MTA moving forward with planned capital projects in 2025
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Board has approved a series of capital projects that will make 2025 a transformative year for the transit system – including more reliable new subway cars, more efficient new Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) locomotives, station accessibility improvements and signal upgrades to the A and C lines in Brooklyn and Queens. The projects, many of which will be funded with revenues from congestion pricing, will reduce future maintenance costs across the system and give customers higher performing, more reliable transit infrastructure.
“We have an incredible capital program story going, delivering big projects on time and on budget,” said MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber. “The MTA in 2024 delivered 15 ADA stations and 36 more stations in construction and we have billions of dollars in new procurements to advance work like buses and railcars coming in 2025. We’re kicking this capital program into high gear — 2025 is going to be a big year.”
“We’re moving forward with transformative projects, including accessibility work at 10 stations, hundreds of modern rail cars and critical work supported funded by congestion pricing like modern signals and the Second Avenue Subway and we’re continuing to build better faster and cheaper thanks to innovative tools like design-build and bundling projects,” said MTA Construction & Development President Jamie Torres-Springer.
Modern rolling stock
The MTA is continuing to modernize its rolling stock by ordering 435 additional R211 subway cars and up to 44 new dual-mode LIRR locomotives. New York City Transit is ordering 355 closed-end cars and 80 open-gangway cars, bringing the total number of R211 cars ordered to 1,610. The new railcars will replace the R46s, which first entered service between 1975 and 1978.
MTA notes R211 cars are about five times more reliable than the R46s, traveling an average of 220,000 miles, 174,000 more than the R46s before requiring maintenance for a mechanical issue. The R211 features security cameras in every car, more accessible seating, brighter lights, clearer signage and 58-inch-wide door openings, which are eight inches wider than standard door openings on existing cars.
LIRR is exercising option three of a previously awarded contract to order up to 44 dual-mode locomotives to replace the existing LIRR passenger diesel locomotives, which MTA says are beyond their useful lives to keep service reliable. For 2024, the LIRR has achieved a higher year-to-date on-time performance of 95.7 percent, compared to the same time period in 2019, while running 40 percent more service (over 900 weekday trains). Additionally, the LIRR announced its best November in recorded history with an on-time performance of 96.2 percent and service delivery rate of 99.6 percent.
According to MTA, the new locomotives will provide more reliable service and are rated Tier IV compliant, slashing airborne pollutants by more than 85 percent. The project is supported in part by congestion pricing funding.
Accessibility upgrades at five subway stations
The MTA is continuing to complete Americans with Disability Act (ADA) accessibility projects, delivering more ADA stations in the past five years than in the previous 10 years combined. MTA Construction & Development has completed work at 15 stations this year and there are 36 subway stations currently under construction.
The MTA Board approved an award for a contract for ADA upgrades at five subway stations, including the Middletown Road 6 Station:
- Norwood Avenue J, Z
- Myrtle Avenue J, M, Z
- Avenue I, F
- Burnside Avenue 4
- Middletown Road 6
Congestion pricing funded projects moving forward
MTA Construction and Development has added Gates Avenue J, Z Station to an upcoming procurement for a package of ADA improvements at three stations. According to MTA, ADA Package 9 is among the first of the projects made possible by the implementation of congestion pricing to move forward into procurement. A request for qualifications (RFQ) will be issued by the end of the year to select a contractor. Construction is expected to begin in late 2026 on:
- Parsons Boulevard F
- Briarwood E, F
- Gates Avenue J, Z
The authority notes a separate package to make 42 St.–Bryant Park B, D, F, M, 7 Station Complex fully ADA accessible is also expected to be awarded by the end of the year. Congestion pricing will provide funding to make an additional 19 stations fully accessible.
Work to install modern signaling, Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC) on the Fulton St. line in Brooklyn and Liberty Avenue line in Queens on the A and C lines is moving forward into procurement. CBTC will provide more reliable and faster service to East New York, Bedford Stuyvesant and Ozone Park neighborhoods.
Requests for proposals (RFP) will be issued for contract 2 of Phase 2 of the Second Avenue Subway project by the end of this year, with a contract expected to be awarded in 2025. Phase 2 will extend Q train service from 96 St. north to 125 St. and then west on 125 St. to Park Avenue, approximately 1.5 miles in total.
MTA notes there will be two new stations at 106 St. and 116 St. on Second Avenue and a direct passenger connection with the existing 125 St. 4, 5, 6 subway station on the Lexington Avenue subway line. Phase 2 will also feature an entrance at Park Avenue to allow convenient transfers at Metro-North Railroad’s Harlem-125th St. Station.
