Joe Biden may be a massive train nerd — but that doesn’t mean the cash-strapped MTA is banking on his presidency delivering much-needed federal funds to stay on track.
MTA Chairman Pat Foye on Tuesday called President-elect Biden’s White House win “a positive” — but warned that the agency’s chances of getting a $12 billion federal bailout still rest with control of the U.S. Senate.
“The branch of the government that stood in the way of the Heroes Act and other financing… was the United States Senate, led by Sen. McConnell,” Foye said during an unrelated press conference in lower Manhattan.
“I don’t have any perspective into what’s going to happen with respect to the Georgia runoff races, but it is not clear that there’s a clear path to funding, speaking just for the MTA and the amount of $12 billion.”
The Heroes Act is the name of the funding bill passed by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives over the summer. The bill included MTA funding, but did not have the support of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky).
Control of the Senate currently depends on the outcome of two runoff elections in Georgia, scheduled for Jan. 5. Transit officials are more confident they’ll get the $12 billion with New York’s Sen. Chuck Schumer and the Democrats in charge.
The MTA is billions of dollars in the red due to drops in ridership and tax revenues amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Without a bailout, Foye said he will be forced to make layoffs and service cuts.
“No one at the MTA wants to reduce service or lay off any of our heroic colleagues period, no one wants to do that,” he said. “Our hand may be forced if the federal government doesn’t come through with the funding.”
Still, the Gov. Andrew Cuomo-appointed transit exec called Biden’s election “a very positive step” for the agency.
“Every schoolchild in the country knows that he’s called Amtrak Joe, and that he rode it regularly between Wilmington, and Washington, DC when he was a senator, and throughout his entire career has been an ardent supporter of mass transit and public transit,” he said.
“That’s a positive.”
Biden has been identified with Amtrak for much of his political career. He claims to have ridden the railroad 16,000 times since being elected to the senate in 1972, the Washington Post reported.