The man who raised fares but restored the finances of the London transit system was nominated on Tuesday as the next leader of New York City’s sprawling transportation authority.
Jay Walder, a former top executive of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and an architect of the agency’s financial recovery in the 1980s, was asked by Gov. David A. Paterson to return to the city as chairman and chief executive of the authority, which only narrowly avoided steep service cuts this year.
In London, where he served as finance chief of the city’s transit agency from 2000 to 2006, Mr. Walder played a crucial role in securing the 2012 Olympics for the British capital and helped usher in a slew of transit innovations, including a so-called congesting pricing system that charged cars a fee to enter downtown London.
New York’s transportation authority, the largest in the country, is notoriously unwieldy. Serving 2.4 billion riders a year, it encompasses the rail, bus, bridge and subway systems in the city’s five boroughs and its adjacent suburban counties.
“I certainly go in with my eyes open,” Mr. Walder said on Tuesday, acknowledging he expected to “make difficult and sometimes unpopular decisions.”
But he declined to provide details on what reforms, if any, would be enacted under his prospective tenure. And while Mr. Walder said finding a long-term solution to the agency’s financial problems would be his top priority, he said he had not yet had a chance to delve deeply into the authority’s current books.
Although Mr. Walder’s nomination was greeted warmly by transportation advocates, it may be months before the volatile State Senate can confirm him to the post. The governor’s announcement came less than 24 hours before the Senate reconvenes in Albany on Wednesday, and it appeared highly unlikely that the body would take up a confirmation vote before adjourning for the summer.
“This week? That’s ludicrous,” said Carl Kruger, a Brooklyn Democrat who laughed when asked whether the committee he chairs would vet Mr. Walder in the next few days.
“This is the M.T.A.,” Mr. Kruger said. “It’s not as if we’re confirming somebody to be game warden of the Adirondack Park.”
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