Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday laid out his plan to get Penn Station and the MTA back on track.
He's proposing to have the state control operations at the nation's busiest transit hub.
In the long-term, he also wants to build a new Hudson River tunnel to increase rail capacity.
As for the subways, the governor says they need more capacity and a modern signal system.
To help speed things up, he's pushing the MTA to offer a $1 million design challenge to better tap into ideas aimed at fixing the system.
He says the time for change is now.
"We built the place that nobody else could build," Cuomo said. "We built the tallest buildings, the Empire State Building, the Erie Canal. We built things that no one else dreamed of and we did it here. That's our attitude. That's our edge. That's that New York arrogance. Of course we can do it."
Cuomo's announcement follows a string of problems at Penn Station, including two train derailments over the past few months.
The subways are facing problems of their own.
MTA statistics show delays have jumped 150 percent over the past five years.