The MTA will not move forward with a planned fare hike next spring. And it won’t be cutting service over the next few years. Governor Kathy Hochul says that's thanks to President Biden’s infrastructure bill.

That pot of money is supposed to be used on big projects—like new subway signals, station elevators, and the next phase of the 2nd Avenue Subway.

The MTA says drawing money from Washington means it won’t have to borrow for those projects, so the agency will owe less in debt payments, and will have more money on hand to keep the trains running.

Over the summer, the agency predicted a gloomy outlook--with a more than $10 billion deficit over the next five years.

It's unclear how the MTA will avoid service cuts and fare hikes, along with balancing its budget in the coming years.

Ridership, the largest sources of revenue at the MTA, is still about half of what it was before the pandemic.