The Metropolitan Transportation Authority takes people in the region wherever they need to go. It opens up countless job opportunities for millions jobs that are miles from home are easy to get to with our subways, buses, and commuter trains. And after work, the network enables them to get to leisure activities: music, theater, cultural events, sports, and shopping more varied than anywhere in the country. The MTA is the vital network that knits together this rich area and its unparalleled resources. Over the past two decades, the MTA has committed some $64 billion to restore and improve the network so that today it runs at unprecedented levels of efficiency. Employees at all of our agencies work diligently to maintain high service and safety standards. And we have embarked on an ambitious program of expansion that will provide an East Side terminal for the Long Island Rail Road, create new subway service on the East Side of Manhattan, extend subway service to the far West Side, improve Manhattan mobility, and create a direct rail link to Kennedy Airport. In short, the MTA is committed to guaranteeing that the best city in the world has the world's best transportation system. MTA subways, buses, and railroads provide 2.6 billion trips each year to New Yorkers the equivalent of about one in every three users of mass transit in the United States and two-thirds of the nation's rail riders. MTA bridges and tunnels carry more than 300 million vehicles a year more than any bridge and tunnel authority in the nation. This vast transportation network North America's largest serves a population of 14.6 million people in the 5,000-square-mile area fanning out from New York City through Long Island, southeastern New York State, and Connecticut.