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NYCT Subway Chief May Quit Over Tensions With Cuomo


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#1 CNJRoss

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Posted 25 April 2019 - 05:57 PM

The New York Times,  4/19/19:
 

Subway Chief May Quit Over Tensions With Cuomo, Colleagues Fear

 

Andy Byford, the transit executive hired to rescue New York City’s floundering subways, has clashed with the governor over management of the system.

 

 

Andy Byford, the transit executive who was hired to rescue New York City’s floundering subway, and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo have increasingly clashed over management of the system, and several of Mr. Byford’s colleagues said they feared he might quit.

 

The two men did not speak between January and April, even as Mr. Byford was seeking to move forward on a sweeping $40 billion plan to overhaul the subway in the next decade.

 

If Mr. Byford, who was hired in November 2017, were to step down, it would be a major blow to efforts to improve the system, which has been plagued by antiquated equipment, cost overruns and rising complaints from riders about chronic mismanagement. In recent years, New York’s subways have had one of the worst on-time rates of any major rapid transit system in the world.

 

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#2 CNJRoss

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Posted 25 April 2019 - 05:59 PM

The New York Times, 4/22/19:
 

Subway Fares Went Up (So Did Tension Between Cuomo and the Transit Chief)

 

 

For years, the subways have been dirty, slow and unreliable. Maybe you’ve noticed.

 

To fix that, transit leaders said they needed money — a lot of it. In February, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board voted to increase subway and bus fares, and tolls on bridges.

 

Those higher subway and bus fares went into effect yesterday. (The higher bridge and tunnel tolls began last month.) The price of a single-ride MetroCard will remain $3, and base fares will remain $2.75.

 

Though service has declined for years, solutions only now seem to be coming. Why? The answer may lie in last year’s race for governor, when Governor Cuomo was challenged by the actress Cynthia Nixon. Though Mr. Cuomo easily won, the public seems to remember a tenet of Ms. Nixon’s campaign: Mr. Cuomo controls the subways.

 

Now he’s very involved.

 

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#3 CNJRoss

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Posted 25 April 2019 - 06:03 PM

New York Post, 4/23/19:
 

Cuomo explains why he hasn’t spoken to transit chief in months

 

 

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo insists the reason he hasn’t talked in months to subways chief Andy Byford is because he deals with higher-ups, not a “division chief.”

 

“Why haven’t I spoken to the New York City Transit head since January? I was in Albany negotiating the budget, doing the total reorganization of the MTA,” Cuomo said on WAMC radio Tuesday.

 

“It’s very rare for me to deal with a division head directly,” he added, noting Byford isn’t his first call, ranking behind MTA chairman Pat Foye and president Ronnie Hakim.

 

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#4 CNJRoss

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Posted 06 June 2019 - 03:06 PM

New York Post, 6/4/19:
 

Andrew Cuomo throws MTA chief Andy Byford under the bus

 

 

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday minimized his own subways chief’s role in fixing the embattled system.

When asked by WNYC’s Brian Lehrer to respond to a Gothamist report that NYC Transit president Andy Byford might quit in frustration, Cuomo downplayed Byford as a mere “division head” and instead used the opportunity to pivot to his own pet project: Re-jigging the MTA board.

 

“Here’s some facts here, which sometimes are helpful: Andy Byford is a division head, for the New York City Transit Authority. Phil Eng runs the Long Island Rail Road. Kathy Rinaldi runs the Metro North. Those are the three divisions. I hired Andy Byford. I interviewed him. But the MTA is going through an overall transformation,” Cuomo said, citing the authority’s struggles with overtime abuses outlined in a series of Post reports.

 

Cuomo gave Byford a nod before re-upping his long-running call to change how the MTA’s governing board is appointed.

 

“Look, I have confidence in Byford, and Eng and Rinaldi,” he said when asked if he had confidence in Byford. “You have senior management that is above them, and a board that actually runs it — and that’s where the issue is going to lie for the transformation,” he said.

 

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