MTA Board Meeting Recap, July 2026
Welcome to Transit TLDR, where we watch the MTA Board meetings so you don’t have to! (You totally can if you want to though)
We post these recap videos on Youtube, Instagram, and TikTok, and starting this month, we’re trying out a blog post version too.
Here are the highlights riders should know:
Janno’s Updates
CEO and Board Chair Janno Lieber kicked off the meeting with updates on:
The July financial plan
There’s a full presentation to come later in this meeting, but the main thing he notes is that the MTA’s operating budget is balanced this year. Good news!Next Stop: Fast Buses, Better Service plan for NYC’s buses
The city and state haven’t collaborated on something as robust as this in like… as long as we can remember, so we’re super excited about what’s to come.New transit oriented development project on MTA-owned land in Greenpoint
This project was recently approved by the NYC City Council, and will yield more than 1,000 housing units, half of them affordable and for seniors, and it will fund transit upgrades, like ADA accessibility at the Nassau Ave G station.Park Avenue Viaduct
It’s done! This project was a multi-year effort to replace bridge structures and tracks on a major corridor for all trains moving in and out of Grand Central Terminal. The big deal here is that the project was completed 60 months early, and $195 million under budget.Interborough Express (IBX)
Public outreach continues, and behind the scenes they’re working on design and environmental impact studies. (Another thing I B X-cited for is that every single station will be ADA accessible, and all of the 17 connection points to other subway lines will be accessible too)Accessibility upgrades
New upgraded elevators at Brooklyn Borough Hall are now open, and the 57th St F/M station has also been recently made accessible. 2 new elevators also recently opened at the Locust Manor LIRR station, leaving just 6 of the 126 total stations left to upgrade before the full Long Island Railroad is ADA accessible. And lastly, 5 more stations that will get ADA upgrades in Brooklyn thanks to congestion pricing revenue.Class action lawsuit settlement
In July the MTA settled a yearslong class action lawsuit filed by disability rights advocates regarding out of service elevators. As part of the settlement, the MTA will now be required to notify the public in advance of any elevator outages at subway stations with accessible entrances.
July Financial Plan Presentation
Jai Patel, MTA CFO, gave a presentation on the financial plan midway through 2026. Here are the highlights:
Financial forecast
The MTA is still on track to have a favorable budget year in 2026, thanks in large part to the operating efficiencies work discussed at last month’s board meeting, so controllable costs are waaaaaaay down.However, they’re forecasting more budget gaps in 2027 because in case you haven’t heard, inflation is …. inflated, and expenses are increasing way faster than revenue year over year.
So what’s the plan?
Here are the 4 favorable assumptions she proposed for bringing in more revenue:
4% fare and toll increases assumed in 2027 and 2029
Increased tax revenue from downstate casino operations
Fuel and energy prices will (hopefully) stabilize in 2028
Paratransit cost-share agreements between the city and state could be renegotiated to put more of the financial responsibility on the city. This would require legislation to be introduced at the state level
This is just an introductory report, so don’t panic (yet). The board will formally propose solutions for next year’s budget deficit at the November meeting.
Disability Pride Month
Chief Accessibility Officer Quemuel Arroyo and VP of Access-A-Ride Rachel Cohen presented on accessibility progress. Here are the highlights:
161 out of 472 subway stations are now accessible!
Elevator availability, the time elevators are up and running, is at 96.5%
More than 90% of Metro-North and LIRR stations are fully accessible
The bus fleet remains 100% accessible, as it’s been since 1990
Paratransit trips are up 250% from Q1 2021 to Q1 2025
70% of all subway rides will take place to or from an accessible station by the end of the current Capital Plan
Eliminating Subway Bottlenecks
The next MTA 20-Year Needs Assessment is planned for October 2028. Liam O’Connell, Senior Planner at the MTA, presented on the first study informing the Assessment. This first deep dive is on subway bottlenecks that slow trains.
Interlocking, where trains have to cross paths or merge onto the same tracks and wait for each other
The fix: Capital and operational, re-configuring switches and adjusting schedules
Examples: F/M swap
Terminal layouts, where slowly entering and exiting reduces service capacity
The fix: Capital and operational, upgrading track layouts and adjusting schedules
Examples: Coney Island-Stillwell Av terminal, further study in the works
Track geometry, where sharp curves or steep gradients force trains to slow down
The fix: Upgrading to modern signaling, capital improvements to tracks and surrounding infrastructure
Examples: Dekalb Ave
Legacy signal capacity, which maintains large buffer zones between trains for safety
The fix: Updated CBTC signaling across the system
Overall, this study helped the MTA identify 25 high priority bottlenecks to start studying in depth and working toward capital and operational improvements.
… and that’s what you missed!
Obviously it’s a three hour meeting, and we didn’t capture everything here, but these are the main updates that impact riders. There is no meeting scheduled for August, so we’ll be back in September with another recap.