Under the 2013 fiscal year, the capital program includes $63 million for investment in system-wide improvements, including $16 million for technology upgrades like NJ Transit’s “Smart Bus” initiative, which will provide real time service information for the state’s 260 bus routes. On the rail infrastructure side, approximately $79 million will go toward the renewal of the Rockaway River Bridge on the Boonton Line, and the rehabilitation of the Leland Avenue Bridge and the Roosevelt Avenue Bridge on the Raritan Valley Line.

But Weinstein said the biggest concern loops back to the Northeast Corridor, noting that NJ Transit is the heaviest user of the entire stretch. “Approximately 80% of customers rely on a piece of infrastructure that is over 100 years old.” “It is signal system and a catenary system that doesn’t approach the kind of reliability that a rail system that has that kind of demand on it ought to have,” he said.

For future planning efforts, Weinstein said the agency is looking at public-private partnership approaches in order to supplement and compliment its capital program. Projects such as the expansion of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail further into Bergen County and the extension of the River Line from Camden to Glassboro are both being considered for PPPs.

And like NJ Transit, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey is also looking to private funding sources for support. The Port, which is funded through ratepayers, fares and tolls, recently passed a $25 billion capital program, but is already doing a PPP for the redevelopment of the Goethals Bridge, which connects Elizabeth, NJ and Staten Island, NY.

The Port Authority is obtaining proposals from three pre-qualified developers to design, build, finance and maintain the bridge. Under the PPP arrangement, the agency will continue to operate and control the bridge, while a separate development team will design, build and maintain the bridge for 35 years in exchange for fixed payments from the Port.

Pat Foye, executive director at the Port, explained that the approach could lower costs and transfer risk to the developer and speed delivery of the project. The agency is also looking into similar approaches for the overhaul of outdated facilities at LaGuardia Airport and Terminal A at Newark-Liberty International Airport.

“Private capital is going to have to play a significant role,” he said. “It is not right for every deal, but obviously transactions or projects with an identified revenue source and a long, predictable course projecting that revenue into the future. There are significant benefits despite the cost to capital. Obviously government agencies, including the Port Authority with pretty good credit, even in this environment, have a cost to capital advantage, which no private sector borrower can benefit, but the private sector can provide significant value, as can the insurance policy of having a private developer, especially a deep-pocketed, well-heeled private developer.”

Overall, Foye said the bi-state agency is refocusing its core mission back to infrastructure now that One World Trade Center is nearing completion. “Rebuilding the site was really a national priority and a national imperative but given the progress that’s been made over the years, particularly in 2012, there is going to be a renewed focus on transportation infrastructure, which all of us at the Port Authority are about.”

But despite increased ridership and the need for better service, state agencies are still struggling to balance budgets and generate revenue. Hilary Ring, senior director of capital programs at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said the MTA will be slashing about $2 billion from the agency’s current capital program. “We are looking at every aspect and how to cut some costs out of it to save some money,” he said.

The MTA’s $13.1 billion preliminary budget for fiscal year 2013 was unveiled last night, and megaprojects such as the Second Avenue Subway, the extension of the 7 train to Manhattan’s Far West Side, East Side Access for the Long Island Railroad and the Fulton Street Transit Hub in Lower Manhattan part of the MTA’s capital program are ongoing.

At the same time, Ring said the MTA’s megaprojects only represent a quarter of the budget over the next three years, noting that state of good repair work, involving roadways, bridges, tracks, signals and other infrastructure needs are sorely needed.

“We can’t look to the federal government to be our savior and be our panacea,” he said. “What a lot of people don’t realize is that a system like ours that runs 24/7, serves 8.5 million people a day and is over 100 years old, takes hundreds of millions of dollars every year just to keep up. It is that constant commitment that is going to have to go on forever, and that is a very difficult thing for people to understand. That’s the concept that we have to drive home that makes the region run and makes the New York economy go and create jobs for the region.”

Joan McDonald, commissioner of the New York State Department of Transportation, said the agency has accelerated projects large and small under Governor Andrew Cuomo’s $1.2 billion NY Works Program on top of the agency’s core program of $1.6 billion. During this year alone, she said the DOT has issued 42 contracts covering 300 road and bridge projects – the highest amount the state has seen for the first half of the fiscal year.

The uptick in contracts, she explained, is thanks to NY Works, a program that accesses capital from the private sector, pension funds and state sources for infrastructure improvements. And while the future looks grim for other states, McDonald concluded: “This is an exciting time to be infrastructure investment.”