About one in every three users of mass transit in the United States and two-thirds of the nation's rail riders live in New York City and its suburbs. And the cost to maintain one of the world’s most extensive mass transit systems is expensive. Each new subway car, for example, costs $1.4 million. Replacing and maintaining tracks runs the state's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) about $303 million a year. In order to pay for subway maintenance and projects over the years, the MTA has had to borrow a lot of money for funding. So much so that the MTA is now the fifth biggest debtor in the United States – after the state of California, the state of Massachusetts, New York State, and New York City. Blueprint America looks at the costs of maintaining New York City's transportation system and the difficulties involved when making improvements.

Since the 1920s in New York City, the Second Avenue Subway line has been in the works. Follow the delays, cost overruns, political ineffectiveness, and several ground breakings over the years as the line has still yet to be completed.

Blueprint America correspondent Rick Karr speaks with Joe Trainer, Chief Engineer of MTA Capital Construction in New York City, about the day to day process of building the Second Avenue line from above ground in Manhattan.

Blueprint America correspondent Rick Karr speaks with Edward Kennedy, Chief Tunnel Engineer of the East Side Access Tunnel in New York City, about the construction of the Long Island Railroad access tunnel that will run from Queens to Grand Central Station in Manhattan -- 140 feet underground.

This 51st State report, which originally aired in 1975 on Channel Thirteen in New York, looks at New York City's repeated attempts to complete a second subway line on the East Side of Manhattan. The project is still not finished after over a half-century of delays.

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) announced people rode subways, buses and commuter railroads in record numbers in the third quarter of this year. At the same time, the plunge in oil prices may have created an opportunity for states and the federal government to readdress the gas tax to better fund infrastructure projects.

California voters approved $9.95 billion to fund a high-speed train network linking Southern California with the Bay Area.

America's crumbling infrastructure will pose significant problems for the next president. Blueprint America correspondent Rick Karr interviews advisors of both campaigns on how a President McCain or a President Obama would address four major infrastructure issues: roads versus rail; the fraying electrical grid; poor internet service; and whether or not the federal government should invest heavily in infrastructure as part of an economic stimulus package.

Whoever moves into the Oval Office come January will have to work with Congress on a new federal transportation bill. In the first segment of a four part Blueprint America radio series, a report on Barack Obama and John McCain's sharply different positions on what kind of transportation the country needs.