Ambitious capital plan of New York’s MTA is now back on track thanks to federal relief

Written by RT&S Staff
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MTA

With federal relief on the way, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority is firing up its $51.5 billion capital plan.

The agency wants to sell bonds backed by revenue from taxes to financially support the 2020-2024 capital plan.

The MTA will get $6.5 billion in federal assistance to help the agency recover from the global pandemic that has destroyed ridership numbers over the last year. In total, the MTA has taken in $14.5 billion in aid due to COVID-19. The money will help fund some big infrastructure projects, including an upgrade of train signals.

As of March 2, the MTA had accumulated just over $48 billion in outstanding debt and the bond selling should help the agency pull out of the financial crisis. Internet sales tax revenue and mansion tax receipts were originally going to provide $10 billion for the capital plan. That revenue will assist in the bond selling.

What MTA CEO Patrick Foye wants to avoid is a repeat of what happened in the 1970s and ’80s, when the subway network was in terrible shape. Foye says the agency remains committed to bringing the 117-year-old subway system into the 21st century.

The MTA borrowed $2.9 billion in 2020 through the Federal Reserve’s Municipal Liquidity Facility to take care of future budget deficits in 2021 and 2022, but that money might not be used thanks to the dose of federal relief.

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