Breaking News: Leadership Change at New York MTA

"Andy Byford, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority transit chief credited with leading the turnaround of the New York City subway system, is resigning again," reports Dana Rubinstein.

The word "again" deployed here because Byford rescinded a resignation in October 2019—about the same time as ridership and service improvements started to arrive on the MTA subway system, and the MTA announced a large capital investment to improve elevator access to system stations. Numerous other ambitious plans made their debut during Byford's tenure, a $19 billion repair program, speed limit increases, and the "Bus Action Plan," to name a sample.

Central to Byrford's previous frustrations, according to Byford, was another signature initiative of Byford's tenure: repairing signals.

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. A Cuomo-driven reorganization threatened to take the resignaling away from New York City Transit and give it to the MTA’s newly centralized capital construction force.

A statement released by Byford, quoted in the article, doesn't reveal the reasoning behind the resignation.