Transportation in New York City: Encyclopedia II - Transportation in New York City - Mass transit

Transportation in New York City - Mass transit

By far the most popular and significant mode of transportation in New York is mass transit. The city boasts the most comprehensive public transportation network in the United States. The world famous New York City Subway is operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). It is the most extensive subway system in the world when measured by mileage of track (656 miles of mainline track), and the fifth largest when measured by annual ridership (1.4 billion passenger trips in 2004). The subway system connects all boroughs except Staten Island, which is served by the Staten Island Railway via the free Staten Island Ferry (which connects to numerous subway lines). The city is also served by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's PATH subway system, which connects the borough of Manhattan to New Jersey. In addition to these, city residents rely on hundreds of bus lines, both publicly and privately operated (many to be taken over by the MTA sometime in 2005), which serve nearly all areas of the five boroughs. Because of the extensive mass transit system, many New Yorkers do not own cars or even driver's licenses.

Responsibility for providing public transportation falls to a variety of government agencies and private corporations. Commuter rail service from the suburbs is operated by New Jersey Transit, the MTA (serving Long Island, Connecticut and regions in New York north of the city as the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad), and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which also operates regional bus terminals.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Mass transit", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki