MTA sues Trump administration over frozen Second Avenue Subway funding
Photo courtesy of Governor Kathy Hochul on Flickr.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is suing President Donald Trump’s administration after it failed to resume federal funding for the Second Avenue Subway expansion. Filed Tuesday in the Federal Court of Claims, the lawsuit claims the federal government breached a contract with the MTA and threatens the $7 billion project to extend the Q line from 96th Street to 125th Street in East Harlem by blocking the agency from awarding its next excavation contract for two new stations. The MTA had warned the federal government late last month that it would take legal action if more than $58 million owed for the project was not restored within a week.
Funding for the project was first paused during the October government shutdown, along with money for the Gateway project, as part of an effort to pressure New York Democrats to end the shutdown. In September, the U.S. Department of Transportation told the MTA the funds had been suspended due to a review of the agency’s race- and sex-based contracting requirements, according to the New York Times.
Construction on its $7.77 billion second phase has only recently begun. Scheduled for completion in 2032, the project will extend the Q train from 96th Street to 125th Street in East Harlem, bringing long-awaited subway service to a historically transit-deprived area. Approximately $3.4 billion is due to come from the federal government.
The project, which was awarded a $2 billion tunnel-boring contract in August, the largest in MTA history, will add three fully accessible Q train stations at 106th Street, 116th Street, and 125th Street. Tunneling is expected to begin in 2027, as 6sqft previously reported.
The MTA had planned to award a contract this month for the project’s third phase, which includes excavation for the new 106th Street station. The funding delay could also affect a recent addition announced during Gov. Kathy Hochul’s 2026 State of the State address, which would reroute the Q train west along 125th Street, add three new stations, and terminate at Broadway in Morningside Heights.
State attorneys and the MTA are requesting an expedited motion for partial summary judgment. They are seeking both the release of the frozen funding and “other consequential damages that the U.S. DOT’s suspension has caused,” as reported by amNY.
“This Court can quickly resolve the MTA’s claim for breach based on DOT’s failure to reimburse $58,643,339.10, and respectfully should do so on an expedited motion for partial summary judgment,” the suit reads, according to amNY. “If funding is not immediately resumed, it risks creating a ‘domino effect’ of cascading delays and inflated costs.”
In an official statement, Hochul said the Trump administration’s actions put the “entire project at risk,” threatening a plan that has been proposed and scrapped repeatedly over nearly a century.
“Once again, New York has been forced to sue the Trump administration to stop them from erratically shutting off billions of dollars in previously committed infrastructure funding,” she said.
“We have already made enormous progress—work is underway and the project is moving on schedule and on budget. But Donald Trump’s unlawful funding pause has put this entire project at risk. His actions alone have jeopardized the commutes of over 100,000 New Yorkers and the jobs of thousands of union workers, but New York will not back down,” Hochul added.
The lawsuit echoes a previous legal battle between NY and the federal government over the Hudson River tunnel project, a central part of the Gateway program. The Trump administration also paused funding for that project, which includes building a new two-tube tunnel beneath the river and rehabilitating the century-old tunnels connecting NY and New Jersey.
Last month, Trump released the remaining federal funding for the tunnel project after legal action by the Gateway Development Commission and the two states.
While both lawsuits are ongoing, MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber expressed confidence that the agency would prevail in court, citing its recent federal court victory that blocked the Trump administration from ending congestion pricing, according to amNY.
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