MTA plans 'substantial investment' in LIRR train cars amid funding uncertainty

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority's next five-year Capital Program, set to be released this month, will include plans to "dramatically increase" spending on new Long Island Rail Road train cars and to "expand and upgrade" the LIRR's branches, the head of the MTA said Thursday.

What's less clear, MTA chairman and CEO Janno Lieber said, is how the transit authority will fund the spending plan, which a state comptroller's report estimates could cost up to $92 billion.

At a roundtable discussion with reporters at the LIRR's Jamaica headquarters, Lieber shared new details of the forthcoming capital budget, which will fund major infrastructure investments from 2025-2029. The MTA is required by law to submit its plan to the state for approval by Oct. 1.

While not releasing specifics of the proposal, Lieber said the MTA is planning a "substantial investment" in rail cars that would ensure the LIRR no longer has to resort to using 40-year-old trains. 

"We're trying to get to the point where that will no longer be necessary," Lieber said of the continued use of about 100 M3 rail cars built in the mid-1980s. "I'm not going to talk about numbers, but we are committed to using this Capital Program to dramatically increase investment in rail cars." 

Asked about other Long Island priorities in the forthcoming plan, including the potential electrification of the Port Jefferson branch, Lieber said the MTA wants to continue to "expand and upgrade the branches" of the LIRR. 

Railroad president Robert Free said a "big focus" of the spending plan will be maintaining existing infrastructure, power systems, signals and aging bridges and tunnels.

The proposed plan, Lieber said, will "come out in the next couple weeks," after which state officials will have to figure out how to pay for it. Previous capital budgets have been funded by "little bits of lots of different taxes ... and fees," but the new plan will probably require "new funding sources," Lieber said. 

A report this week by the state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli projected that the plan could range in cost from $57.8 billion to $92.2 billion.

At around $55 billion, the MTA's current 2020-2024 Capital Program was its largest ever. About $15 billion of the plan remains unfunded, after Gov. Kathy Hochul in June nixed the MTA's congestion pricing plan, which would have generated new toll revenue that would have been dedicated to transit infrastructure spending.

Hochul has suggested that the congestion pricing plan could be revived, but Lieber said Thursday the MTA's forthcoming Capital Program "will probably not" rely on revenue from the new tolls.

The report from DiNapoli's office predicts that the MTA should count on getting up to $29 billion in state aid for the new plan, up to $14 billion from the federal government, and up to $4 billion from New York City, totaling about $47 billion. To fund the rest, the MTA may have to increase debt levels, which could put more pressure on the transit authority to raise fares, according to the report.

Lieber said the MTA prefers the needed revenue "not come from increases in fares or other impacts to the customer."

In a statement, DiNapoli said "the choices that the MTA and the state make in the coming months will determine the future of the transportation system for years to come."

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.