"The MTA is facing its greatest challenge in decades," says a report from state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli
Despite the many plans in place to get the MTA back on track, problems continue to mound for the agency. New York state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has released his annual report on the MTA's financial outlook, and let's just say, it's not good.
"The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which operates the regional transportation system in the New York City metropolitan area, is facing its greatest challenge in decades," says the 26-page report (PDF!). It goes on to highlight that conditions on subway, bus, and commuter rail lines continue to deteriorate, forcing an increasing amount of riders to abandon the services in search of more reliable alternatives.
Last July, MTA chairman Joe Jhota unveiled an $836 million action plan to fix the ailing subway, however, there hasn't been significant improvement in the days since. Annual subway ridership has declined for two consecutive years, weekday on-time performance for the subway reached its lowest point last year since 1991, and the average number of miles that a subway car travels before breaking down has drastically decreased from 178,000 miles in 2005 to 121,000 miles in 2017. Subway and bus ridership in 2019 is projected to be 236 million rides lower than the MTA projected three years ago, which could result in a cumulative revenue loss of $822 million between 2016 and 2019, says the report. Despite all of this, the MTA still plans to increase fares by four percent in 2019 and then by another four percent in 2021.
Yet, doing so won't save the cash-strapped agency from its financial woes: DiNapoli notes that New York City Transit has proposed a ten-year initiative to modernize the subway, which could cost as much as $40 billion, but has failed to identify funding. What's even worse, the agency has poorly executed several of its prior capital programs.
"During the past three five-year capital programs,...the MTA committed less than 80 percent of the resources in each five-year period. The 2005-2009 capital program was just 83 percent completed 13 years after its start date," states the report. The impact of the $15 billion funding gap for the 2015-2019 capital program, as well as those of previous capital programs, could put an even heavier burden on the MTA's operating budget.
So what does this mean? In short, the MTA's debt service is expected to reach $3.3 billion by 2022, which signifies an increase of 26 percent in four years. This debt service will consume nearly 19 percent of the agency's total revenue and 36.5 percent of fare and toll revenue, and outstanding debt could reach a staggering $42 billion, which doesn't even take into the account the impact of the 2020-2024 capital program.
"We know these issues and the struggles riders are facing well—it's why the MTA has new leadership, dramatic modernization plans, short-term blueprints for improving service, aggressive cost-containment initiatives and why we've been pleading for sustainable, reliable sources of funding," said MTA spokesperson Jon Weinstein. "These issue are well documented and it's exactly why we're focused on solutions, which is all we're focused on every minute of every day."
Catch the report in its entirety here.
- Financial Outlook for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority [Office of the NYS Comptroller]
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