MTA Proposes $ 51.5 Billion Proposal to Upgrade Subway

Andy Byford, the MTA's Metro and Bus Manager, is delighted that the agency is proposing a $ 51.5 billion plan to upgrade a metro system with century-old signaling technology and a lack elevators for the disabled.

"This plan exceeds my craziest expectations in that it addresses the issue of waiver, check," said Byford at a press conference Monday. "We talked about making the system fully accessible by metro, check in. We talked about reimagining and transforming the bus service, check."

Six subway lines, including the Lexington Avenue line, would be resigned in order to operate more trains.

More than 1,900 new metro cars would be purchased and 2,000 buses replaced, a quarter of them by electric models.

Seventy other stations would have lifts. And the new subway of Second Avenue would be extended from 96th Street to 125th Street, linking it to the Metro-North Railroad stop.

"Frankly, we think it's a plan that sells and defends itself," said Pat Foye, chairman of the MTA.

But the MTA still has no money to pay for everything.

The agency is a long way ahead: $ 25 billion is expected thanks to new taxes, including charging drivers south of 61st Street in Manhattan for congestion charges.

Governor Cuomo has pledged another $ 3 billion and wants the city to pay the same amount.

And the MTA bets on more than 10 billion US dollars, including nearly a third for the Second Avenue metro.

The plan would also provide billions of dollars in suburban train projects, including the introduction of Metro-North trains to Penn Station, the addition of four Metro-North stations in the Bronx, and the completion of the Long Island Rail Link to Grand Central.

"It's a lot of money to spend in a short period of time and the MTA has not really shown that it can do it," said Ben Kabak, editor of Second Avenue Sagas. "But it's ambitious … and now the hardest part is asking for it."

The MTA has the highest construction costs of any transit agency in the world and consistently exceeded budgets and deadlines for major projects.

In announcing the plan, the MTA has not announced any union reforms likely to reduce costs. His construction manager said the agency was working on ways to reduce overruns, for example by improving planning to avoid changing designs in the middle of a project.