When Richard Davey was introduced in April 2022 as the incoming president of New York City Transit, he said he hoped to stick around longer than his predecessors in a job that he called “among the best in the world.”
“I hope that whenever my tenure ends — hopefully it’s not in two years, hopefully I’ll break some records — but that folks can look back and say, ‘You know, that guy from Boston made a difference,’” Davey said at the time.
Davey’s tenure will turn out to be not much longer than two years. On Wednesday, the board of the Massachusetts Port Authority unanimously voted to make Davey the agency’s new chief executive, clearing the way for a return to Boston and a post that carries a $420,000 base salary.
“I was hoping that [the] best person would be somebody with roots in the area who already could start and hit the ground running,” Massport board member John Nucci said during a meeting. “We have found that person and it is Richard Davey.”
Davey’s looming departure means the MTA will again go searching for a new leader of a sprawling subway, bus and paratransit system that, for more than a decade, has not had a president last longer than three years.
Demetrius Crichlow, a 27-year MTA veteran who is currently head of subways at New York City Transit, will take over as interim transit president, officials announced Wednesday afternoon.
Janno Lieber, MTA chairman and CEO, has described the repeated short-term stays atop the transit division as “a reality of life” — and not a sign of a retention problem.
“It’s obviously a great job at the top of the transportation industry, so congratulations to [Davey], congratulations to Boston for bringing home their native son, even if it creates a momentary disruption for MTA,” Lieber said Wednesday.
The board vote follows weeks of speculation on Davey’s future after he was announced as one of two finalists for the top job at Massport, the state government authority that operates Boston Logan International Airport and two other regional airports, shipping terminals, a police force and more.
He previously chaired Massport’s board and tried to tamp down scuttlebutt with a May 16 statement pledging to “continue to push forward to deliver faster, cleaner and safer service for subway and bus customers every day I serve in this role.”
Davey’s past posts in Massachusetts included being secretary and CEO of the commonwealth’s Department of Transportation and general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, which oversees the country’s fourth-largest mass transit system.
Davey, who couldn’t immediately be reached for comment, would start in the new role no later than September 9.
Short Trips
For an agency whose presidency has long had a revolving door, Davey’s two-year stint is the norm. With more than 50,000 employees and a $10 billion budget, New York City Transit has had 11 full time, acting or interim presidents since 2013.
“It’s the intensity, the sheer size of the system, the number of customers, the amount of maintenance that has to go on,” Carmen Bianco, who served as president from April 2013 to August 2015, told THE CITY. “When you look at every aspect of [New York City Transit], there is little to compare it to.”
In the last decade-and-a-half, the longest-tenured transit president is Thomas Prendergast, a respected transportation professional who led New York City Transit from December 2009 to January 2013, when he was elevated to chairman and chief executive of the MTA.
Multiple former NYCT presidents who spoke with THE CITY described the job as one of the premier transportation positions in the world but one that also comes with round-the-clock pressure to move millions of daily riders; demands from elected officials, the workforce and watchdogs; and an aging system that can make safe and reliable service a challenge.
Andy Byford, the Englishman who served as NYCT president from January 2018 to February 2020 after running transit systems in Toronto and Australia, called the opportunity to lead the agency “a dream” role. But his tenure was upended by a clash with then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, leading to his high-profile departure weeks before the start of the pandemic.
Byford, who went on to lead Transport for London for two-plus years after leaving New York City Transit, told THE CITY that he looks back on his time at the MTA with fondness and is proud of his team’s contributions to improving subway punctuality and station accessibility for riders with disabilities.
“From the day I joined to the day I left, I pinched myself — I loved it,” said Byford, now Amtrak’s senior vice president for high-speed rail. “Being president of New York City Transit is something I will never forget, it was an absolute honor.”
Sarah Feinberg, who followed Byford and led the agency on an interim basis through the stretch of the pandemic when ridership plummeted and more than 100 transit workers died, called the post “one of the most rewarding jobs that exists in the world.”
“There are few things as awe-inspiring as being even a very small part of the daily miracle that is New York City Transit — moving millions and millions of New Yorkers safely and, on a good day, efficiently, across the city, ” said Feinberg, who left the post in July 2021. “It is also a relentless and incredibly hard job, and it’s hardest on the family of the person doing it.”
Thankless Task
Others noted that the structure of the job — in which transit professionals sometimes play second fiddle to Lieber, a former real estate executive — can be challenging.
“They get put in their place all day long,” said John Samuelsen, the international president of Transport Workers Union and an MTA board member who is an outspoken Lieber critic. “And they wind up doing all the dirty work.”
As Davey’s tenure ends, he was praised for helping to rebuild post-pandemic ridership, focusing on system safety and initiatives that included moving station agents out of token booths, renovating stations and boosting rider satisfaction.
Whoever follows Davey into the role will likely face many of the similar circumstances that have made the coveted position a short-term stay for so many.
“It’s a 24-hour city, it’s a 24-hour system,” said Lisa Daglian, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA. “There is no off-switch.”