Flooded subway stations in Manhattan have drawn attention to the limitations of the city's aging sewer system, which is only designed to handle less than 2 inches of rain per hour. After recent storms that dropped 2.5 inches in one hour, politicians are reacting with urgency. The MTA chair emphasized the lack of capacity in the stormwater management system. In response, the Resilient Transit Act of 2025 has been proposed to allocate $300 million for improving the resilience of public transportation systems, focusing on necessary upgrades for better future management of stormwater.
"The city's sewer system, the stormwater management system that goes through the subway stations, doesn't have the capacity to deal with rainfall in excess of a 1.5 to 1.34 inches," Janno Lieber, MTA chair and CEO, said during a TV interview on Tuesday.
City officials noted that the aging sewer system is only designed for less than 2 inches of rainfall per hour. Anything more than that will likely lead to street and subway station flooding.
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Adriano Espaillat announced the Resilient Transit Act of 2025, a federal bill aimed at strengthening the resilience of public transportation systems.
The Resilient Transit Act would authorize an additional $300 million from the Highway Trust Fund's mass transit account for Fiscal Year 2026 for resilience improvement grants.
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