MTA threatens another ‘Summer of Hell’ of subway disruptions if NYC doesn’t cough up billions — as transit agency touts its ‘great service’
There’s going to be Hell to pay if the MTA doesn’t get its way — again.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Wednesday threatened another “Summer of Hell” if the Big Apple doesn’t continue ponying up big bucks — even as a recent watchdog study warned the city’s payments keep snowballing.
Not to mention New Yorkers are set to get burned even harder with subway and bus fares getting hiked up to $3 in August.
The warning of summer transit woes came during a City Council budget hearing, where MTA officials begged for assurance the city will pay its share toward the agency’s record-breaking $64.8 billion 2025-29 capital plan.
The proposed plan to fix the deteriorating, aging subway system assumes New York City will cough up $4 billion, but that amount could increase as the state budget isn’t final and federal support is up in the air under new President Trump.
“Many components are falling apart and need to be replaced or preserved,” Jai Patel, MTA Co-Chief Financial officer told councilmembers.
“If we don’t do this critical work it’s not an exaggeration that we will be looking at another ‘Summer of Hell.’”
The subways infamously went kerflooey during the summer of 2017, as a series of subway breakdowns regularly left straphangers stranded, delayed — or even trapped in hot train cars or hurt in derailments.
Yet, an Independent Budget Office study from February found that New York City’s spending on the MTA has only grown in recent years.
The expected $4 billion capital plan contribution marks a 33% increase from the previous plan. Even accounting for inflation, the increase is still 17% above the past plan, according to the study.
The growing outlay raises the question whether the city can or should spend more on the MTA, the IBO asserted.
“As the MTA looks to the State and City to resolve its funding gap, this could put pressure and uncertainty on the City’s own budget at a time when City funding for the MTA has already substantially grown,” the report states.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-SI/Brooklyn) said the spendthrift MTA — which routinely pays more than other transit systems across the world to run trains and complete infrastructure projects — is asking for taxpayer cash that ends up going down “a black hole.”
“The city and state have such bloated budgets that they should be kicking in more money to improve our city’s transit system. But the mayor and governor also appoint a majority of the MTA’s board and have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure the money given is well spent,” the congresswoman told The Post.
“Until that happens, it’s just more money being thrown down a black hole.”
Besides staving off another so-called Summer of Hell, the city should keep money flowing because the MTA provides “great service,” Demetrious Crichlow, the president of New York City Transit, told reporters after the Council hearing.
Crichlow’s claim came a day after the MTA began testing goofy new leaning bars in lieu of benches at a lower Manhattan subway — and drew pans from confused straphangers.
Likewise, many straphangers at the Jamaica-179th Street subway station angrily begged to differ that service is hunky-dory.
“So they want us to reward them with more money for their s–t service?” said Anthony Robinson, 38, of Kew Gardens. “That’s gaslighting. They should be paying me for every time I was late for work because of train delays.
“Just admit that you need the money because you’re incompetent. Don’t insult our intelligence,” he seethed. “The worst public transportation in the world is also the most expensive – and we’re supposed to be happy. Makes me never want to ride the train again.”
Karima Kadyrov, a 42-year-old straphanger from New Hyde Park, called it “unacceptable” that MTA bigwigs would brag about service, especially given concerns about safety and reliability.
“You have to give yourself a lot of extra time to get places because you never know for sure if you’ll get there,” Kadyrov said. “You worry about if some crazy person is going to attack you. You really feel like you’re putting yourself at risk.
“And they say they deserve more money because they’re so great? That’s insulting.”
The vague, yet dire funding ask from MTA officials comes a day after President Trump’s transportation chief threatened on Tuesday to withhold federal funding if the transit agency didn’t provide information on plans for passenger safety.
It’s not the only recent funding uncertainty facing the MTA.
Transit officials ,led by Chair and CEO Janno Lieber, had hoped congestion pricing would provide a $1 billion yearly infusion of cash to carry out their ambitious capital plan to buy new subway cars, update outdated signals and more.
But the controversial toll program’s future is in doubt amid an effort by Trump to kill it, as is the expected cash.
The MTA’s capital plan also hinges on the state to directly fund at least $4 billion in projects — and that can be subject to negotiations by Albany lawmakers, the IBO study warned.
“If Federal and State funding do not materialize as presented in the Capital Plan, New York City will likely be asked to help cover the shortfall,” the study stated.
John Kaehny, director of the government accountability group Reinvent Albany, said MTA officials are worried about the Trump factor and losing federal dollars.
“If Trump freezes already approved capital money, things could fall apart pretty fast,” he told The Post.
Nicole Gelinas, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, argued MTA officials should be pressuring Gov. Kathy Hochul and the legislature to fund their capital plan before they ask the city for money.
She noted city businesses are hit with taxes that feed the MTA, such as the payroll mobility tax.
Congestion pricing — which levels a $9 base toll on cars entering lower Manhattan — is also another contribution from the city, she said.
“I don’t think it’s right that the state is brushing off its responsibility,” Gelinas said. “It’s the state — the governor and the legislature — who are supposed to come up with financing for the MTA capital plan. It’s premature to ask the city for more money.”
City Council members during the hearing didn’t raise many questions or objections to the MTA officials’ implicit threat.
Outside the hearing, both Democratic and Republican lawmakers and insiders lambasted the transit agency’s gimme-gimme-gimme attitude.
“The Miserable Transit Authority squanders billions through waste, abuse, and mismanagement, yet King (Janno) Lieber has the audacity to threaten New Yorkers with a ‘summer of hell’ because they can’t balance their books,” said Robert Holden (D-Queens). “Instead of holding the city hostage, the MTA should clean up its own dysfunction and stop making commuters pay for its failures.”
City Council Minority Speaker Joann Ariola (R-Queens) argued the MTA needed to clean up its act before asking for a handout.
“Summer of Hell?! Riding the MTA is hell every day for NYC commuters, so I doubt they would know the difference,” she said. “Instead of insulting us with baseless threats, the agency that spends $30 million on a staircase should find ways to cut its wasteful spending and bloated payroll before asking for more taxpayer money.”
An MTA spokesperson argued the transit system desperately needs to be fixed.
“The need and urgency for rebuilding the MTA’s ancient infrastructure is detailed in the 20 Year Needs Assessment released in late 2023 and proposed Capital Plan shared last fall,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
— Additional reporting by Craig McCarthy and Vaughn Golden
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