MTA Capital Plan Calls for $4.5B in Pricing Revenues

The MTA released a five-year, $29.5 billion capital plan today. As expected, the agency’s course relies heavily on congestion pricing, to the tune of $4.5 billion in revenue.

Highlights of the three-tiered plan:

• Tier 1 ($20 billion) includes 590 new subway cars, 2,976 buses, 440 commuter rail cars, 44 subway station rehabilitations, and system-wide shop, yard and signal upgrades
• Tier 2 ($26.3 billion) completes current projects: East Side Access, the first phase of Second Avenue Subway, Fulton Street Transit Center and the South Ferry subway station
• Tier 3 ($29.5 billion): Communications-based Train Control, Second Avenue Subway Next Phase, Penn Station Access, Jamaica capacity improvements, No. 7 Line fleet expansion, capacity planning studies and sustainability investments

The plan includes $767 million in congestion pricing related transit expansions, among them:

• 12 new bus routes in Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx
• Increased service on 48 bus routes in Staten Island, Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx
• 309 new buses
• Increased service on the 1, E, F
• Longer trains on the C

MTA exec Lee Sander made no bones about the plan’s reliance on pricing, as The Real Estate reports:

The message from the state agency was clear: If the Legislature does not approve congestion pricing, the MTA will have to substantially scale back its ambitions.

“Congestion pricing is absolutely critical to funding this plan, but more important, to provide an ongoing revenue stream,” MTA executive director Lee Sander said at the agency’s board meeting.

TRE calls the plan “an apparent effort to bolster political support for congestion pricing,” a theme likely to be repeated as the March 31 federal funding deadline nears. 

The full text of the MTA press release is here. A PowerPoint presentation is also available on the MTA web site.