Metropolitan Transportation Authority

  • MTA subways, buses, and railroads move 2.3 billion New Yorkers a year, about one in every three users of mass transit in the United States and two-thirds of the nation's rail riders.
  • MTA bridges and tunnels carry nearly 300 million vehicles annually — more than any bridge and tunnel authority in the nation.
  • This vast transportation network — North America's largest — serves a population of 14.4 million people in the 5,000-square-mile area fanning out from New York City through Long Island, southeastern New York State, and Connecticut.

    • Who Are We?

    The MTA network links the diverse parts of New York, enabling residents and visitors to get where they want to go swiftly and at reasonable cost. MTA services offer the region efficient, environmentally sound travel alternatives to gridlocked streets and highways. And the mobility provided by the MTA helps ensure New York's place as a world center of finance, commerce, culture, and entertainment.

    While nearly 85% of the nation's workers need automobiles to get to their jobs, four of every five rush-hour commuters to New York City's central business district avoid traffic congestion by taking transit services, most of it operated by the MTA. MTA customers travel on America's largest bus fleet and on more trains than all the rest of the country's subways and commuter railroads combined.

    It is impossible to place a dollar figure on the MTA's land, equipment, and facilities, located on or under some of the world's most expensive real estate. But the greatest value of the MTA lies in its beneficial impact on the New York region's economy and quality of life. New York ranks near the top among the nation's best cities for business, says Fortune magazine, because it has "what every city desires, a workable mass transit system."

    Since 1982 the MTA has been carrying out the largest public works rebuilding project in the country. Funded by federal, state, and local government and by the issuance of debt, the MTA’s most recent capital program has generated an average 31,760 private-sector jobs, $1.3 billion in wages, $100 million in state and local tax revenues, and $3.52 billion in economic activity annually.

    MetroCard™ and E-ZPassSM, the MTA's recent technological innovations, revolutionized fare and toll payment on subways, buses, bridges, and tunnels. MetroCard automated fare collection has brought free transfers between subways and buses; multiride bonuses; and weekly, monthly, and daily transit passes, reducing the cost of public transportation for the first time. E-ZPass electronic toll collection has transformed local and regional highway travel, speeding the trips of millions of MTA customers while reducing traffic congestion and pollution.

    A public-benefit corporation chartered by New York State in 1965, the MTA is governed by a 17-person Board. Members are nominated by the Governor, with some recommended by New York City's mayor and the county executives of Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Dutchess, Orange, Rockland, and Putnam counties, with the members representing the latter four casting one collective vote. The Board also has six rotating non-voting seats held by representatives of organized labor and the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee (PCAC), which serves as a voice for users of MTA transit and commuter facilities. All Board members are confirmed by the New York State Senate.