MTA Capital Plan Again Questioned
Can the MTA afford new train cars? New York business interests, transit advocates, planners and academics joined the Tri-State Transportation Campaign to urge the MTA board to reject the proposed 1995-1999 capital plan. In a recent letter to MTA Chairman E. Virgil Conway, the groups questioned the funding basis of the $11.9 billion capital program Conway proposes, taking aim at the plan's high projected debt and its reliance on fare-backed bonding. Dramatic withdrawals of state and city financial support have led the agency to divide fare revenue between capital and operating needs. The groups -- including the NYC Partnership, NY Building Congress, the Long Island Association and the Regional Plan Association -- warned that escalating levels of debt service could drive fares up while service levels sink, or else cause the capital program to be scaled back. The signatories highlighted the need for new sources of capital funding and offered technical and political support for continuing the transit rebuilding plan on more solid financial footing. Robert Kiley, NYC Partnership President, recently told The Bond Buyer that "farebox-backed revenue has always been the least worthy of all MTA credits," and the Straphangers Campaign's Gene Russianoff characterized the MTA plan as "a debt bomb."
