Metropolitan Transportation Authority

20-Year Needs Assessment | Rebuild

Subway turnstiles wrapped in caution tape
Rebuild

Our future depends on a commitment to rebuild our aging system

The system is more than a century old and critical infrastructure is at risk of failure.

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Behind the scenes…

411 power substations

704 stations

6,540 subway cars

5,840 buses

2,229 railroad cars

1,907 miles of track

We must rebuild our system for the next hundred years

In some ways, the MTA system has never been stronger. Subway service is performing at its highest level in a decade. LIRR and Metro-North are at greater than 95% on-time performance. Ridership is recovering post-pandemic, and customer satisfaction is increasing.

Keeping our system running requires a comprehensive approach to rebuilding it

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Equity underpins our work

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Construction happening in a tunnel

Reconstruct

Our transportation system has served the region for more than 100 years. It is an old system with out-of-date infrastructure, and much of it is now in desperate need of replacement.

Over the next 20 years, we will be celebrating the 200th birthday of the LIRR, the 125th birthday of the subway system, the 125th birthday of Metro-North's Grand Central Terminal, and 100th birthday of MTA Bridges and Tunnels.

Now we must reconstruct some of our foundational assets or risk catastrophic failures and disruptions across the system.

Explore the Metro-North Case Study

Challenges

The system—and the need—is vast.

The scale of our infrastructure is enormous—and a significant portion needs to be rebuilt over the next 20 years. That is especially true of the system's "hidden infrastructure," despite its essential role in safe and reliable service. This includes the power substations that provide electricity to the tracks, the shops and yards where railcars can be safely stored and maintained, and the tunnels and structures supporting the tracks that keep the trains running safely.

Deteriorating structures

Multiple essential reconstruction projects of some of our most critical infrastructure are needed over the next 20 years to avoid catastrophic shutdowns.

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Aging power substations

We have a large network of substations across our system that are crucial to delivering power to keep our trains running. However, many of these substations have been around for decades and have major components that are at risk of failure.

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Outdated shops and yards

Shops and yards are where we perform maintenance and repairs for our trains and other equipment. These vital support facilities are essential for maintaining a safe and reliable fleet. However, many of these facilities are in extremely poor condition, with leaking roofs, inefficient work areas, poor heating and ventilation, and insufficient employee spaces.

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What we've done

Our 20-year plan

By making essential investments in our critical infrastructure, we can secure the foundation of our system and prepare it to deliver reliable, modern service for the coming generations of riders.

We have more to do. View the Appendices.

Rebuild critical, at-risk structures

  • We must reconstruct the deteriorating infrastructure that leads to Grand Central to ensure continued Metro-North service to Midtown Manhattan. This crucial work would be completed in phases over the next 20 years to address the Grand Central Train Shed, Park Avenue Viaduct, and Park Avenue Tunnel provide access to and from Grand Central Terminal and New York City's Central Business District in Midtown.
  • We must replace the deteriorating platforms at more than 19 Metro-North stations along the Harlem Line.
  • We must fix the LIRR Atlantic Avenue tunnel to keep Brooklyn service running.
  • We must rehabilitate nine LIRR viaducts, encompassing 341 individual spans.
  • We must rebuild parts of our bridges and tunnels that are at risk, including the lower span of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.
Explore the Third Track Case Study

Upgrade aging power substations

  • We must repair critically poor conditions at power substations across the system at an unprecedented pace. This includes upgrading nearly 180 NYCT substation locations to avoid subway slow-downs and the potential for extensive power outages.
  • We must replace major components of over 50 Metro-North substations and install nine new substations in areas lacking sufficient power to maintain reliability across our system.
  • We must completely replace or replace critical components at 72 LIRR substations.

Modernize shops and yards

  • We must reconstruct functionally obsolete shops including Livonia and 240th Street to ensure facilities are safe, comfortable, able to meet current operational needs, and are prepared for future demand.
  • We must renovate railcar and maintenance support shops to 21st century standards that can handle modern trains and support a modern workforce, which will allow us to service newer railcars and infrastructure with updated technology that our riders deserve.
Explore the Livonia Case Study
Construction happening in a tunnel

Renew

Since the first capital plan in 1982, we've made significant investments in the system—and it has made a difference. The graffiti-covered subway railcars are gone. Those trains could travel only 7,000 miles between failures; the railcars that replaced them (many of which are still in service) average 129,000 miles—and the newer ones can last more than 250,000 miles at their peak. Investment matters. And even more so, continuous investment matters; we have to continue replacing assets as they become outdated and beyond their useful life.

New York's future depends on keeping up with that investment. Aging assets demand increased maintenance attention, resulting in higher costs to keep them safe and operational and to avoid and more disruptive shutdowns for repairs. Today, we have assets across all categories that are in poor or marginal condition that we must address, including 21% of subway station components, 32% of Metro-North bridges, and 52% of LIRR substations.

We can't uphold our commitment to reliable service if critical components no longer function as intended.

Explore the B&T Case Study

Challenges

Every asset has its own lifecycle for replacement. Some assets may need replacing every 10 years, others every 20 years, and still others, every 100 years.

During their functional years, these assets fulfill their purpose. However, as they age, they become prone to age-related wear-and-tear or even outright failure. This moment is approaching for a significant percentage of the system over the next 20 years.

Aging subway railcars

  • Over the next 20 years, over 3,900 railcars will reach the end of their useful life and will require replacement. Nearly 1,500 railcars currently in operation are already past their 40-year limit.
  • Keeping up with railcar replacements is one of the most effective ways of ensuring reliable subway service. New railcars average over 200,000 miles between failures, making them more than 2.5 times as reliable as older "legacy" railcars. Nearly two-thirds of all August "hot car" incidents involving air conditioning breakdowns over the past three years, occurred in older railcars with underbody-mounted air units, compared to the newer ones cars with modern overhead AC units.

Necessary bus replacement

Each of our 5,840 buses gets replaced every 12 years. That means over the next 20 years, we will need to replace the entire fleet.

Deteriorating stations

With 704 subway and commuter rail stations, our transit network has more stations than any other subway or metro network in the world. Some of these stations are nearly 120 years old, and each station is made up of hundreds of components that need attention and are on different replacement cycles. The age and sheer size of our station footprint create a huge maintenance challenge.

Elevated line structure corrosion

Our exterior steel infrastructure needs regular painting. This is not for aesthetic purposes. The paint on our outdoor structures, like our 61 miles of elevated subway structures and several hundred railroad overpasses, protects the steel against corrosion by providing a barrier from water and other weather-related damage.

Suspension bridge preservation

The life of a suspension bridge is governed by the longevity of its main cables, which are the primary load-carrying elements for a suspension bridge and are extremely difficult and cost-prohibitive to replace.

Cable dehumidification is a proven technique used world-wide to minimize corrosion and preserve the remaining strength of main cables by reducing the amount of moisture in the cables.

What we've done

We are constantly renewing the many complex components of our system.

Our 20-year plan

By keeping up with our replacement needs, we can avoid the cycle of deterioration, breakdowns, and emergency action—and reap the benefits of safe, consistently reliable, and convenient service.

We have more to do. View the Appendices.

Replace aging fleets

We need to replace eight railcar types totaling over 5,000 railcars for NYCT, Metro-North, LIRR and purchase 9,000 buses over the next 20 years.

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Prolong the lifespan of our structures

  • We must complete painting all 61 miles of elevated steel subway structures and repairing thousands of priority structural defects that will help our structures last longer.
  • We must dehumidify the main cables of the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge and Throgs Neck Bridge to preserve their strength.
Explore the Painting Case Study

Upgrade stations

  • We must implement station repair projects quickly when deteriorated components or other needs are identified so that we expedite fixing our stations in a shorter timeframe and improve our customers' experiences.
  • We must enhance security by improving lighting, CCTV, and other station elements.
  • We must improve circulation within selected stations by adding stairs or reconfiguring station elements.
  • We must address degraded station electrical utility conditions and upgrading station lighting.
  • We must rehabilitate or replace aged, deteriorating station components, including platforms at 70 stations and 160 elevators throughout the LIRR and Metro-North systems.
Construction happening in a tunnel

Modernize

To reach our region's potential, we will need a transit system that can meet the needs of 21st century riders. We must modernize some of our outdated and deteriorating infrastructure to create a system that is more efficient, reliable, and easier to navigate. By making these foundational investments, we can prepare our network for its next century of service.

Challenges

Today we are using signal technology developed during the days when radio was considered cutting-edge, created decades before the invention of the internet. Some of our technology is so old that its components are no longer manufactured, forcing the MTA to painstakingly craft its own replacement parts. By modernizing the grossly outdated and wildly inefficient parts of our system, we can avoid breakdowns and support safer, more reliable service. Two particularly important systems we need to modernize are signals and communication technology.

Signals

The current signaling system on the majority of the subway, known as fixed-block signaling, is both safe and effective at directing trains along lines. It uses green, yellow, and red lights, much like road traffic signals, to direct operators on how fast they can operate trains relative to others. By now, however, this system is significantly outdated, with many parts of it dating back to the 1930s. The age of the signal infrastructure leads to all too many signal failures, a top cause of delays on the subway system, and it limits the number of trains we can run and our ability to track them precisely throughout the system.

We know the solution. Communications Based Train Control (CBTC) technology allows trains to move closer together, increasing throughput capacity and allowing service to recover from disruptions more quickly. Paired with advanced Automated Train Supervision (ATS) systems, CBTC also allows more accurate train movement monitoring and, therefore, more accurate customer information. But given the size and age of our system, it is a significant undertaking to execute.

Communication technology

Providing information about train arrivals, service changes, or other important messages has become a standard our customers expect. But currently, just over half of our stations can deliver this information effectively due to outdated systems.

Communication technology becomes obsolete faster than other assets due to rapid technological advancement and innovation. That means that while other assets have a typical lifespan of 25 to 50 years, communication assets tend to have shorter lifespan of 10 to 15 years.

Though each technology has different challenges and vulnerabilities, as well as compatibility requirements, updating them is essential. In addition to informing customers, this infrastructure also facilitates clear and timely communication between train operators, control centers, and station personnel. It is also critical in emergency response situations.

What we've done

New York City Transit


CBTC installation

  • Subway signal modernization has been fully completed on the L and 7 lines. Since the upgrades, they have become our highest performing lines, both consistently exceeding 90% on time performance.
  • Modernization is also completed on portions of the E F M R (Queens Boulevard West) and currently underway on the Culver F G, 8 Avenue A C E, and Crosstown G lines.
  • Plans are underway to award signal modernization projects on the Fulton A C, 6 Avenue B D F M, and 63 St F lines by the end of 2024.

Communication upgrades

  • We have been making advances in rehabilitating and upgrading communication assets across our subway system. Our 2020-2024 Capital Program included a 97% increase in funding for communications infrastructure over the previous capital program.
  • We are currently rolling out connection-oriented ethernet (COE) across the system. This will enable us to upgrade security and communications capabilities.

Our 20-year plan

We will embrace changes that improve service and reliability into the next century.

We have more to do. View the Appendices.

Modernize signals

  • We must modernize our signaling system across the MTA system. Updating signals is one of the most important things we can do to improve service reliability, reduce delays, and allow us to increase train service in the future if needed. For the subway system alone, this means improvements to 315 miles of signals.
  • We must expand modernized signaling from approximately 234 signal miles (already complete or underway) to 549 total signal miles, resulting in improved service for about 90% of riders.
  • We must upgrade the entirety of Metro-North's Harlem and Hudson lines to operate with next generation signal systems. This means replacing over 150 route miles of outdated signal system assets, installing next generation train supervision systems, and building a modernized Operations Control Center.
  • We must modernize approximately 50 miles of signaling and complete the installation of signal and communication systems to provide LIRR passengers with better and more timely information.

Update customer communication technology

  • We must upgrade our communication systems across our network so riders can plan their trips and their days with confidence, thanks to easy-to-read digital screens and audio announcements that are clear and easy to understand.
  • We must modernize customer communication systems so that all stations have public address systems and customer information screens that can broadcast clear and accurate information to all riders.
Explore the Public Address and Customer Information System Case Study