Chair of MTA Joe Lhota Resigns
The MTA’s vice chair, Fernando Ferrer, will serve as the acting chair until a permanent replacement is approved by the state senate in January.
NEW YORK CITY—The chairman of the MTA, Joseph J. Lhota, has stepped down from his position. He first served in this job beginning January 2012 but left in December of that year to run as the Republican candidate for mayor. He was defeated by Bill de Blasio, who assumed office in 2014. Lhota returned to lead the MTA as its chair in 2017, after being again appointed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. An MTA spokesperson tells GlobeSt.com that Llota was not drawing a salary for his job.
Fernando Ferrer, the vice chairman at the MTA, will serve as the acting chair until the state senate confirms a permanent head, when it reconvenes in January.
A letter emailed on Friday to MTA employees from the agency’s leadership announced Lhota’s departure, thanking him for his service. The governor and Lhota jointly issued statements regarding his resignation, highlighting his accomplishments.
The New York Times had previously investigated potential conflicts of interest facing the MTA executive. The news organization reported when Llota returned to the agency he held a position at N.Y.U. Lagone Health and joined the board of Madison Square Garden, which is located above Penn Station.
In the statement distributed to the media, Lhota said, “When I agreed to return to the MTA it was with the understanding that I would maintain my private sector positions and delegate day-to-day responsibility to a new team. Accordingly, I created the Office of the Chairman for the purpose of managing the MTA. This office includes the managing director, president, chief development officer and chief financial officer. In addition, during my tenure I have appointed new leadership at the operating agencies by selecting new presidents at NYC Transit, Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad, a new general counsel and a new MTA chief safety officer.”
The New York Times described Lhota’s resignation as a surprise. It stated his term would have lasted to 2021 and that last month he had told reports he was not leaving the agency.
Lhota’s statement said following a well-documented period of deterioration of transit services, he volunteered to become the MTA chairman with the sole purpose of halting the decline in services and stabilizing the system. Referencing the subway action plan developed in his first month at the MTA, Lhota listed certain improvement such as in September 2018 the number of total train delays decreased to its the lowest point since February 2016. However, he acknowledged, “There is still a long way to go to achieve the performance that New Yorkers demand and deserve.”
Andy Byford, the president of the New York City Transit Authority, arriving in December 2017, announced the Fast Forward plan, a multi-billion-dollar plan to modernize the transit system.
Including riders on subways, buses, and the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North, the MTA’s public transit system moves more than 9 million people each day.