NEW YORK, March 21 (Xinhuanet) -- The state authorities need to funnel more money to maintain the New York subway system over the next five years, or straphangers will face more service delays like the ones that have plagued the system over the past year, lawmakers and advocates warned Monday.

    The switch-room fire at the Chambers Street station that crippled two subway lines in January and the problems that plagued four more last week could be only the first signs of an aging system in need of repairs, they noted.

    "There's a lot of modernization that needs to happen," said JonOrcutt, executive director for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.

    Lawmakers and transit advocates said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), the agency responsible for public transportation in Greater New York area, needs all the state aid it can get and that governor George Pataki's budget leaves the system "vulnerable to further service disruptions and accidents."

    Transit advocates have argued that Pataki's plan shortchanges the MTA's 2005-2009 capital program by 8.4 billion dollars.

    The MTA has proposed a 27.6 billion-dollar capital program, including 17.2 billion dollars to upgrade the current rail system.

    Pataki's plan allocates 19.2 billion dollars to the cash-strapped agency, with only 14.7 billion dollars toward system upgrades to signals and other facilities. Enditem