Many of the possible investments are of a piece with priorities discussed by Thomas F. Prendergast since his confirmation as the authority’s chairman in June: costly, if unsexy, improvements to aging signal systems and communication equipment. More than a quarter of the $68.2 billion in estimated needs for the authority’s New York City Transit division belongs to this category. About one-fifth of the $68.2 billion is to replace subway cars and buses.

But some items make it clear that the authority has entered a new phase — particularly when compared with long-term plans from decades past, as safety concerns and unreliable service meant that merely “stabilizing the system” was a chief goal, said Stephen A. Berrang, the authority’s director for capital program management.

The authority’s list of “emerging priorities” now includes improved customer information, like a systemwide network of countdown clocks, which were a focus of a presentation in July on how to attract growing populations of young riders to the transit system. The needs assessment also calls for a successor to the MetroCard system, which transit officials say cannot be maintained beyond 2019, and places an increased focus on stormproofing since Hurricane Sandy. Mr. Berrang said, for instance, that the authority had raised resiliency standards on parts of the infrastructure like cables and power relays since the storm.

And in what could be a welcome change for Midtown commuters and tourists, the authority has called for “circulation improvements” at the labyrinthine stations in Times Square and Grand Central Terminal.

The authority said its current signal system allowed 29 trains per hour to run on the Lexington Avenue line. But during many peak periods, only 26 run per hour because crowding often keeps trains in stations longer than expected. The authority’s plan to bring the Long Island Rail Road into Grand Central is expected to introduce additional strain.