As Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his cadre of transportation experts scrambles to replace Jay Walder as head of the MTA, they haven’t found many takers yet. One high-profile transit official from down south, in fact, said no. According to both The Examiner and The Washington Post, New York officials asked current WMATA General Manager Richard Sarles if he wanted the MTA top spot, and he turned them down.
Sarles, who has worked as an executive at Amtrak, New Jersey Transit and the Port Authority, has been with the WMATA since April of 2010 when he was named interim General Manager. The Metro Board made his tenure as GM and CEO official this past January, and the struggling system has seen marked improvements under his tenture. Still, he has no plans to leave. “He was flattered but he’s committed to Washington,” he said through a spokesman.
Approaching Sarles makes sense. He’s a northeastern with decades of experience in the New York area and has enjoyed success improving and expanding transit systems. That New York approached him though so soon into his time with the WMATA and that he turned them down speaks volumes of both how prepared Gov. Cuomo was for Walder’s departure and the ways in which outsiders view the MTA’s top position right now.
8 comments
did anyone “Ask Carole”?
http://ctachair.blogspot.com/
Can’t blame him, WMATA is in the midst of big changes of their own. They’re finally updating their rolling stock and adding in the Dulles line. Plenty to do there that can leave an impact on the system. Versus NYC where everything is knock down, drag out fight.
Who WOULD want to be MTA Chairman and CEO in this environment? Someone in charge needs to seriously think out of the box.
Well if congress is allowed to dissolve themselves into a super congress. Maybe we can have a Super CEO?
Someone who’d be willing to work for less than other places and have to be immediately blamed for the MTA’s current situation. They’d also have to be willing to spend a long time sorting through the financial mess, and take the heat for whatever plan he/she drew up to fix it. A lot of heat.
Don’t forget being labeled a “union buster” and exposing yourself and your family to the verbal abuse of the TWU.
Boy, this job sounds better and better every day!
This. Who would want to take a paycut to be a punching bag for the a**clowns in Albany and the fallguy for the demagogues on the City Council? Let’s not even start on the unions…
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