The MTA on Wednesday offered a peek into the high-tech but senior-friendly future of mass transit.
New features included in the 20-year plan include real-time train information and high-tech fare collection, and low-floor buses to make boarding easier.
More New Yorkers are staying in the workforce longer rather than retiring, the plan notes, and are using the subway, buses and railroads. Of the New Yorkers that do retire, many are staying in the city.
To serve these aging riders, the MTA is planning on using bigger lettering in messages for straphangers, such as on signs and fliers, and on making a bigger investment in escalators.
The agency also plans to add more services for riders with limited hearing and vision, and to upgrade 100 stations to become handicapped-accessible by 2020.
But the MTA also wants the system to appeal to younger riders born in the 1980s and 1990s, who are less likely to drive and want a state-of-the-art system with high-tech amenities.
The plan includes a system where riders pay for their MetroCards using a smart chip in a phone or credit card.
The plan also envisions real-time information on the lettered subway lines.
Also, advanced signal systems, such as one used on the L train, can shorten the waiting times between trains and allow subways to carry more passengers.
The MTA also is considering how to accommodate the millennial generation’s’ love of bicycles — including a possible bike lane on the Verrazano Bridge, and bike storage at bus, rail and subway stations.
The capital-needs plan, which runs through 2034, has an almost $106 billion price tag — or about $25 to $30 billion every five years.
It is about $22 billion less than the previous 20-year plan.
It doesn’t include future phases of the Second Avenue Subway, since the plan covers only the needs of maintaining and upgrading the current system.
Much of the money will be spent rebuilding and replacing equipment, including subway cars, which have an average 40-year life span.
The MTA also is planning to redo the shuttle station at Times Square to improve passenger flow and make it handicapped- accessible.
And the agency said it is considering platform-edge doors to keep people from jumping or falling on the tracks.