Andy Byford Named New Subways Chief Amid Transit Crisis

NEW YORK, NY — The transit executive credited with reviving Toronto's subways will serve as the new head of New York City's ailing transportation system, the MTA announced Tuesday. Andy Byford will start in January as the permanent president of New York City Transit, the MTA agency that oversees the city's subways, buses and paratransit services.

The MTA chose Byford, a native of the United Kingdom, after an "extensive and international search" to replace former New York City Transit president Ronnie Hakim, who was promoted this summer to be the MTA's managing director.

Byford comes to New York in a time of crisis for the city's aging subway system. Delays continue to rise, ridership is falling and plans to fix the problems have been hamstrung by political squabbles.

Byford has been hailed for turning around Toronto's public transit system, the third-largest in North America, as CEO of the Toronto Transit Commission. After taking over in 2012, he developed a five-year plan in 2013 that aimed to "overhaul ... TTC equipment, processes and culture." In June, the American Public Transportation Association named the TTC the "Outstanding Transit System of the Year."

“New York City’s public transit system has driven New York City to become the bustling, successful metropolis that it is, and it’s an honor to be trusted with the huge responsibility to modernize the system and bring it to the high levels of performance and customer service that New Yorkers truly deserve and rightfully expect,” Byford said in a statement Tuesday.

Byford will be responsible for implementing MTA Chairman Joe Lhota's Subway Action Plan, an $836 million initiative to stabilize and modernize the subway system. The plan's first stages have yielded postive effects, the MTA says — delays, signal problems and track fires have decreased since earlier this year.

But the plan is mired in political deadlock over how to fund it. Lhota and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who controls the MTA, want the city and state to split the cost. But Mayor Bill de Blasio has resisted, saying Cuomo should replace the more than $450 million he raided from the MTA's budget for the state's general fund.

Byford is no stranger to political fights. He came to the TTC in 2012 to replace Gary Webster, the agency's chief general manager whom the city's transit commissioners fired after he defied then-Mayor Rob Ford, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported at the time.

When he started as the TTC's CEO, Byford pledged that politics wouldn't influence his job.

"My job as a transit professional is to know my facts," he said in March 2012, according to the CBC. "Obviously I have opinions, based upon experience, but I will certainly be apolitical in that."

Byford started his career at the London Underground, where he eventually managed three of that city's busiest subway lines. Before starting in Toronto, Byford was the chief operating officer for RailCorp in Sydney, Australia, overseeing Australia's largest transit system.

Byford's success in Toronto indicate that he's capable of managing the biggest public transit system in the U.S. "during this time of great change," Lhota said.

"Our transit system is the backbone of the world’s greatest city and having someone of Andy’s caliber to lead it will help immensely, particularly when it comes to implementing the Subway Action Plan that we launched this summer," Lhota said in a statement.

Patch has reached out to de Blasio's office for comment on Byford's appointment. We'll update this story if we hear back.

(Lead image: The MTA named Andy Byford as the new president of New York City Transit. Photo courtesy of Toronto Transit Commission)