New NYC Transit president Richard Davey says safety is "job one"
NEW YORK -- Transit workers are getting new leadership.
The former head of the Boston transit system says "job one" as the head of New York City Transit will be to lure scared riders back into the system.
CBS2 political reporter Marcia Kramer says the new boss has already toured the system to identify shortcomings.
The new president of New York City Transit -- that's subways and buses -- doesn't start until May, but Richard Davey has already ridden the subways and found them, well, wanting in some respects.
"I did observe riders standing against walls, for example, or situating themselves near posts or other immovable objects to make sure that someone didn't approach them from behind, for example," Davey said. "I also did see homeless folks sleeping on platforms, and I did see a fare evader."
While the new head of New York City Transit, following in the footsteps of "Train Daddy" Andy Byford and "Train Mommy" Sarah Feinberg, says he did see a lot of good in the system, he knows that his biggest task will be improving ridership.
A combination of crime, people experiencing homelessness and pandemic-driven telecommuting has seen riders avoiding mass transit in droves. Ridership is now about 3.3 million a day. Before COVID, it was 6 million.
"The riders deserve a better system and want a better system," Davey said.
Sitting next to MTA chair Janno Lieber, the new transit boss identified three top priorities: safety; reliability, which means fixing tracks and signals, and cleanliness.
"Safety is absolutely the top priority. The security of our system, I think that's job one," Davey said.
Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams have already put in place two new programs to help, putting more cops in the system and launching a program to get people experiencing homelessness off the trains.
Lieber says there are signs it's starting to work.
"It's way too early to start declaring victory but ... We're catching, we're interdicting bad guys who enter the system with weapons on them at the fare gate. That's an important change that the police department has set in motion," he said.
The new transit chief has not owned a car since 2010 and says that buying a car in New York now would be "the dumbest thing I would ever do."
