A state review board rejected the MTA’s nearly $ 32 billion capital plan, which includes a huge funding gap of nearly half its price tag, an agency spokesman confirmed.
The mammoth plan intended to maintain and upgrade the MTA’s aging infrastructure and add new projects over the next five years was shot down by the Capital Program Review Board late Thursday.
The denial comes just a week after the plan was approved by the MTA’s board, but not without raising some concern over gaping $ 15.2 billion hole.
“It was pretty widely expected that there would be a rejection,” said Bill Henderson, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA.
“There is a lot of things up in the air — the main thing being the funding,” he continued, calling the massive gap “unprecedented” in its size and scope. “That was definitely a concern to us.”
“It doesn’t make sense to have plan that you don’t know how to pay for.
Neither the MTA nor the CPRB would officially say why the plan was rejected.
The ambitious proposal includes purchasing a thousand new subway cars and 84 miles of new track, putting more countdown clocks in more stations and bringing the Second Avenue Subway to 125th Street.
The MTA also intends to improve commuter rail lines, purchase a new fleet of hybrid buses and upgrade the several bridges and tunnels it oversees.
Unveiled publicly last week, the capital plan lays out how the MTA intends to pay for some $ 17 billion in upgrades, but was vague when explaining how the Authority would cover the rest.
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