As Pedro Espada has ended his flirtation with the Republicans and the New York State Senate can get back to work, one of the items on the upcoming agenda concerns the future head of the MTA. While rumors have flown concerning the identity of the next person to hold the reins of this financially troubled authority, one man — Jay Walder, formerly of both the MTA and Transport for London — has emerged as a leading candidate.
When Albany passed the bailout, the Senate did so with the condition that both Elliot Sander, former CEO and executive director, and Dale Hemmerdinger, the MTA chair, would step down. Sander is out, and Hemmerdinger will be as soon as a replacement is named. According to Pete Donohue of The Daily News, Gov. Paterson may be days away from naming Walder as the new chair and executive director. He comes with an impressive track record of transit innovation and would be the first to hold the streamlined sole position atop the MTA leadership structure.
Walder was a key figure in the MTA’s fiscal rebirth in the 1980s. He worked for the authority from 1983-1995 and left just before the city and state started forcing more debt upon the MTA. In a 2003 article in Accountancy Age, Walder talked about improving the fiscal health of the MTA:
‘The New York subway system was an international symbol of urban decay then. Graffiti was intractable, trains didn’t run, investments hadn’t been made for decades and we were virtually on the point of saying, “either we improve it or we shut it down”,’ he recalls.
The transport system was so bad that the city’s economy was suffering as a result. In the late seventies and early eighties, the economy had reached a complete low and was facing a fiscal crisis. Ten years later, MTA had invested in 2,500 new subway carriages and rebuilt 3,500 existing carriages. Every train was free of graffiti, stations were being rebuilt and New Yorkers were rating it as the public service that had improved the most over the past decade. ‘When I left in 1995, transport was discussed as being the backbone and foundation of New York’s renaissance.
‘When you can take the frustration that existed and feel you were a part in turning that around from a public service that people hated into a service meeting their needs – that’s an incredibly satisfying feeling.
Meanwhile, Donohue has more about a key innovation Walder helped usher in while working for TfL in London:
Walder, 48, an American who once worked for the MTA, served as Transport for London’s finance and planning director between 2000 and 2006. He is now a partner with the international management consulting firm McKinsey & Company – and recently wrote a report for the MTA on moving beyond the MetroCard to a so-called smart card that could be linked to riders’ personal accounts.
In addition to playing a significant role in London’s winning bid for the 2012 Olympics, Walder introduced the Oyster smart card used by millions of Londoners who ride the Tube. When he left London’s transit authority, Walder was praised by then-Mayor Ken Livingston for identifying $2 billion in savings through efficiency. London Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy said Walder was a key figure in turning the agency into “an organization that is respected around the world for its record of delivery and innovation.”
From what I can find, Walder sounds as though he would be an excellent choice to head the organization. I am particularly intrigued by his role in ushering in the Oyster Card program in London and by his recent report for the MTA about establishing a contact-less smart card system for New York. We need innovative and forward-thinking leaders heading that organization right now.
If Walder is indeed appointed, he would end a dubious string of chairmanships. Not since Peter Stangl was the MTA chair from 1991-1995 did the authority have a transit expert at its head. Virgil Conway cut his chops in banking, and both Peter Kalikow and Dale Hemmerdinger are real estate men. The most qualified man to hold the executive director job — Elliot Sander — was pushed out in a political move after a term far too short for him to enact reform.
We should know early this week if Walder is indeed getting the appointment. If so, it would be a very positive move indeed.
7 comments
You say that Walder could be “the first to hold the streamlined sole position atop the MTA leadership structure”. Without passing judgement on anyone individually, how is this position different then the one formerly held by Peter Kalikow?
I believe that Kalikow was the chair but not the executive director as well. Prior to Hemmerdinger/Sander, the chair was at the top and worked above the ED. With Dale and Lee, the two were co-equals. Now, the next person to get the position will be the lone Chair/ED.
This is encouraging news indeed. But if a good policymaker yells in a forest and no one else is there, did he really yell? Or to put it this way: The person in charge won’t matter, unless the establishment addresses the root cause of the MTA’s financial problems; that is, an excessive reliance on debt financing in general, and insufficient fares and/or subsidies to cover operating costs.
this bloke may well be a good choice, but not because of the oyster card or the olympics: the one is a way for a bureaucracy to yet further invade people’s privacy, and the other is a boondoggle widely resented, except by those with media access who stand to make a profit on it (hint – just look at what elements were trying to push them on NYC). he is a good choice if he is a good administrator with a nose for efficiency, as he seems to be.
Nearly every large transit agency is converting to a smart cardpayment system. If he can do that in the Big Apple, fantastic. Anything that makes transit more user friendly I’m for it.
New York should have been the first city in the US to convert to smart cards. The closest the MTA has come is the easypay Metrocard. Infact the current system was NOT what the manufacture suggested the MTA install. What was suggested was…wait for it… smart cards!
If you think the setting up of a smart card system is messed up here, the Smartlink card in the SF Bay area is something like 5 years late & not all transit systems are tied in yet . From what I understand that will take upwards of another two years because there are thirteen bus systems all with different fare structures plus BART & CalTrain commuter rail.
[…] By all accounts, Walder is supremely qualified and a transit innovator. Yesterday, I offered up my take on and praise for […]
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