Metropolitan Transportation Authority - New York City

Metropolitan Transportation Authority - MTA

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the U.S. state of New York. 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). The current CEO of the MTA is Elliot "Lee" Sander, appointed under the recommendation of Governor Eliot Spitzer.

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 New York City and the suburban counties of Dutchess, Nassau, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Suffolk, and Westchester, 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 km˛) from New York City through southeastern New York State (including Long Island and the lower Hudson Valley), Eastern New Jersey, 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

• 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.