Byford’s shot across the bow comes even as Cuomo has made an effort in recent months to paper over his differences with the subway chief, whom he had a hand in hiring. | Metropolitan Transportation Authority/Flickr Sources: Last week, Byford resigned from MTA. He’s now reconsidered.

Andy Byford, the widely lauded New York City subways chief, resigned last week, multiple sources told POLITICO on Thursday. He's now reconsidering.

Since he sent his resignation letter to Ronnie Hakim, managing director of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, officials have been trying to talk him back from the ledge. They appear to have had some success, though as of Friday morning, Byford had yet to officially rescind the letter.


"I'm not going anywhere and I remain laser focused on improving day-to-day service for millions of New Yorkers and delivering a transformed transit network," Byford said in a statement provided by the MTA. "The historic $51 billion capital plan provides a golden opportunity to further transform the subway and bus network — with unprecedented investments in accessibility — and my team and I are totally focused on achieving that. The Governor and I are on exactly the same page about the need to dramatically improve the transit system in New York and we now have the plan and the funding to do that."

The reasons Byford elucidated for resigning were basically twofold, according to one source: He’s tired of having to help organize gubernatorial-driven conferences about signaling and technology, which distract him from his job of improving subway and bus service, and he’s disinclined to preside over possible service cuts or layoffs.

The MTA is considering reducing the size of its workforce and cutting service on one of Brooklyn's busiest bus lines, even as Gov. Andrew Cuomo is also imposing new operational costs on the MTA in the form of 500 new cops.

A spokesperson for the governor had no immediate comment.

Byford’s shot across the bow comes even as Cuomo has made an effort in recent months to paper over his differences with the subway chief, whom he had a hand in hiring. The governor has recently adopted a warmer tone — in public and in private — when mentioning Byford, leading to talk of a rapprochement, as POLITICO reported in September.

“Byford leaving would be a huge loss for New Yorkers,” said Nick Sifuentes, executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. “If Byford leaves, it’s hard to imagine who would want to fill that role that would be able to do it anywhere near as well as him.”