I remember reading years ago that NYC transit actually gets relatively little of its funding from the federal government compared to other global cities.

Supposedly other global cities have national governments that recognize how much of a return on investment their largest cities generate economically and so they support their infrastructure more. And other countries are more likely to have their seat of government in their largest city so the lawmakers are more keenly aware of its infrastructure.

But our federal government is sharply skewed in favor of rural states who don’t want to support big cities while taking huge subsidies for themselves.