MTA hires STV for $28 million to design upgrades at 22 subway power facilities

STV is the general engineering consultant for the design phase and will define the scope and manage the program for MTA Construction & Development. According to STV, the designs replace aging switchgear, rectifiers, transformers and controls and add structural, environmental and MEP work, including hazardous materials abatement where needed, plus thermal-imaging monitoring meant to catch failing equipment. STV will also study, with a cost-benefit analysis, whether reversible traction power equipment could store braking energy that trains now waste as heat when no other train nearby can use it.

Substations and breaker houses turn utility power into the voltage the third rail needs. Only 64% of the 224 substations serving the subway were rated in good repair in 2025, and each power failure delays 34 trains on average, according to MTA figures cited by ENR. STV says much of the equipment at the 22 sites is past its useful life. Exactly what goes in, and how it changes clearances, operations and maintenance, still has to be worked out with the MTA, STV's Marcos Díaz González told ENR. The sites touch almost every subway line.

The 22 facilities are a small share of the backlog. The MTA's 20-year needs assessment counts about 190 substations that need renewal or upgrades and roughly 300 major components waiting for repair. The MTA's capital plan for 2025 through 2029 aims to fully renew or rebuild 21 substations and budgets $2.996 billion for subway traction power work over that period.