$27b to keep NYC rolling.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority passed a $27 billion budget last week with hopes that the federal and state government will help fund part of the financial plan that will maintain and make improvements to the system.

"We are unveiling a $25 billion program for the '05/'09 fiscal years. We want to keep the progress we've had up to now moving. Without this program, without this money, we just can't do it," Peter Kalikow, chairman of the MTA, predicted at a New York Building Congress breakfast forum September 23. "We think in the end the (state) legislature will understand without a vibrant, efficient, well run transit system the economic engine will run out and then the fire will go out. And we are back to where we were 30 years ago."

Through most of the 1960s and '70s the system received less than 30 percent of the funds it needed to sustain itself. The first five-year capital program was launched in 1982 in an effort to reverse a near-complete breakdown of the New York City public transportation system and over the next ten years, a program of sustained rescue and recovery work was implemented. More than $17 billion of the budget will go to just maintain what is already there, said Kalikow.

"I think we need to be thankful for where we are now, but we also need to remember you need to run hard to stand still," Kalikow said of the system that transports 2.8 billion riders a year. "If we don't invest $17 billion of our $25 billion program, the system will start to slide."

Critics say it's not the question of whether billions are need, it's a question of where is the money coming from.

However, Kalikow said the MTA is working with Washington to secure funding, but didn't disclose the dollar amount.

"We have been to Washington in concert with the FTA and they have given us assurances," Kalikow said. "It may surprise everybody by the end of the year that Washington has committed to their part to the pie."

The MTA began a planning effort under New York's Gov. George E. Pataki's Master Links program, initiated in 1996. MTA agencies are cooperating with New York City and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to move toward a unified regional transportation system that will link business centers, communities and airports with each other and the rest of the region.

This effort focused on several projects: to provide Long Island commuters with access to the east side of Manhattan via Grand Central Terminal; to improve subway services on the east side of Manhattan with the construction of a new service along Second Avenue; to provide Metro-North riders direct access to the west side of Manhattan via Penn Station; and to provide direct rail access to LaGuardia and JFK airports. Today the first stages of design for the LIRR access to Grand Central Terminal are underway.

The approved plan also provides for the Second Avenue Subway and access to LaGuardia Airport.