In her State of the State address last week, Kathy Hochul proved yet again why she deserves the title “the Transit Governor.” Since 2022, she has taken action again and again so the MTA could increase service while also balancing the budget. And last year, she delivered the agency’s largest-ever five-year Capital Plan – $68.4 billion – so we can continue to fix, upgrade and expand our transit system.
The Governor’s 2026 State of the State speech included even more for straphangers. Two MTA-related proposals have gotten a lot of attention – one to get the ball rolling on reimagining the Jamaica Station complex and another to begin preliminary engineering and design on the next phase of the Second Avenue Subway.
The latter idea – which we’ve already explored in a feasibility study and our 20 Year Needs Assessment – is to keep tunneling westward along 125th Street to Broadway after we finish the three new stations in Phase 2. This would save a huge amount of time and money because the massive diamond-studded tunnel-boring machine is already there. Almost half a million daily riders will benefit if both projects move forward, and we’re excited to dig deeper into the specifics right away.
In the speech, Governor Hochul also doubled down on her commitment to transit safety, including $77 million in additional funding to support the deployment of NYPD officers in the subway, as well as an expansion of the successful SCOUT program. There will now be 15 teams, up from 10, connecting homeless New Yorkers experiencing severe mental illness to care, treatment, and shelter.
I’m thrilled since we know these strategies work — they helped make 2025 the safest year on the subway in a generation. Building on that success is a no-brainer. Survey after survey confirms that safety is the number one issue subway riders care about, and we’ve made huge strides. In addition to the NYPD and SCOUT deployments, we’ve installed brighter lighting systemwide and platform barriers in more than a hundred stations, and soon we’ll do another 85.
These initiatives, along with better communication, are driving major gains in customer satisfaction. MTA Customer Service agents handled over 1.2 million rider interactions last year, spanning phone calls, chat, written correspondence, and in-person outreach. And more than half of all issues and feedback we receive are resolved within two to three days.
The takeaway for New Yorkers is that this is a new MTA. Under Governor Hochul’s leadership, we are demonstrating every day what business-like government management can accomplish, and we’re not slowing down in 2026. There’s a lot to look forward to with the full transition to tap-and-ride and new projects funded by congestion pricing that will increase accessibility and further improve service performance. Keep riding with us to see for yourself.
Janno Lieber is the MTA Chair and CEO.
