades at 47 substations and 16 circuit breaker houses, structural repairs on more than 10 lines, painting and repairing more than 20 miles of elevated structures, modernizing signals on the A line, replacing elevators or escalators at 13 stations, 3 station renewals, and ADA improvements at 17 stations.”
Mike Murphy, a spokesperson for Stewart-Cousins, said he was skeptical the veto would actually have an impact on the MTA’s operations.
"We are reviewing the letter. But I think it is absurd to say this rejection will result in the delaying of projects when we all know there are projects from the last capital plan that haven’t even started yet,” Murphy said in an email. “We look forward to continuing the conversation with all the stakeholders in order to advance a fully funded Capital Program that addresses the vital transportation needs of the MTA network, which are critical to the State’s and region’s economic well-being."
If the state lawmakers refuse to approve the MTA’s plan by Friday, the agency will have to go back to the drawing board and submit a new one.
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new york state
Politics
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Stephen Nessen
Stephen Nessen covers transportation. Since 2008 he has reported on everything from Occupy Wall Street, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, Hurricane Sandy, to Trump’s campaign for president. His transportation reporting has taken him everywhere from the MTA’s secret Rail Control Center to the gleaming subways of Seoul. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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