Much of the savings to be generated by the plan will come from consolidating areas duplicated among the seven organizations that make up the MT, including the New York City Transit Authority, Metro-North, and the Long Island Rail Road. It would, for example, combine seven human-resource, finance, and legal areas into one; and create a chief engineering position to oversee a combined engineering area. In all, 40 groups within the agency would become six, with projected savings of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Other changes would see NYC Transit President Andy Byford’s control of major subway construction projects delegated to a newly appointed MTA Chief Operation Officer, a post vacant since last year. This would give the new operations officer oversight of Byford’s Fast Forward modernization plan.
“Make no mistake about it,” MTA Chairman and CEO Patrick J. Foye said in a press release, “this transformation will allow us to finally give our customers the system they deserve, and prepares us to execute on what is likely to be the biggest capital plan in MTA history.”
The proposal would create a Chief Transformation Officer, who will report to the MTA board and oversee ongoing and new initiatives across the $18-billion agency. The position will direct the the reorganization process, improved back-office management, streamlining business processes, and establishing internal controls. Also part of the job? Improved on-time performance and accountability from vendors and suppliers.
A possible impediment to these recommendations will be labor negotiations.
Of the almost 75,000 MTA employees, the Transport Workers Union Local 100 has 41,000 members. They work on the city’s buses and subways and have not had a contract in place since May. Other unions such as the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Union; the Association of Commuter Rail Employees; and the Teamsters, who staff Metro-North and the Long Island Rail Road, could end up with renegotiated contracts under this plan.
The proposals will need to be approved by the MTA Board at its July 24 meeting.
For more information, go to new.mta.info/transformation.
Simple solution – promote Byford to the new senior Engineering position in the MTA.
Take control of major construction away from Andy Byford. Not a good idea and might get him to resign. He has been doing a great job.