New train boss: Pain is coming

THE NEW PRESIDENT of New York City Transit doesn’t start his job until January — but he’s already coming up with ideas that will stop straphangers dead in their tracks.

Andy Byford, who is set take the reins of the city’s overburdened and delay-prone subway system, told The New York Times that he is mulling a policy of closing train lines for extended periods to do repairs and renovations. While shutting down a line may lead to rider revolts, Byford said it may be the only option for modernizing the system.

“The only way to do that is to get in the tunnels and do the work, and you cannot do that when trains are running, period,” he told The Times in an interview published Friday.

“If we’re really serious, we have to bite the bullet and, to a certain extent, inconvenience people while we get the work done, but I will hold myself accountable to New Yorkers to say it will be worth the pain.”

Byford gave the interview as he prepares to leave his current job as Toronto’s transit chief and decamp for the Big Apple.

As the chief executive of the Toronto Transit Commission, Byford has been credited with shrinking delays and improving rider experience. Toronto was recently named the 2017 Transit System of the Year by the American Public Transportation Association, an advocacy group based in Washington.

Still, New York City will be a big change. With 5.7 million daily riders, the city’s subway system dwarfs Toronto’s.

When he arrives in the city, Byford will face a crumbling system in desperate need of major renovations. The most recent MTA data show that the average number of delays on weekday trains each month has risen by 17.2% in the past year.

Byford, who was picked for the job last month, said he is game for the challenge. “I know it will be very hard,” he told The Times. “I probably won’t have a life, I probably won’t see my wife, but I will be incredibly proud to be walking about that system and doing my damnedest to turn it around.”