(The following story by Pete Donohue appeared on the New York Daily News website on September 11, 2009.)
NEW YORK — The new MTA chairman — approved by the state Senate in Albany Thursday — vowed to shake up the authority.
“It’s my intention to form a management team, bring new people into the MTA with a broad range of experience and success in different parts of the world,” Jay Walder told a Senate committee Thursday.
“It’s a fair expectation to say the MTA will be moving forward with a new team.”
The London-based management consultant, who previously held top executive posts with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Transport for London, said he will start in early October after settling his affairs in England.
Walder, who was nominated by Gov. Paterson, didn’t specify what personnel changes he might make at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
NYC Transit President Howard Roberts, however, recently came under fire for opting not to raise the health care contribution rate for union workers in 2008.
Critics claimed he unnecessarily gave up much-needed revenues and ceded ground wrested from Transport Workers Union Local 100 after the strike in 2005.
His defenders say he made the right move, in part because the original contract language allegedly wasn’t clear.
If approved by the MTA board, Walder’s annual salary, negotiated by the governor’s office, will be $350,000.
He also will receive $22,000 in a retirement account and a housing allowance for up to one year.
Walder replaces Dale Hemmerdinger as board chairman and also will be the MTA’s top chief executive, as the two positions were merged earlier this year.
Former MTA CEO Elliot Sander was forced out by Paterson in May. Much of the current leadership at MTA headquarters and individual agencies was installed by Sander, who himself was installed by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer.
Walder said he wants to make the transit system “more inviting” with improvements like electronic message boards at bus stops and on subway platforms telling riders when the next bus or train will arrive.
In London, where such systems are widespread, studies found riders felt three-times worse waiting when they didn’t know how long the delay would be, Walder said.
After years of delays and failures, the MTA now has the technology on just one subway line and one crosstown street in midtown.
“We can change that,” Walder said. “We don’t have to have everyone peering down the street looking for the next bus or peering over the track to see if a light is coming.”
The nomination passed the Senate with a 47-13. All opposition came from Republicans, some of whom griped that Walder wouldn’t take a firm position on controversial issues like congestion pricing.
Walder said he had no intention of advancing or promoting congestion pricing but said the MTA’s biggest financial challenge is the lack of funding for it’s 5-year construction and maintenance programs.
“We will be back,” he said. “We have to deal with this.”
Meanwhile, LIRR President Helena Williams will stay on as interim chief executive officer and MTA vice chairman Andrew Saul will be temporary chairman, Walder said.
Walder worked for 12 years at the MTA, rising to executive director and chief financial officer before leaving to teach at Harvard in 1995.
He later spent six years as planning and finance director of Transport for London, the authority in charge of subways, buses and commuter rail.
For the last two years, Walder has been a partner with McKinsey and Co., an international management firm.
But his roots are in Queens where he grew up, attending public schools and riding the rails, both subway and Long Island Rail Road.
“The opportunity to lead the MTA is truly a homecoming for me,” he said. “I’m a kid from Queens. I grew up riding the LIRR and the subway.”