Transit chief still on track
He’s back in his New York groove.
NYC Transit President Andy Byford on Monday shook off concerns about his future at the agency, three days after news broke that he recently issued — and later rescinded — a letter of resignation.
Byford didn’t directly address the drama at a meeting of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Transit and Bus Committee Monday morning. He instead reeled off a list of initiatives that he’s heading up.
In a twist, the transit chief said his team will oversee work to modernize signals on key stretches of the subway, a $7 billion effort that’s a key part of the MTA’s proposed fiveyear capital plan set to start next year.
“Six lines will now proceed for modern resignaling, or CBTC, communications-based train control,” said Byford. “I’m very pleased to say that Pete Tomlin, my VP of resignaling, will lead that work.”
A reorganization plan approved by the MTA board in July took construction management away from Byford and lumped the work under Janno Lieber, the agency’s head of capital construction.
But MTA spokeswoman Abbey Collins said Tomlin, a subway signaling expert Byford hired last year, will be “leading resignaling work under the capital plan under Andy [Byford.]”
NYC Transit Executive Vice President Tim Mulligan will move over to Lieber’s team to help coordinate the work, Collins added.
A source told the Daily News that Byford was concerned about the MTA push to upgrade subway signals under the capital plan. That, along with “gubernatorial interference,” pushed him to the brink of resignation, the source said.
Byford pointed to growing subway ridership as an example that his leadership has been effective.
He said his Save Safe Seconds campaign to speed up subway service has helped improve commutes, and asserted that the program “has involved a union partner from the start,” bucking a comment from Gov. Cuomo earlier this month that said there was “union disconnect” with the initiative.
“I hope these results give you the committee and the [MTA] board assurance that this team knows what it’s doing,” Byford said.