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Why the Second Ave. subway could be delayed—again

It's an ominous refrain, repeated endlessly in the same automated monotone: "Ladies and gentlemen, we are delayed because of train traffic ahead of us."

Every New Yorker who rides the subway to work each day—all 6 million, on the busiest days—has heard that message echoed over loudspeakers when a train car comes to an unexpected halt. What most commuters don't realize is that those delays are tied to a contentious political fight playing out over the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's five-year capital budget plan, which will fund critical improvements and repairs to the city's sprawling transit system.

Right now, the MTA is struggling to find funding sources for about half of that $32 billion plan. The agency could be forced to refund money to contractors on expansion projects like the East Side access project—which will connect the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central Terminal—if the budget debate isn't resolved 18 months from now, MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast said at a board meeting Wednesday.

"A year or two, we're OK," Mr. Prendergast said. "But as you start to get down that path, we get to the point where we don't have that money, we can't award design contracts, we can't award construction projects."
Another major project at risk is the new subway line that will run along Second Avenue, Mr. Prendergast said.

"Could we start the next phase of the Second Avenue subway? That would be one that would be up on the table," he said.

But Mr. Prendergast said the agency has never found itself in that position before, and he doesn't expect it will happen this time around.
"New York gets the money it needs to get the MTA to keep running," he said. Probably more so than any other entity in the United States."

Experts say the city's aging trains and buses, which already lag far behind other global metropolises, will deteriorate considerably if the transit authority is unable to digitize a century-old subway signaling system, replace miles of subway tracks and cars and fix tunnel lighting, among many critical repairs.

"We will start sliding backwards," said Richard Barone, director of transportation programs for the Regional Plan Association, an independent civic group that shapes transit policy across the tri-state area. "Stations will be looking worse. We won't have the money to maintain the track infrastructure to where it should be, and therefore it will result in greater delays. If we don't upgrade our signaling system, well, that's really bad because these are signals that are in some cases over 80 years old."

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio also weighed in on the funding crisis in Albany on Wednesday, calling MTA's capital plan "woefully underfunded." The mayor criticized Gov. Andrew Cuomo's current contribution of $750 million toward the budget, saying it does not begin to address the transit authority's critical needs.

"We cannot ask riders alone to sustain the system with fare increases," Mr. de Blasio said.

Politicians and policymakers are divided over how to come up with the remaining $15 billion needed to fund the plan. Mr. Cuomo, who controls the MTA, has described it as "bloated," which implies that he will expect significant cuts in order for it to pass muster in the Legislature this summer. But the consensus among transportation experts is that the price tag actually isn't high enough to cover the massive amount of work that needs to be done.

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