MTA presents 2025–29 capital plan: $65.4 billion core proposal, fare-gate upgrades and Staten Island projects highlighted

Melissa Broad, an MTA government communications official, and Sean Fitzpatrick, deputy chief of staff for MTA Construction & Development, presented an overview of the MTA's proposed 2025–29 capital plan to the January Burrow Board.

Fitzpatrick said the MTA's planning work aims to address the agency's state-of-good-repair backlog and to improve reliability and customer experience. He described the budget structure as a core Capital Program Review Board proposal for transit ("a $65,400,000,000 proposal") and a separate bridges-and-tunnels budget, funded by toll revenues, of roughly $3 billion.

The presentation highlighted several major elements. MTA proposed more than $1 billion to replace turnstiles with modern fare gates and emergency exit gates, with pilots planned this year and phased installs thereafter; the agency said that scope would cover about 150 stations, roughly one-third of the system's 493 stations, and would target stations that serve about 75% of riders. "There are 493" stations in the system, Fitzpatrick said, and the pilot and early rollout will focus on highest-ridership, highest-evading stations.

Fitzpatrick also said congestion pricing has unlocked a source of capital that "has unlocked our ability to proceed with $15,000,000,000 worth of capital projects" and described the plan's emphasis on replacing aging railcars, upgrading signals and investing in substations and maintenance facilities. He said MTA assessed roughly 6,000,000 individual assets systemwide to inform the five-year plan and cited post–Superstorm Sandy investments of more than $7 billion to improve coastal protections.

On Staten Island specifics, the presenters said the capital plan includes a roughly $350 million investment for the Staten Island Railway over the next five years and that bus investments and depot upgrades (including electric-bus charging) will also affect the borough. MTA highlighted projects such as ramp replacements on the Brooklyn side of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and a program to dehumidify suspension-bridge main cables to preserve cable life.

Board members asked technical and equity questions about fare-gate sensors, whether the gates would detect a second person, and whether additional agents or NYPD partnerships would remain part of enforcement. MTA said the gates will incorporate sensors and that station agents and NYPD partnerships remain integral to fare enforcement and customer service. Fitzpatrick described the technology-testing and vendor-pilot approach and said the agency would adjust software and hardware where necessary.

Fitzpatrick also discussed accessibility goals, noting plans to increase the number of accessible stations (targeting more than 50% accessible at plan end), and the agency's strategy to bundle contracts to speed delivery of multiple station accessibility projects at once.

What happens next: MTA said it will follow up with specific dollar estimates for local Staten Island investments and flagged several projects that are already in procurement or design. No formal board action on the capital plan was recorded during the meeting; the presentation closed with MTA offering to provide follow-up figures to board members.