Transit officials will decide before the November 8 election how a projected $928 million surplus will be spent. A portion of the surplus may go toward wage increases for transit workers, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said yesterday.

The chairman, Peter Kalikow, told transportation analysts gathered at New York University that “some of the surplus will be for the MTA family,” which he said included riders and employees.

He said the plan would be presented to the public “shortly,” no later than the mayoral election.

The MTA’s 3-year contract with the Transport Union Workers Local 100 expires at midnight December 15, and union officials, who began their first round of negotiations on Friday, have made it clear that part of the surplus should be used to pay for wage increases and pension obligations.

The secretary-treasurer of Local 100, Ed Watt, would not say how much of the wage increase the union was hoping to get. Mr. Watt, who attended yesterday’s transportation conference, said Mr. Kalikow’s remarks made him “guardedly optimistic.”

“It’s not the worst thing we could be hearing,” he said. “Transit workers should get a fair raise and fare increase should be delayed.”

The surplus has weakened the negotiating abilities of the MTA, which usually cites looming deficits and perennial budget crises as reasons not to award workers a wage increase, a transportation consultant and former policy analyst for the union, Joseph Rappaport, said.

“This year, workers, who often negotiate labor deals when the MTA is claiming it has no money, are sitting pretty,” he said.

Under the current contract, negotiated three years ago, the union’s 34,000 members accepted a pay freeze in 2002, followed by a 3% raise in the second year, and a 3% raise in the third.

Union officials, who will continue their contract negotiations next week, also want to secure better training and equipment for transit workers who they argue should also be considered first responders during an emergency.

“For the first five minutes, trains’ crews are the EMS, the police, and the fireman,” Mr. Watt said. “Like it or not, the transit system is a target, and our people need to get in there.”

Mr. Kalikow was the keynote speaker at the sixth annual Tri-State Transit Symposium sponsored by the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management at NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. He told guests that the Second Avenue subway project would be stalled indefinitely if voters did not pass a transportation bond act on the November 8 ballot.