The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation of the State of New York chartered by the New York State Legislature in 1965.

Responsibilities and service area

The MTA has the responsibility for developing and implementing a unified mass transportation policy for The City of New York and Dutchess, Nassau, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Suffolk and Westchester counties, all of which together are the "Transportation District".

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 Long Island, southeastern New York State, and Connecticut. MTA agencies now move nearly 2.4 billion rail and bus customers a year.

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. 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 the TBTA) successors to the property of private companies that provided substanially the same services.

Each of these Related Entities has a legal name and a popular name. The legal name is used for all legal dealings, such as contracts, and the popular names were assigned as part of an image campaign to identify the agencies more closely with the MTA in a shorthand fashion.

Subsidiary Agencies

• The Long Island Rail Road Company (LIRR), MTA Long Island Rail Road
• Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company (MNCRC), MTA Metro-North Railroad
• Staten Island Rapid Transit Operating Authority (SIRTOA), MTA Staten Island Railway
• Metropolitan Suburban Bus Authority (MSBA), MTA Long Island Bus
• MTA Bus Company, MTA Bus

Affiliate agencies

• Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA), MTA Bridges and Tunnels
• New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA), and its subsidiary, the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority (MaBSTOA), both assigned the popular name MTA New York City Transit.

Reorganization plans

The MTA has plans to merge its subsidiaries as follows:[1]

• MTA Rail will be a merger of MTA Long Island Rail Road and MTA Metro-North Railroad.
• MTA Subways will be a merger of MTA New York City Transit's subways and MTA Staten Island Railway.
• MTA Bus Company (MTA Bus) was formed in January 2005 to take over private bus operations, as well as MTA New York City Transit's buses and MTA Long Island Bus.
• MTA Capital Construction Company (MTA Capital Construction ) was formed in July 2003 to manage major capital projects .
• Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (MTA Bridges and Tunnels) will be left alone.

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, 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.

External links

• NY Metropolitan Transportation Authority home page
• map