Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York)

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the U.S. state of New York, serving 12 counties in southeastern New York, along with 2 counties in southwestern Connecticut under contract to the Connecticut Department of Transportation, carrying over 11 million passengers on an average weekday systemwide, and over 800,000 vehicles on its nine toll bridges and tunnels per weekday.

It's the other transit system being the Toronto Transit Commission.

History
Chartered by the New York State Legislature in 1965 as the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Authority (MCTA) it initially was responsible only for regulating and subsidizing commuter railroads, including the Long Island Rail Road and what is now the Metro-North Railroad. The MCTA changed its name to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in 1968 when it took over operations of the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) and Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA), now MTA New York City Transit (NYCT) and MTA Bridges and Tunnels (B&T) respectively. The current CEO of the MTA is Elliot "Lee" Sander, appointed upon the recommendation of former Governor Eliot Spitzer.

Responsibilities and service area
The MTA has the responsibility for developing and implementing a unified mass transportation policy for The New York metropolitan area] including all five boroughs of New York City, the suburban counties of Dutchess, Nassau, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Suffolk, and Westchester, all of which together are the "Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District (MCTD)".

The MTA is the largest public transportation provider in the Western Hemisphere. Its agencies serve 14.6 million people spread over 5,000 square miles (13,000 km²) from New York City through southeastern New York State (including Long Island]and the lower Hudson Valley), and Connecticut. MTA agencies now move more than 2.6 billion rail and bus customers a year.

Related entities
MTA carries out these planning and other responsibilities both directly and through its subsidiaries and affiliates, and provides oversight to these subordinate agencies, known collectively as The Related Entities. The Related Entities represent a number of previously existing agencies which have come under the MTA umbrella. In turn, these previously existing agencies were (with the exception of MTA Bridges and Tunnels and MTA Capital Construction) successors to the property of private companies that provided substantially the same services.

Each of these Related Entities has a popular name and in some cases, a former, legal name. The popular names were part of an overall corporate identification effort in 1994 to eliminate the confusion over the affiliations of the various "authorities" that were part of the MTA. Legal names have since only been used for legal documents, such as contracts, and are not used publicly. Furthermore, the bus divisions of the MTA were merged into one division under three brands in May 2008, and the legal name is no longer valid, as the individual operating authorities formerly using these brands were dissolved.

Subsidiary agencies
 (legal name - no longer used publicly: The Long Island Rail Road Company)  (legal name - no longer used publicly: Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company)  (legal name - no longer used publicly: Staten Island Rapid Transit Operating Authority)  (legal name used)  (former legal name - Metropolitan Suburban Bus Authority)  (brand is the former legal name)  (former legal name - New York City Transit Department of Buses)  (the BRT brand for MTA New York City Bus)
 * Long Island Rail Road (LIRR)
 * Metro-North Railroad (MNR)
 * Staten Island Railway (SIR)
 * MTA Capital Construction (MTACC)
 * MTA Regional Bus Operations (legal name - not publicly used; but rather trading as):
 * Long Island Bus (or LI Bus)
 * MTA Bus Company (or MTA Bus)
 * MTA New York City Bus
 * Select Bus Service

Affiliate agencies
 (legal name - no longer publicly used: Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority) '' (legal name - no longer publicly used: New York City Transit Authority and its subsidiary, the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority). NOTE: The Bus division is now managed under Regional Bus.''
 * MTA Bridges and Tunnels (MTA B&T)
 * MTA New York City Transit (NYCT)

Governance
The MTA is governed by a 17-member Board representing New York City and each of the counties in the Transportation District.

Members are nominated by the Governor, with four recommended by New York City’s mayor, and one each by the county executives of Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties. Each of these members has one vote.

The executives of the northern counties of Dutchess, Orange, Rockland, and Putnam also nominate a member each, but these members cast one collective vote. The Board also has six rotating nonvoting seats held by representatives of organized labor and the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee, which serves as a voice for users of MTA transit and commuter facilities.

All Board members are confirmed by the New York State Senate.