Gov. Kathy Hochul rode the A practice within the Rockaways on Might 19, 2025.
Picture by Susan Watts/Workplace of Governor Kathy Hochul
For too lengthy, our transit system was starved of funding. Ageing subway automobiles, dilapidated indicators, and a scarcity of primary upkeep and restore plunged a system that was as soon as the envy of the world into disaster. All of us bear in mind the so-called “summer season of hell” — overcrowded platforms, fixed delays, and a degree of dysfunction that made it tougher for thousands and thousands of New Yorkers to get the place they wanted to go.
These days are over.
As your Governor, I’ve made it my mission to show the web page, restore confidence in public transit, and make long-overdue investments to carry the MTA into the twenty first century.
This spring, I secured historic funding for the MTA’s Capital Plan, an achievable and forward-looking blueprint that can enhance security, reliability, and accessibility for many years to return.
The bread and butter of our plan is modernization. The subway is 120 years outdated, and far of its core infrastructure is overdue for restore. There are subway strains that also depend on outdated, unreliable indicators put in when FDR was President. This plan contains over $5 billion to interchange getting older indicators with new, trendy expertise on eight subway strains, from the A in Far Rockaway to the N and W in Astoria. These investments, together with upgrades to tracks and energy programs, will scale back delays and transfer trains sooner and extra reliably.
We’re additionally making a generational funding in our subway fleet. Everybody is aware of the dreaded feeling of boarding an getting older subway automotive – dim lights, much less dependable air-conditioning, and a worse journey. A few of these automobiles date again to the Mario Cuomo period – they usually’ve earned their retirement. That’s why we’re investing in 1,500 new subway automobiles, together with extra of the favored R211 fashions, with options like wider doorways, built-in safety cameras, and higher efficiency throughout the board.
However trendy transit isn’t nearly subways. Greater than two million New Yorkers depend on bus service to get round, very true in working class communities the place subway entry could also be restricted. This plan will make our fleet cleaner and greener than ever, with 500 new electrical buses hitting the street.
Accessibility is one other prime precedence. For too lengthy, our subway system has been out of attain for too many New Yorkers –folks with disabilities, dad and mom with strollers, caregivers, and numerous others. In recent times, we’ve made nice progress, with over 150 accessible stations. And now, we’re going even additional: this capital plan contains funding to improve not less than 60 extra stations with new elevators and different accessibility enhancements. When this plan is full, over half of all stations – serving 70% of all riders – will probably be absolutely accessible.
We’re doing greater than enhancing current infrastructure. For the primary time in almost 50 years, New York will increase its transit system outdoors Manhattan by constructing the Interborough Categorical, or IBX. Operating from Sundown Park to Jackson Heights, the IBX will reduce commute instances for as much as 115,000 day by day riders through the use of current freight rail strains to attach Brooklyn and Queens, saving some commuters as much as 40 minutes every means. I’ve directed the MTA to maneuver this venture ahead with urgency, as a result of outer borough New Yorkers deserve sooner, extra dependable transit.
And let me be clear: security stays our prime precedence.
We’ve made actual progress driving down subway crime to its lowest degree in a long time, and we’re constructing on that momentum.This plan makes report investments in subway security and in stemming the tide on fare evasion. Quickly, there will probably be trendy fare gates at over 150 subway stations, making it simpler for paying clients to enter and exit the system whereas deterring fare evasion. This can complement the progress we’ve already made in direction of deterring criminals and making riders really feel secure by putting in cameras on each subway automotive and deploying LED lights to brighten platforms. I would like clients to really feel valued and appreciated.
When transit thrives, New York Metropolis thrives. We’ve seen the implications of underinvesting in our transit system – delays, dysfunction, and a summer season of hell. I cannot let New York return. We proposed essentially the most bold transit enchancment plan in historical past and we acquired it performed.
