NYC transportation chair to resign

NYC transportation chair to resign

	Published : Mon, 07 May 2007 17:29 By : Agencies Print this Story

NEW YORK (AP) - Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Peter Kalikow announced Monday that he will resign as soon as Gov. Eliot Spitzer appoints a successor.

'I think the time has come for me to leave. I am a firm believer in setting aggressive goals, accomplishing those goals and then giving others the opportunity to both expand upon those initiatives and create new ones with fresh vision and new energy,' said Kalikow, a real estate developer who was appointed to the MTA chairman's post by Gov. George Pataki in 2001.

Kalikow had earlier announced his desire to resign, abiding by the wishes of Spitzer for a new leadership structure with MTA Executive Director and CEO Elliot Sander running the agency day to day.

'I know I am leaving this place in good hands,' said Kalikow, who was joined by Sander at a news conference.

He said the advice he has given Sander both privately and publicly is 'raise fares only as a last resort, but do not keep the fares artificially low.'

Asked if there were plans to raise subway, bus and commuter rail fares in the next year, Sander said, 'It is still a real possibility.'

During his tenure at the MTA, Kalikow helped obtain increased federal funding for subway cars and station rehabilitation and easier access for Long Islanders to Manhattan's East Side. He also saw ground broken on a new Second Avenue subway line last month.

But a three-day transit strike that halted service on city buses and subways occurred on his watch in 2005.

'Make no mistake about it, this was a tough job,' Kalikow said. 'I could actually take my jacket off and show you the bruises to prove it.'

Kalikow said that he was proud to have achieved consolidation of private bus companies but that there should ultimately be one bus system for the entire New York region.

A merger of the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad was another unmet goal.

Kalikow served previously as commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and is a former owner and publisher of the New York Post. He is president of his family's real estate company, H.J. Kalikow & Co., LLC.

He announced his resignation at 101 Park Avenue, a midtown building his company developed.

Sander said Spitzer would name a new MTA chairman in the next several weeks.