New York’s transit system is on a comeback, but the feds loom large.

For public transit in New York, it’s the best of times.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has a projected 2026 annual operating budget of $21.3 billion, bigger than the budgets of some U.S. states. The nation’s largest mass transit system moves millions of people daily, with ridership steadily rising in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the start of the year, a groundbreaking congestion pricing plan went into effect, generating an influx of new funds to fix aging infrastructure, implement upgrades and launch new projects.

At the end of the summer, total revenue generated from travel into Manhattan’s congestion pricing zone had reached $365 million, and projected revenue for the full year was estimated at half a billion dollars. Some congestion pricing lawsuits involving the U