The M.T.A. Gets $68 Billion in the State Budget. What Will Riders Get?

A return of the Summer of Hell has been avoided.For now.The Metropolitan Transportation Authority will get $68.4 billion over the next five years as part of a state budget agreement — its largest ever capital plan — to prevent the subway, bus system and two commuter railroads from falling apart.But completion of all the projects in the budget, which was agreed to in Albany on Monday, is far from assured.

The M.T.A.is counting on $14 billion of the plan from the Trump administration, which has threatened to withhold funding for transportation projects unless the state ends its congestion pricing program in Manhattan.

And full details on how the state intends to pay for the plan — largely with an increased rate on an unpopular business tax — are not yet clear.Now, the onus is on the M.T.A., an agency long criticized for shaky finances, to prove its critics wrong and deliver its most ambitious plan in 45 years on time and on budget.Gov.Kathy Hochul announced on Monday night that the State Legislature would “fully fund” the $68.4 billion program, most of which is dedicated to repairing or updating long-neglected components of the New York City region’s sprawling mass transit network.

The list includes buying new trains and buses, replacing nearly century-old equipment and making the system more accessible for riders with disabilities and families with young children.The approval of the plan came as a relief to mass transit supporters, who had warned that failure to maintain critical infrastructure would lead to a repeat of the service meltdown seen in mid-2017, when dangerous overcrowding and long delays, mostly on the subway, led then Gov.Andrew M.

Cuomo to declare a state of emergency.Politicians and headline writers called it the “Summer of Hell.”Here is what the plan means for commuters and the broader economy.What’s in it for you?The five-year capital plan, which runs from 2025 to 2029, is chock-full of unglamorous improvements to reduce de...