WASHINGTON — “Train Daddy” is officially back.
Former Transit President Andy Byford has formally joined Amtrak’s Board of Directors to oversee the long-delayed revamp of Penn Station, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Tuesday
Byford resigned from his Big Apple role in February 2020 after butting heads with then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo — now the favorite to become the city’s next mayor — and is currently serving as a senior vice president at Amtrak focusing on high-speed rail.
“Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, America is building again,” Duffy said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to have Andy oversee the redevelopment and modernization of this vital transit hub.”
“Andy shares our dedication to keeping costs down and completing this project on time,” Duffy added. “Together we’ll work to deliver a brand-new Penn Station that is safe, clean, and worthy of the American people.”
The $7 billion overhaul will involve a “public-private partnership model” to renovate the crumbling infrastructure and add more rail capacity,” Duffy said last month.
Trump had fired the MTA from overseeing the Penn Station revamp, begun in 2021 under Cuomo and continued by his successor as governor, Kathy Hochul.
Cuomo had tapped Byford for the Transit role following massive subway delays during 2017’s “Summer of Hell.”
Under the Englishman, NYC subways reached their highest on-time performance levels in six years.
However, Byford complained that working under Cuomo was “intolerable” and that he’d been “excluded from meetings” critical to day-to-day operations.
After leaving his New York job shortly before the onset of COVID-19, Byford was appointed commissioner of Transport for London in June 2020, resigning two years and three months later after overseeing the opening of the commuter-rapid transit hybrid Elizabeth Line, citing a desire to return to the US to be with his family.
Hochul, who pulled more than $1 billion in state funding for the Penn Station project, welcomed news of Byford’s return to New York City in a Friday statement expressing relief that the money pit was the feds’ problem now.
“I’m very pleased to be working with the newly-appointed Andy Byford, who has a distinguished career in transit and infrastructure, and hope he is able to use these skills to deliver a beautiful, on-time, federally funded Penn Station renovation that New Yorkers can be proud of,” she said.
Deputy Transportation Secretary Steven Bradbury added Tuesday that the Transportation Department looks forward to helping “revitalize Penn Station as a spectacular, safe, and reliable passenger rail gateway.”