There will be no new cars and buses: the MTA has curtailed projects to repair urban transport

More than $16 billion worth of work to modernize and maintain New York City's transportation system will be halted. Gov. Kathy Hochul has waived congestion fees for downtown Manhattan, says Gothamist.

Hochul suspended her drive-in fee program for downtown Manhattan earlier this month.

Officials are temporarily canceling the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) capital spending plan. The transport company, according to plan, was going to carry out modernization aging Metro, buses and suburban railways.

The entry fee was planned to be introduced on June 30.

What won't be done

MTA Executive Director Tim Mulligan said the lack of revenue from tolling Manhattan has forced the agency to prioritize maintaining the system. The company has delayed modernization projects totaling $16,5 billion. This included the purchase of new subway cars and 250 new electric buses at a cost of $1,5 billion.

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Work to make 23 train stations accessible to passengers with disabilities will be delayed, according to the MTA. And work to extend the Second Avenue subway to East Harlem will not move forward, company officials said last week.

The currently stalled Second Avenue subway project to extend the Q Line to East Harlem is backed by a $3,4 billion federal grant. The MTA previously planned to raise approximately $5 billion more from Manhattan congestion fees. Officials have said the $2 billion in federal money cannot be made available without the MTA funding its share, but company Chairman Janno Lieber has assured that the grant will not disappear.

“We do not intend to relinquish this grant and advise that we need some time to advance the work,” Lieber said.

Upgrades to lines A, B, CD, F and M will be delayed.

The governor's decision derailed the MTA's current capital improvement plan for construction projects across the system. When the plan was first introduced in 2019, former MTA Chairman Pat Foy called it “historic” and “transformational.” He promised the plan would provide passengers with a “more reliable and efficient service.”

Cuts and losses

The congestion fee was designed to fund $15 billion in upgrades.

This represents about 30% of the total cost of the five-year plan. On June 26, officials stressed that suspending the program would cost the MTA even more because the agency would have to defer federal grants that depend on local funding.

The government group Reinvent Albany estimated that Hochul's decision, among other things, put at risk 100 jobs in the state associated with MTA projects.

Earlier this month, the transport company announced that it had already issued a stop order to move utility lines for the project and would delay awarding a contract to dig a tunnel for the expansion.

In recent weeks, Hochul and state lawmakers have said they are exploring other funding sources to fill the MTA's budget gap. The annual session of the state Legislature ended without concrete proposals.

The transit authority is expected to move many projects into the next four-year capital plan.

The governor explained her decision. She said a $15 base fare for drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street would impose an undue economic burden on them. Such a fee would jeopardize the city's recovery from the pandemic. Hochul said she needs time to work with the state Legislature to figure out a new source of revenue for the MTA.

Speaking on CNBC over the weekend, the official noted that "$15 is not quite the right price."

“I am the biggest supporter of the New York subway,” Hochul concluded.