(Bloomberg) -- New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Wednesday named former Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation Richard Davey as president of New York City Transit, handing him responsibility for the nation's largest system while it struggles to get subway riders who left during the pandemic to return.
Davey on May 2 will take over the management of a 54,000-person workforce, including operating New York City's subways, buses, paratransit services, and the Staten Island Railway.
“To take over an operation as large as New York City Transit, the goal was to find someone with a diversified transit background and strong leadership skills,” said MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber in an emailed statement.
The MTA faces reduced ridership from the pandemic, even as virus cases ebb, gasoline prices soar and Wall Street banks including Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. bring more people back. Work-from-home has become a permanent fixture for many, and others are avoiding the system because of safety concerns.
Weekday subway ridership is about 60% of pre-pandemic levels. Ridership was as high as 5.51 million trips a day in early March 2020, the week before the virus started shuttering the economy.
“Living in New York during 9/11 was a seminal moment in my life,” Davey, 48, said in the statement. “My experience being a New Yorker that day at that time is why I am coming back.”
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