Briton who ran New York subway returns to lead TfL amid cash crisis

A former Tube boss who ran the New York subway is returning to London to become the capital’s next transport commissioner.

Andy Byford was today revealed as the successor to Mike Brown as Transport for London commissioner, Mayor Sadiq Khan’s most senior transport official.

He will start at the end of next month as TfL battles the most serious crisis in its 20-year history as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Byford, a Briton who resigned as president and chief executive of New York City Transit Authority in January, said: “I am delighted to be taking up the role of commissioner and to have been chosen to lead the organisation where I started my transport career over 30 years ago.

“In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, all transport authorities around the world will need to reimagine how their services and projects contribute to the safe and sustainable re-start of the social and economic lives of the cities they serve. It is a huge challenge, but I know that Transport for London has some of the best people anywhere in the world and we will meet these challenges and will together help build an even better city for everyone.”

Passenger numbers have plummeted as Londoners obeyed the lockdown, forcing the Mayor to accept a £1.6 billion government bail-out that includes temporary restrictions on free travel for pensioners and schoolchildren and above-inflation fare rises next year.

He is also hiking the congestion charge to £15 from June 22 and extending its hours to 10pm, including weekends for the first time.

Mr Byford will start work at TfL on June 29. Mr Brown, who put his departure on hold to tackle the implications of coronavirus, will leave on July 10.

He is becoming chairman of the £4 billion restoration of the Houses of Parliament. More than 40 TfL staff and contractors are understood to have died in the pandemic.

Mr Byford will earn the same salary as Mr Brown — £335,000, plus a performance-related bonus worth up to half of his salary. He has chosen not to accept a relocation grant.

In addition to the financial crisis and deciding when to bring 7,000 TfL staff off furlough, he faces overseeing the long-delayed opening of Crossrail — due next summer — and the expansion of the ultra-low emission zone in September 2021 to the suburbs.

TfL will also have to cope with lower passenger fares income as public transport is shunned, and demands to allocate more road space to pedestrians and cyclists.

Mr Khan said: “I’m delighted to confirm Andy Byford as London’s new transport commissioner. Covid-19 has had a profound impact on public transport in London but Andy brings with him a wealth of experience and expertise to lead TfL as it faces this unprecedented challenge. I would like to place on record my gratitude to Mike Brown for everything he has done for the capital since starting at TfL in 1989.”

Sir Peter Hendy, a previous TfL commissioner, said it was “a brilliant appointment of a consummate transport professional, and a worthy successor to Mike Brown”.

Mr Byford, who was born in Plymouth and educated at Leicester University, was considered an outsider when the process to replace Mr Brown got under way. He started his career as a graduate trainee in London Underground in 1989.

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