[12] A September 1965 joint report from both agencies, recommended that the line be leased to New York Central for 99 years, with the MCTA and CTA acting as agents for both states.

[26] In February 1968, the MCTA published a 56-page report for Governor Rockefeller, proposing several subway and railroad improvements under the name "Metropolitan Transportation, a Program for Action"[27][28][29][30] alternatively called the "Grand Design".

This included Lindsay's Linear City plan for housing and educational facilities, and the projected construction of several Interstate Highways, many of which had originally been proposed by Robert Moses.

[33][34] On March 1, 1968, the day after the release of the Program for Action, the MCTA dropped the word "Commuter" from its name and became the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

As of 2018[update], its agencies serve a region of approximately 15.3 million people spread over 5,000 square miles (13,000 km2) in 12 counties in New York and two in Connecticut.

[55] 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".

[69][70] The commission was appointed by then-Governor David Paterson and run by former chairman Richard Ravitch[67][71] However, following Thomas Prendergast's retirement in 2017, they were split back again.

[97] When Bluetooth-enabled countdown clocks were installed in the B Division (lettered services) in 2016 and 2017, they were also configured to feed data to the Subway Time app as well as in an open-data format.

[113] The web app provided a way for riders to get information about any planned work, from late Friday night to early Monday morning, that is going on either on a service(s) or station(s) of the subway during the weekends.

The combined app, which was scheduled for release in 2018, would include real-time arrival information for all subway and bus routes, as well as weekend service changes and travel planners.

[120][121] In future versions of the MYmta app, the MTA planned to integrate the eTix functionality, as well as make it easier for Access-A-Ride customers to view when their vehicle will arrive at a certain point.

It was developed pro bono by technology and design company Work & Co.[123] The subway, buses, and Staten Island Railway charge a single flat fare for each trip, regardless of time or distance traveled.

[134] The capital budget, which covers repairs, technological upgrades, new trains, and expansions, is currently $15 billion short of what the MTA states it needs.

[136] Beyond this, steadily reducing support from city and state governments led to borrowing money by issuing bonds, which contributed heavily to the debt.

[140] Fewer trains spaced farther between resulted in heavy overcrowding beyond normal rush hours, leading to frustration for many subway and bus riders.

[149] Three months later, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and MTA chairman Thomas Prendergast unveiled their plan to spend $26 billion to modernize the subway network, which includes adding Wi-Fi and cellphone services throughout all 278 underground stations by the end of 2016.

Other actions by city and state politicians, according to the Times, included overspending; overpaying unions and interest groups; advertising superficial improvement projects while ignoring more important infrastructure; and agreeing to high-interest loans that would have been unnecessary without their other interventions.

[160] In March 2018, the federal Government Accountability Office ordered an audit of the United States' transit costs, which were generally higher than in any other developed country in the world.

In 2012, MTA executive Mario Guerra attempted to secure a job with train manufacturer Bombardier while evaluating their bid for a $600 million project.

After deleting thousands of company emails, Patel pleaded guilty to obstructing federal bid rigging and fraud investigations in March 2020.

[163] In 2022, construction manager Ramnarace Mahabir was found to have provided jobs for family members through the routing of $18 million in bus depot contracts.

[164] At one 2018 board meeting, an MTA executive explicitly noted the sentiment that the authority is willing to assign jobs to contractors with prior histories of corruption.

[173] The ad, paid for by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, showed a man with a scarf covering his face, with the caption "Killing Jews is Worship that draws us close to Allah", which was attributed to "Hamas MTV," and then stated: "That's His Jihad.

[174] A week afterward, the MTA's board in a 9–2 vote banned all political, religious, and opinion advertisements on subways and buses, limiting any ads to commercial ones.

"[177][178] In June 2017, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency for the MTA due to ongoing reliability and crowding problems.

[181][182] The average speeds of New York City buses were found to be 7 to 8 miles per hour (11 to 13 km/h),[181] the slowest of any major bus system nationwide.

"[183][184] The campaign, which was based from a theme created by Korey Kay & Partners, consisted of public safety announcements, posted on advertisement boards in stations, subway, buses, and trains, urging people to report suspicious activity.

"[186] Meanwhile, the DHS's campaign had attracted at least 215 partners in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors by 2014, which one writer called "a true smart practice.

[193] Since 2014, the MTA has had a "Courtesy Counts" campaign consisting of posters that show colored stick figures having either correct or incorrect etiquette.

[201] In May 2021, the MTA operated eight walk-up COVID-19 vaccination sites in subway, Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road stations as part of a five-day pilot project.