New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority should recraft its business model, a commission appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a
The 24-member Transportation Reinvention Commission, which released its 90-page document on Tuesday night, called for a "new MTA" that gets the right work done more quickly and less expensively, and is "more efficient, transparent and accountable to the public."
Other key strategies among the seven it recommended included accelerating and sustaining core capital investment; creating a "21st century" customer experience; expand existing system capacity; pursue flexible service alternatives; forge local, state and federal partnerships in planning and economic development; and have a reliable long-term funding plan with dedicated revenues and contributions from all who benefit from the authority's services.
"New York will never have a world-class transit system unless the MTA reinvents itself and the public invests in it," said commission co-chairman and former federal transportation secretary Ray LaHood. Former Federal Aviation Administration chief Jane Garvey also co-chaired the panel. Other members included academic and business leaders as well as Gene Russianoff, senior attorney for the Straphangers Campaign subway ridership lobbying group.
The commission supports the payroll mobility tax and opposes raids on so-called lockbox transit accounts, which New York State has done for a couple of years to balance its general fund. "This further adds to the volatility of MTA's revenue base," the report said. Many commissioners cited the benefits of bus rapid transit service to dense corridors,
The MTA is one of the largest municipal issuers with roughly $34.4 billion of debt. The authority's proposed $32 billion capital program for 2015 to 2019 is subject to a review by a state board that earlier in the fall rejected the plan, which has a $15.2 billion funding gap.
Authority officials maintain that the MTA is a $1 trillion asset for the New York region, making the scale of the capital program necessary. In that context, they say, a $30 billion capital program is merely 3% of the asset value, spread over five years.
"Some of the commission's recommendations challenge the MTA to perform better, and some challenge the entire New York region to contribute to the improvement of our transportation network," said MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast.
The MTA has scheduled a series of public hearings for December throughout the region related to its fare and toll hikes.
The commission called on the MTA to expand the use of design-build, public-private partnerships and other novel approaches across several projects. "These options, while not a panacea, provide the opportunity to transfer risk and optimize the expertise of the private sector to expedite project implementation and reduce costs," said the report.
The panel also urged a long-term comprehensive funding plan that considers both operating and capital needs. "The MTA must embrace a more entrepreneurial approach to revenue generation through optimization of all authority assets such as real estate and advertising while accelerating efforts to reduce costs and enhance public understanding of its budget," the report said.
According to the commission, the MTA must grasp forces more subtle than climate change embodied by Hurricane Sandy, "yet equally far-reaching in its impact." They include population and demographic shifts such as the growth in millennials and the aging of baby boomers, and the consequent ridership shifts. "[They] threaten to swamp America's largest transit system and stall economic growth and quality of life for the region," the report said.
Underscoring this growth is the MTA's recent record ridership, changing travel patterns, around-the-clock customer expectations, and the prospect of up to 2 million additional people projected to live in the region by 2040.
