Reinvent Albany Commends New MTA Capital Dashboard Powered by Open Data

December 1, 2025

Good afternoon. I am Rachael Fauss, Senior Policy Advisor for Reinvent Albany. We advocate for a more transparent and accountable New York government, including for authorities like the MTA.

Thank you for inviting me here today to share in the good news that the MTA has completed a major upgrade to its Capital Dashboard. This powerful tool has new features which show New Yorkers the progress the MTA has made rebuilding and modernizing the subways, buses, and commuter railroads. 

Here are the top four things we like about the new dashboard, which:

  1. Is powered by open data. The dashboard pulls all data directly from the public data on the open data portal. From the get-go, the MTA’s capital construction team has been working with the MTA open data team to ensure the MTA’s major transparency initiatives are fully integrated. 
  2. Shows New Yorkers that congestion pricing is delivering. New Yorkers have more confidence in the MTA when they can see for themselves exactly how congestion pricing money is being used to help get them where they are going.
  3. Was built in-house. It is a win-win for the public and state government when agencies invest in-house in talented staff who can build and maintain technology platforms like the MTA’s Capital Dashboard. Not only is this a better use of tax- or fare-payer dollars, there are many internal benefits for agencies, like being able to quickly adapt to changing technologies and public expectations.
  4. Shows the names of vendors and contract numbers for individual projects – a first. Previously, the public had to “connect the dots” for MTA capital projects through the dashboard, MTA board books, and other sources to find this information. 

Reinvent Albany and our colleagues have been asking for a better Capital Dashboard for years, and we greatly appreciate the work the MTA capital and open data teams put into this and the support they got from senior management. 

MTA open data is on a roll and we look forward to seeing the Customer Counts survey, customer complaints, and station and line condition data on the open data portal in the near future. Like the Capital Dashboard, publishing that data will show riders that the MTA is managing service based on facts and data, and help transit leaders explain the challenges to our beloved public transit system. 

Thank you again to MTA leadership and the open data and capital teams.