Update (12:25 p.m. Sunday): For many people, a managerial shake-up at New York City Transit won’t mean very much. It can be seen as some backroom wheelin’ and dealin’ by the MTA. But this announcement from the MTA about some personnel moves at Transit is intriguing for what it portends.
The news is this: Steve Feil, senior vice president of the Department of Subways, is out at that position. He will be the new Vice President and Chief Maintenance Office of the Subway division, responsible for maintenance and some technical functions of the subway system and is going to help Jay Walder realize his goal of bringing more technological innovation to the city’s transit system.
“Steve is a respected transit executive who has worked in many of these areas himself and has done so from the entry level up to the highest levels of senior management,” Transit President Tom Prendergast said. “He also has a keen appreciation for the need to embrace and utilize new technology with direct experience in its implementation at some of the older, more established agencies like Amtrak and NYCT.”
He will be replaced Carmen Bianco, formerly of the MTA and Amtrak. Bianco was Assistant Vice President for System Safety at Transit from 1991 to 1995 and held similar positions at NJ Transit and Amtrak. Tom Namako of The Post reports that this will be one in “a series” of changes, and although riders won’t notice the impact, the way the subways are run on a managerial level will change.
The MTA says that the biggest change will come through a restructuring of its maintenance procedures. For the last few years, the Group & Line General Managers had been overseeing maintenance on a decentralized level, but this scheme had left the line managers bogged down in maintenance calls. The line managers will remain in place for now but will focus more on transportation and customer service.
I’ve heard rumblings for weeks that the new Transit team may be doing away with the line managers, and Feil’s departure moves that one step closer to reality. Until today, the line managers had been reporting to Feil, and with Biacno assuming control and stripping the line managers of their maintenance oversight, the storm clouds are swirling.
In the grand scheme of Transit, this isn’t that big of a deal. Riders won’t notice the difference, and it’s hard to say if the line manager program has produced a net benefit for anyone. In light of the current fiscal climate, the MTA needs to trim its management structure anyway.
On an other note, all weekend service changes have been canceled due to the snow. Enjoy a shuttle bus-free weekend wherever your travels may take you.
10 comments
“no net benefits”? Maybe for some other lines with shared routes, but on the 7 line, it is much, much better than before line managers were introduced. Better station and train cleaning, announcements, and at the Main St stop, AM rush hour express/local service is a lot better.
The reason that the 7 and L showed improvements is because they invested alot additional money on extra man power on those lines to make the program look like a success.
Right, b/c there was someone with their behinds on the line since they promoted the Line Manager program as being beneficial to riders. Sure, it may have cost some extra dough, but it was dough well spent. Of course, when times are tough, the subway system goes back to looking like the bad ol’ days.
You don’t 4 extra layers of managers on top of what they already had to hire more employees. With the old system they could have had the same results if they were allowed to spend money on non operating employees such as cleaners.
The lowest level of these line managers makes 150k a year.
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Ive been saying that Howard Roberts and the Line Managers program were a steaming pile for months now and Ben defended them to his last breath. Can I have my apology now?
Communication has been a little better on the L – Sometimes there are random informational posters on plain paper from the “L-Line Team.” Although their monthly newsletter seems abandoned.
OT: Human Scavengers http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=32248
The lights literally got turned back on at Grand Central on the 4 5 6 soon after the line manager program was put into place and mezzanine tiling was being repaired. That hadn’t happended in the at least few years leading up to the line manager program. A little win maybe, better than nothing, yes, a brighter station, absolutely.
Now, if they can only keep stations clean ala PATH.
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