Andy Byford | Metropolitan Transportation Authority/Flickr Byford, Cuomo’s popular subways chief, resigns (for good this time)

Andy Byford, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority transit chief credited with leading the turnaround of the New York City subway system, is resigning again, the MTA has confirmed to POLITICO.

Unlike the last time he resigned, Byford seems unlikely to reconsider.


“Andy Byford will be departing New York City Transit after a successful two years of service and we thank him for his work," said MTA chairman and CEO Pat Foye in a statement. "Andy was instrumental in moving the system forward, enacting the successful Subway Action Plan and securing record capital funding with the Governor and the Legislature, and we wish him well in his next chapter.”

In Byford’s resignation letter, which the MTA subsequently circulated, Byford suggested that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s reorganization of the MTA had sidelined him.

The transformation plan “called for the centralization of projects and an expanded HQ, leaving Agency Presidents to focus solely on the day-to-day running of service,” Byford wrote. “I have built an excellent team and there are many capable individuals in Transit and others within the MTA family, who could perform this important, but reduced, service delivery role.”

One final indignity, a knowledgeable source said, was a meeting the governor held last Thursday about subway speeds. It included several high-level MTA executives, like the MTA’s new chief operating officer, Mario Peloquin, as well as at least one representative from a consulting firm that’s put together a report about enhancing subway speeds. To Byford’s consternation, the meeting included no one from New York City Transit, the division Byford runs, even though the meeting involved potential changes to subway signaling and associated track equipment.

A spokesperson for the governor’s office had no immediate comment.

MTA spokesperson Abbey Collins said the purpose of the meeting was, in part, for the consultant to debrief the governor, Peloquin and the MTA’s new chief transformation officer, Anthony McCord, on the progress of the governor’s subway speeds task force, which the governor convened after Byford had already taken on the subway speeds issue. With the departure of former managing director Ronnie Hakim, the task force now falls under Peloquin’s purview. The governor, she said, also wanted an update on the status of the MTA’s transformation plan. He had not sat with either McCord or Peloquin since they came on board.

As POLITICO first reported, Byford also submitted his resignation to the MTA in October, citing frustration with gubernatorial meddling.

The MTA’s leadership ultimately convinced him to rescind that resignation, in part by promising to let him retain control over subway resignaling — a Byford hobbyhorse considered key to turning around the subway system over the long term. At the time, the reorganization threatened to take the resignaling (as well as other major construction projects) away from New York City Transit and give it to the MTA’s newly centralized capital construction force.

Byford’s departure amounts to a serious political blow for the MTA, and for Cuomo, whose stewardship of the MTA has come under intense scrutiny following the subway meltdown of 2017.

Cuomo helped hire Byford, and Byford is widely credited with helping turn the subway system around.

Major incidents affecting 50 or more trains are on the decline. Delays are falling, with weekday delays in 2019 falling 25 percent compared with the year prior. Subways are moving more quickly between terminals. With the city’s transportation department, he created a successful busway on 14th Street. He’s launched the redesign of every borough bus network. He’s helped secure funding commitments for an historic, $51 billion overhaul of the network.

“It’s a shame to see him go … he wasn’t a liar, and that makes him a rare commodity in this MTA world,” said John Samuelsen, international president of the Transport Workers Union and an MTA board member.

On Tuesday, Byford delivered something of a hidden swan song. During remarks to the MTA board, he touted his team’s achievements over the past two years.

“The subway’s actually seeing people come back,” Byford said, adding that “2019 was our best operating performance since 2013.”

Despite those achievements, Cuomo never seemed able to just put his arm around Byford and soak up some of the credit. Rather, he seemed, at times, to view him as a rival — a notion he heartily disputed during an unrelated press conference Thursday afternoon.

“I had a fine relationship with Andy,” Cuomo said. “But his point is well taken that the transformation of the MTA — did consolidate construction and put it in a separate division — I think that was well advised, because as I mentioned they have to do a better job on construction.”

"I always say, 'In Andy Byford we trust,'” said Council Speaker Corey Johnson on Wednesday morning, during an unrelated interview on NY1. At the time, he was unaware of Byford’s latest plan to quit. “He's turned the system around."

Byford's resignation is effective February 21st. It's unclear if he has another job lined up.