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RUNAWAY TRAIN

It won’t be long before the MTA is back in Albany begging for money again, transit advocates said Wednesday even as state legislators were preparing to vote on a $2.26 billion MTA bailout bill.

Next time, they said, it won’t be to stave off fare hikes and service cuts, but to stop the system from falling apart.

The advocates are upset that the proposal funds only two years of the agency’s five-year capital plan.

“They laid the groundwork but they didn’t complete the job,” Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union, said of the deal struck by Gov. Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver

and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith.

After 2011, paying for new subway cars and buses, renovating stations, making track repairs and continuing construction on projects like the Second Avenue Subway will depend on the accuracy of a prediction from lawmakers that the economy will improve, the advocates said.

The result is that MTA officials could be back in Albany within two years asking for capital funds for the following three years, said Citizens Budget Commission President Carol Kellermann.

“They are definitely going to be back there,” she said. “Generally, [the rescue deal] is better than nothing. But for the capital plan, it’s really just a temporary punt down the road.”

Silver on Tuesday said a bigger chunk of a new tax of 34 cents on every $100 of a business’ payroll — expected to raise $1.5 billion a year for the MTA — could be used to fund capital projects beyond 2011.

But that would depend on real-estate taxes earmarked for the MTA generating more revenue after the economic slump ends — something some business experts said isn’t a sure thing.

“We think the tax revenues are likely to be depressed for four or five years. [An economic rebound] is not something

you can take to the bank,” said Kathryn Wylde, CEO of the Partnership for New York.

Transit watchdogs were overjoyed that the bailout eliminated threats of devastating, 23 percent fare hikes and deep service cuts.

But if real-estate tax revenues don’t rise, the two-year plan could turn into a breeding ground of cost overruns and delays, said Christopher Jones, vice-president of research for the Regional Plan Association.

“And obviously,” he said, “any delay in funding means it’s that much longer before you see service implemented.”

tom.namako@nypost.com