The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is North America's largest
transportation network, serving a population of 15.1 million people in
the 5,000-square-mile area fanning out from New York City through Long
Island, southeastern New York State, and Connecticut.
It drives the New York regional economy by opening up countless job
opportunities for millions – jobs that are miles from home are easy to
get to with our subways, buses, and commuter trains. And after work, the
network enables them to get to leisure activities: music, theater,
cultural events, sports, and shopping more varied than anywhere in the
country.
The MTA comprises six agencies: MTA New York City Transit, MTA Bus
Company, MTA Long Island Rail Road, MTA Metro-North Railroad, MTA
Bridges and Tunnels, and MTA Capital Construction. The administrative
arm is MTA Headquarters, located at 2 Broadway in Manhattan.
The MTA network has the nation’s largest bus fleet and more subway and commuter rail cars than all other U.S. transit systems combined. It provides over 2.6 billion trips each year, accounting for about one-third of the nation’s mass transit users and two-thirds of its commuter rail passengers. MTA Bridges and Tunnels, which recorded a record 310 million crossings in 2017, carries more vehicles than any other bridge and tunnel authority in the nation.
The MTA’s provision of safe, clean, efficient public transportation is the lifeblood of the New York City area, one of the world’s major economic hubs. It opens up employment opportunities for millions of area residents, linking them to jobs miles from their homes. It revives old neighborhoods and gives rise to new business corridors. It links millions of residents and visitors to cultural, educational, retail, and civic centers across the region.
Many additional benefits flow from the MTA transit network. While nearly 85 percent of the nation's workers drive to their jobs, four-fifths of all rush-hour commuters to New York City's central business districts use transit, most operated by the MTA, thus reducing automobile congestion and its associated problems. By using MTA transit, New Yorkers avoid an estimated 17 million metric tons of greenhouse gases (GHG) annually, while emitting only 2 million metric tons. This makes the MTA arguably the greatest single source of GHG avoidance in the U.S. and has made New York the nation’s most carbon-efficient state.
In short, the combined benefits of the MTA network help ensure New York's place as a world center of finance, commerce, culture, an education. The city ranks near the top of numerous surveys for business and livability because it has, as Fortune magazine has written, "what every city desires. A workable mass transit system."
To restore, improve, and expand this irreplaceable public asset, the MTA has committed some $117.8 billion in capital program funding between 1982 and 2017. This includes the major restoration-resiliency projects stemming from Superstorm Sandy in 2012, as well as the network’s largest expansions in over six decades. The latter include the Second Avenue Subway, Phases 1 and 2; the extension of the 7 Line to the Javits Convention Center; LIRR’s East Side Access to Grand Central Terminal; and the expansion of the LIRR Main Line.
As the MTA continues to improve and expand under its $30 billion 2015-2019 Capital Program, it is accelerating critical improvements to its century-old subway system under the Subway Action Plan, announced in July 2017, which aims at both immediate performance gains and a thoroughly modernized subway system to serve New York in the 21st century.
A public-benefit corporation chartered by the New York State Legislature in 1965, the MTA is governed by a 17-member Board. Members are nominated by the Governor, with four recommended by New York City's mayor and one each by the county executives of Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Dutchess, Orange, Rockland, and Putnam counties. (Members representing the latter four cast one collective vote.) All Board members are confirmed by the New York State Senate.
MTA Totals at a Glance
Financial data from MTA 2018 Adopted Budget, Feb. 2018. Statistical data based on final estimate for year ending Dec. 31, 2017. Employees based on authorized positions.
2 Broadway
New York, NY, US , 10004
