The agency entered into a long-term lease of Penn Central's Hudson, Harlem, and New Haven Lines. Before 1968, the Hudson and Harlem lines had been operated by the New York Central Railroad, while the New Haven Line had been part of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. Penn Central continued to operate the lines under contract to the MTA. In April 1970, Rockefeller proposed that the state take over the Hudson and Harlem Lines, and the next month, he signed a bond issue that provided $44.4 million in funding to these lines. Penn Central's operations were folded into Conrail in 1976. The MTA took over full operations in 1983, and merged the lines into the Metro-North Commuter Railroad. In 1994, the MTA rebranded its five subsidiaries with simpler names to convey that the different agencies were part of one agency.