Following Joseph Smith’s late-October announcement that he would be retiring as the head of the MTA’s bus division, the authority revealed today that 24-year Transit veteran Darryl Irick will take over as the acting head of the MTA’s three bus divisions at the end of the year. Irick started his MTA career in 1986 as a bus operator out of the Kingsbridge Deport and has worked in management, operations planning and depot and road operations over the past few years. He’ll be overseeing a 18,500 employees at 40 facilities and a combined bus fleet of nearly 6000 vehicles that service 2.8 million daily customers over a 900-square-mile territory.
“Throughout his career, Darryl has distinguished himself with his ability to enter any operating environment and significantly improve performance,” MTA Chairman and CEO Jay Walder said today in a statement. “I’m confident that he will rise to the challenge of continuing to improve our bus service even as we deal with historic budget constraints.”