In an effort to improve on-time train performance and overall station cleanliness, New York City Transit is rolling out the line manager program to all lettered trains this summer. This B Division roll-out comes amidst uncertainty surrounding the financial future of the MTA, but leaders at Transit feel this General Manager program improves service. “If you have a single individual focusing on everything that happens or doesn’t happen on a given line, you’re going to see improvements,” Roberts said to The Daily News.
I’m still a little hazy as to the details of this program. According to the Line GM website, every single line has a different line manager. That may make sense for the IRT lines that, at some point, all end up as the only train serving some sections of track. But for the lettered lines, it would make more sense for different sections of the routes to have different managers. The B, V and W trains, for instance, never stop at stations that do not enjoy service from at least one other train line, and a redundantly staffed line manager program seems to defeat the purpose.
9 comments
This program is a disgusting waste of money that the TA doesn’t have. They are adding 15 more line general managers, 15 more asst. line general managers and 3 section managers. That’s 33 more managers on top of the excessive amount of general superintendents, line superintendents, and deputy superintendents.
For an example the A line will now have 1 line general manager, 1 assistant general manager, 1 line superintendent, and 3 deputy superintendents. That’s 6 managers for 1 line, then add all of the supervision that are tripping over themselves and you have way too much management.
A deputy superintendent makes about $101,000/ a year so you can imagine what these new managers are being paid!!!
Actually, this is supposed to streamline the bureaucracy and eliminate a lot of the upper level management that doesn’t do anything. This is a restructuring of rather than an addition to the MTA hierarchy.
In the end, this will cut costs for the MTA, as well as increase accountability and efficiency.
It’s been over a year with this program in the A division and they still have all of the supeintendents that they had before. Plus all of the new managers and assistant managers.
So how exactly is this saving money? How is this eliminating upper management?
Seems to me like it is adding lots more management where there was already too much. The TA has to many “chiefs”.
The program on the L line was just a trial. The MTA didn’t cut any upper level management because it wasn’t sure yet whether it was going to go through with the idea. Now that the program will be fully implemented it can start cutting staff.
The program is going to be implemented now in the B division (lettered trains). It was implemented in the A division (numbered trains) over a year ago.
I just looked up the salary of the general manager for the L line. It wasn’t updated to reflect his new job and it was ALREADY $150,000/ year. That means it is more now after the promotion to line general manager.
As far as the number of supervisors goes, you have to remember that the NYC Subway runs 24/7, 365 days a year. In a heirachial management system, such as the MTA, you need to have someone with some sort of authority on duty at all times.
In regards to Ben’s point in his post about the multiple lines overlapping, you have to remember the full scope of what is involved in each line. Each line isn’t just the stations, many of which are shared by other lines, but also the rolling stock, the seperate platforms and the tracks. If you look at the route maps, a lot of track is actually dedicated to just one line, even if it’s in the same tunnel as another line’s track, at the very least for significant portions of the line. i would suspect that the indvidual line managers have a fixed number of train sets which they oversee and are thus responsible for making sure are in a state of good repair and regular cleaniness.
If the MTA shifts the job titles around, as this program is phased in and established, the bean counters can then do their little efficiency studies and will eliminate superfluous positions. The key here is to actually create a system where there’s some level of accountability for things. Remember, the subway is made up of three former companies that were in direct competition with each other and even after the merger, the various systems have been run largely without regard to each other.
I think the most efficient change would come about if the operations of Metro-North and LIRR were merged, if all the LI Bus operations were merged with the NYC bus operations and then if the subway were run as its own division. They need to eliminate redundency at the top and work their way down.
This program has already been implemented in the A division for over a year and on the L. There is no “shifting” of job titles. There is just more management on top of too much management.
I guess the rolling stock idea is true. More or less each line has its own yard for its on trains.
But I would still have to agree with what other have said here and that is that some line are not truly by themselves especially in the B division and probably shouldn’t have their own line manager. I am sure the B line can have the same manager as either the Q or the D. The Franlin ave shuttle can be controlled by the Q line manager as well.
I do think in the end, this will work better. The managers are on the ground working with front line employees directly or at the very least through one layer of management instead of multiple.