The governor also developed a habit of publicly mocking Andy Byford’s preferred option for upgrading New York’s subway signals as an old-fashioned technology. | Flickr Cuomo’s tone on Byford softens, sparking talk of a detente

Last week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the unthinkable: “Andy Byford is exactly right on this.”

Cuomo’s forthright praise of the New York City Transit Authority chief came the same week he acknowledged “Andy Byford’s progress” in improving subway service in a public letter detailing the governor’s long-term MTA investment priorities.


A subway official familiar with Byford’s thinking said he “took heart” from reading the letter, “which is basically a full-on vindication of Fast Forward,” the name Byford gave to his own list of MTA investment priorities.

As tellingly, the governor hasn’t spoken snidely about Byford or his priorities recently, which is new.

People who talk to the governor and Byford say Cuomo’s recent public utterances betray an actual, behind-the-scenes mellowing of relations between two men whose publicly rocky relationship over the past two years prompted many to fear Cuomo would drive Byford out of New York.

No one is suggesting this is an enduring bromance, like that between the governor and Billy Joel. Nor is it necessarily a lasting detente.

The governor's office disputes Cuomo and Byford were ever truly at each others' throats in the first place.

“The press-manufactured drama was never true as the Governor has always valued and respected the job Andy Byford and all the other MTA senior officials have done,” said Cuomo spokesperson Dani Lever in a statement. “Andy's focus on quality of life issues and customer service is in line with what the Governor has been urging the MTA to do.”

Certainly, in recent private conversations, Cuomo has adopted a markedly nicer tone when discussing the transit chief, a knowledgeable source said. But that tone represents a stark departure from Cuomo’s monthslong public derision of Byford as just another anonymous department head, and his longstanding mockery of Byford’s professional subway priorities: a modern signaling system — known as communications-based train control — and a less-demoralized staff.

“I have noticed that they seem to have warmed and have been on the same page and have shared priorities,” said an MTA board member, who sought anonymity so as to be able to speak freely.

For a while, the governor would sometimes hold meetings about the subway without inviting Byford, a third source said. That seems to have changed.

“Recently things have seemed like the relationship is warming up and becoming better, and the two of them are in more meetings together and talking more often,” that source said.

Earlier this year, transit reporters followed their public acrimony with fascination. It was hard not to suspect some of it was rooted in gubernatorial frustration. Since Byford's first day on the job in January 2018, transit advocates showered him with praise, and the media showered him with favorable coverage. Try as Cuomo might to prove himself finally, truly dedicated to resurrecting the subway system, those same folks greeted the governor with distrust.

“You could almost feel the governor’s teeth grinding if you asked a question about Byford — describing him as a ‘department head’ like he was an anonymous employee Cuomo had barely heard of,” said one transit reporter.

In an effort to allay public concern about the hastily devised L-tunnel repair plan Cuomo thrust upon the MTA with short notice, Byford promised to commission an independent review of the matter. Not only did that review never materialize, but the MTA, which Cuomo effectively controls, took Byford off the project, as POLITICO reported in March.

The governor also developed a habit of publicly mocking Byford’s preferred option for upgrading New York’s subway signals as an old-fashioned technology, even though it’s the international standard. Cuomo would refer to the MTA as “diabolical.” In a speech that Byford did not attend in February, Cuomo publicly scoffed at the MTA and its subway workers, whose morale Byford has worked steadfastly to boost.

In April, The New York Times reported that Byford and Cuomo had not spoken in months.

That’s changed. It’s not clear why, or if it will last.

On Sept. 10, Cuomo was talking about “quality of life” issues on the subway — the omnipresence of the homeless, rising worker assaults, aggressive panhandling. It’s an issue on which Byford and the governor happen to have some agreement. And it’s in that context that Cuomo uttered those formerly unimaginable words.

“Andy Byford is exactly right on this," Cuomo said. "His point is the customer experience. And a customer has a right, a rider has a right, not to be harassed, not to be threatened, not to be subjected to intolerable conditions.”

Byford says he and the governor have always shared the same priorities.

“I have an excellent working relationship with Governor Cuomo," he said in a statement. "The Governor and I always have been, and are, on exactly the same page about the need to modernize New York’s transit system.“

Lisa Daglian, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, hopes the two can keep up the reasonably good humor.

“Teamwork makes the dream work and in this case the dream is a safe, reliable and accessible transit system that gets people where they need to go without delay,” she said. “We all need to be pulling in the same direction to get our system back on track for the region’s nearly nine million daily riders.”