The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is the main public agency coordinating transportation in the New York City metropolitan region. Its massive purview covers rail lines, bridges, tunnels, ferries and roads in 14 counties; it includes the New York City Subway, the Metro-North Railroad into Connecticut and Upstate New York, and the Long Island Railroad. The MTA transports more than 11 million people on a typical weekday, making it far and away the nations biggest transit system.

The MTA also controls a vast portfolio of real estate, including buildings citywide; a long-term lease for Grand Central Terminal; and various rights of way along tracks and roads. It has selectively sold or leased such properties over the years. One of its biggest deals ever came in 2008, when the Related Cos. agreed to pay $1 billion to build out 26 acres of far West Side Manhattan known as Hudson Yards.

New York State launched the MTA in 1965, and it quickly grew from control of just the Long Island Rail Road to its present form. Thomas Prendergast is the MTAs chairman and CEO; and serves at the pleasure of the New York governor.