NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Interim NYC Transit president Sarah Feinberg is stepping down after more than a year on the job, she said Friday as Gov. Andrew Cuomo also announced a new chair/CEO of the MTA.
Feinberg told the New York Post that she is stepping down effective Friday. The MTA confirmed the news.
Feinberg told the Post that she hasn't been able to spend enough time with her family, especially her young daughter.
"You are not serving New Yorkers well unless you are on call 24/7 and you are owning every rush hour, owning every signal delay and paying attention to every project, and thinking constantly about how you can make sure that customers, riders and your workforce are safe," she said.
"That is a hard thing to explain, because I absolutely think women and mothers should do these jobs, but it is a 24/7 job," Feinberg went on.
Janno Lieber, the MTA's chief development officer, will become the transit agency's acting chairman and CEO, Cuomo announced.
"Our public transportation systems will be the backbone of New York's comeback as more and more people return to work in-person," Cuomo said in a statement. "Janno knows what it takes to make the MTA work for the millions of customers who rely on this system every day to get to their destination, and he will serve as Acting Board Chair and CEO."
MTA leadership could be shuffled again if the state Legislature passes a bill championed by Cuomo that would split the board chair and CEO into two separate positions. Should the legislation pass, Lieber would serve as CEO while Feinberg would return to take the role of chairwoman, Cuomo said.
"I am excited to get to work leading the MTA's continued recovery from the pandemic, though I am disappointed I won't yet be working alongside my supremely qualified friend Sarah Feinberg," Lieber said in a statement.
"We are still counting on the Senate to act on the Governor's proposal and approve her historic nomination as the MTA's first woman Chair."
Feinberg said she would be willing to become chairwoman.
"Now's a good time to make my exit — and to either find other ways to serve, if the Senate chooses to act, or to move on," Feinberg told the Post.
Feinberg took on the temporary role leading the subway and buses 17 months ago, in March 2020, after Andy Byford left. She said she thought the job would only last "three to six months," but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit soon after she assumed the role and sent the transit agency into a crisis.
Lieber had a long background in private sector development, serving as the president of World Trade Center Properties before joining the MTA in 2017 to oversee capital construction. He has presided over projects like the L train tunnel reconstruction and the ongoing East Side Access development.
Transit advocates praised Lieber's experience while also calling on the governor to recruit two strong candidates to step into both his and Feinberg's old positions. The governor is tasked with finding a new MTA Transit president to run New York City's subway and bus system as well as a new capital construction head.
"In Janno Lieber, Governor Cuomo appoints a seasoned professional with the experience required to do one of New York's toughest jobs at a critical moment," said Riders Alliance Executive Director Betsy Plum. "Now the governor must give Janno the resources to provide what riders need, including by rolling out congestion pricing to finally fix the subway."
The current chairman and CEO, Patrick Foye, will leave the MTA on Friday to become interim CEO and president of the Empire State Development Corporation.
The leadership shakeup comes as the MTA looks to bring riders back to the transit system more than a year after the pandemic began.
While vehicle traffic between New York City and New Jersey is approaching pre-pandemic levels, mass transit ridership continues to lag, with MTA subway and bus ridership remaining below 50% of pre-pandemic levels.
Officials are concerned that public transit ridership may not rebound for years due to concerns over the coronavirus and more people being able to work from home, and that that could lead to increasing gridlock.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
