Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York)

Metropolitan Transportation Authority
(New York)
MTA disc.SVG
Sample of MTA services MNRR NYCT Bus LIRR MTA Bus LI Bus NYCT Subway.jpg
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York) (MTA) provides local and express bus, subway, and regional rail service in Greater New York, and operates multiple toll bridges and tunnels in New York City.
Info
Locale New York City
Long Island
Lower Hudson Valley
Coastal Connecticut
Transit type Commuter rail, Local and Express bus, Subway, Bus rapid transit
Number of lines 16 (commuter rail)
23 (subway)
385 (bus)
1 (BRT)
Daily ridership 11,574,566 (weekday; all modes)[1][2][3][4]
(2007 figures)
Chief executive Jay Walder (chairman and chief executive officer)
Headquarters 347 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Operation
Began operation 1965
Operator(s)
Number of vehicles 2,290 (commuter rail)[2][5]
6,388 (subway)[5]
6,263 (bus-fixed route)[4][6][4]
2,116 (ADA paratransit)[1][4]
(2007 figures)

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the U.S. state of New York, serving 12 counties in southeastern New York, along with 2 counties in southwestern Connecticut under contract to the Connecticut Department of Transportation, carrying over 11 million passengers on an average weekday systemwide, and over 800,000 vehicles on its nine toll bridges and tunnels per weekday.[7]

Contents

History

Chartered by the New York State Legislature in 1965 as the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Authority (MCTA) it initially was responsible only for regulating and subsidizing commuter railroads, including the Long Island Rail Road and what is now the Metro-North Railroad. The MCTA changed its name to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in 1968 when it took over operations of the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) and Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA), now MTA New York City Transit (NYCT) and MTA Bridges and Tunnels (B&T) respectively.

Responsibilities and service area

The MTA has the responsibility for developing and implementing a unified mass transportation policy for The New York metropolitan area, including all five boroughs of New York City, the suburban counties of Dutchess, Nassau, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Suffolk and Westchester, all of which together are the "Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District (MCTD)". The current CEO of the MTA is Helena E. Williams, holding the post on an interim basis until a new director is approved by the New York State Senate.

The MTA is the largest public transportation provider in the Western Hemisphere. Its agencies serve 14.6 million people spread over 5,000 square miles (13,000 km²) from New York City through southeastern New York State (including Long Island and the lower Hudson Valley), and Connecticut. MTA agencies now move more than 2.6 billion rail and bus customers a year and employ approximately 70,000 workers.

Related entities

MTA carries out these planning and other responsibilities both directly and through its subsidiaries and affiliates, and provides oversight to these subordinate agencies, known collectively as The Related Entities.[8] The Related Entities represent a number of previously existing agencies which have come under the MTA umbrella. In turn, these previously existing agencies were (with the exception of MTA Bridges and Tunnels and MTA Capital Construction) successors to the property of private companies that provided substantially the same services.

Each of these Related Entities has a popular name and in some cases, a former, legal name. The popular names were part of an overall corporate identification effort in 1994 to eliminate the confusion over the affiliations of the various "authorities" that were part of the MTA.[9] Legal names have since only been used for legal documents, such as contracts, and have not been used publicly; however, since the mid-2000s, the popular name has also been used for legal documents related to contract procurements where the legal name was used heretofore. Both are listed below.

Subsidiary agencies

Affiliate agencies

Governance

The MTA is governed by a 17-member Board representing New York City and each of the counties in the Transportation District.

Members are nominated by the Governor of New York, with four recommended by New York City’s mayor, and one each by the county executives of Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties. Each of these members has one vote.

The executives of the northern counties of Dutchess, Orange, Rockland, and Putnam also nominate a member each, but these members cast one collective vote. The Board also has six rotating nonvoting seats held by representatives of organized labor and the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee, which serves as a voice for users of MTA transit and commuter facilities.

All Board members are confirmed by the New York State Senate.

See also

External links

References

  1. ^ a b MTA Bus data from the National Transit Database
  2. ^ a b LIRR data from the National Transit Database
  3. ^ MTA Bus data from the National Transit Database
  4. ^ a b c d NYC Transit data from the National Transit Database
  5. ^ a b Metro-North data from the National Transit Database
  6. ^ Long Island Bus data from the National Transit Database
  7. ^ MTA - About Bridges & Tunnels
  8. ^ McKinley, James C, Jr. (1994-08-28), "What's in a Symbol? A Lot, the M.T.A. Is Betting", New York Times, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9903E6D81E39F93BA1575BC0A962958260, retrieved 2008-02-23 

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