What you should know
- The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (or MTA for its acronym in English), the largest public transportation agency in the US and one of the largest in the world, named the former Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation as its next president.
- The MTA announced Wednesday that Richard Davey will take over as head of the agency, where he will oversee the 54,000-person workforce as well as operations of the Staten Island Railroad, subways, buses and paratransit services.
- News of the appointment comes amid the MTA’s struggle to match pre-pandemic ridership numbers and grappling with a surge in crime on the subway.
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NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (or MTA), the largest public transportation agency in the United States and one of the largest in the world, named the former Massachusetts Transportation Secretary as its next President.
The MTA announced Wednesday that Richard Davey will take over as head of the agency, where he will oversee the 54,000-person workforce as well as operations of the Staten Island Railroad, subways, buses and paratransit services.
“Living in New York during 9/11 was a pivotal moment in my life,” Davey said in a statement following the MTA announcement. “My experience as a New Yorker that day at that time is why I came back, because public service and specifically public transportation is very important to me. I share the same principles as President Lieber: provide timely and efficient service, welcome customers to a safe environment, and constantly look for ways to improve the system. I hope that when my term is up, New Yorkers can look back and say that guy from Boston made a difference.”
Prior to his most recent appointment as head of the city’s transit system, Davey held a number of high-ranking transit leadership positions in Massachusetts: he was Secretary and CEO of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation from 2011 to 2014. Before leading the Massachusetts Department of Transportation Transportation, worked for the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Company (MBCR) beginning in 2003 and was promoted to general manager in 2008. In 2010, Davey became general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (or MBTA for its acronym in English), the fifth largest public transit agency in the country.
According to the MTA, during his time as general manager of MBCR, customer complaints dropped by 40 percent. Meanwhile, the MBTA had its highest annual ridership since 1946 when he was general manager.
According to MTA President and CEO Janno Lieber, when the agency sought to fill the position, “the goal was to find someone with diversified transit experience and strong leadership skills.”
“Rich is someone New Yorkers should feel confident in as the agency moves forward with major accessibility enhancements and other capacity and reliability-oriented upgrades, like signal modernizations, as well as megaprojects like Phase 2 of the Metro Second Avenue and, for years to come, Governor Hochul’s Interborough Express,” Leiber said.
Following news of Davey’s appointment, Riders Alliance Executive Director Betsy Plum said in a statement: “Passengers welcome Richard Davey back to New York and wish him well as he addresses crucial service improvements. Faster travel that provides better service for millions of people traveling today and helping millions more return to the transit system must be the hallmark of his mandate.
The platform gates project will cost more than $100 million and will likely take years to develop and implement.
“Chairman Davey needs to focus on speeding up buses and trains through better signage, bus network redesigns and boarding at all gates. We urge him to work closely with Governor Hochul to secure funding for a service more frequent for New York to be on par with cities around the world.”
News of the appointment comes amid the MTA’s struggle to match pre-pandemic ridership numbers. Weekday ridership regularly exceeded 5.5 million before COVID-19, but plunged during the height of the pandemic in 2020, falling as much as 95%. Passengers gradually returned during 2021, with passenger numbers regularly exceeding 3 million starting in late September, until omicron arrived in December.
The MTA has projected that the residual effect of declining ridership from the pandemic will produce an operating deficit of $1.4 billion by 2025, despite billions in aid from the federal government. The authority projects that passenger numbers will still be below pre-pandemic levels by 10% to 20% by the end of 2024.
The MTA recently introduced fare discounts to try to attract more riders, including a program in which users of a contactless payment system get free rides on subways or buses after reaching 12 rides in a week.
In addition to a drop in ridership, the MTA has been dealing with an increase in crime throughout the transit system, particularly in the subway. Just last month, Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul jointly announced a new subway safety initiative, designed both to mitigate recent spikes in violence on the transit system and intensify the outreach of homeless people to as the city seeks to encourage a rebound in subway use after COVID-19.
Officials shared more details about that plan in February, saying they will focus on six priority lines to begin with: A, E, 1, 2/3 (described as a combined target), N, R and 7, and would include additional police and the deployment of social service workers.
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