NEW YORK — Former New York City Transit President Andy Byford will join Amtrak in a newly created role, senior vice president of high speed rail development programs.
The new job, first reported by Streetsblog NYC, was announced in an Amtrak email to employees today (Thursday, March 23). He will join the company April 10.
Byford was widely praised for his work improving the New York subway system in two years with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, earning the nickname “Train Daddy” from transit enthusiasts, improving on-time performance from 58% to 80%. He resigned in 2020 over “interference” by then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo [see “NYC Transit president Byford resigns,” Trains News Wire, Jan. 23, 2020]. He went on to oversee London’s transit agency before resigning last October, indicating he was “closing out a 33-year public service career” and returning to the United States [see “Former NYC Transit President Byford to leave London job …,” News Wire, Sept. 23, 2022].
Byford said in a text to the New York Times that he was “excited and humbled to be joining such an American icon. I had a number of job offers by Amtrak and high speed rail is where I want to be.”
Lisa Daglian, executive director of the MTA’s Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee, told Streetsblog NYC the addition meant the nation would benefit from Byford’s “wealth of experience.
“He’s lived and worked in places where high speed rail actually exists and is in a great position to help bring it here,” Daglian said. “He’s got excellent relationships within the MTA that will help smooth the way as conversations about a multitude of projects continue. And he understands the complexity of the system and its components — and mostly, how to put riders first.”
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