Thursday will mark one year since Sarah Feinberg was put in charge of the MTA's bus and subway system. But her title still sounds temporary: Interim President.

"I don’t spend any time worrying about or thinking about my title," she said when asked why she is still in the position on an interim basis.


What You Need To Know

  • Sarah Feinberg has been interim president of NYC Transit since she was named to the post on Feb. 25, 2020

  • Feinberg replaced Andy Byford, the popular transit executive who had clashed with Gov. Cuomo

  • NYC Transit also has several other posts held by acting officials, such as posts in charge of operations, the subway and customer environment

Feinberg took office a month before the coronavirus crisis erupted, and has generally received good marks for managing the bus and subway system during the pandemic, which has ravaged its finances and killed 140 employees.

Feinberg was brought to the MTA by Governor Cuomo after she ran the Federal Railroad Administration. She initially sat on the MTA board, then was asked to take over New York City Transit to replace the popular Andy Byford, who left after clashing with the governor. She is paid $325,000 a year.

"I think she did pretty well, she’s doing pretty well," said Michael Carrube, president of the Subway Surface Supervisors Association. 

Carrube, head of the union representing subway and bus supervisors, says he speaks more frequently to Feinberg than to permanent leaders of NYC Transit.

Still, he is critical of the MTA having several officials filling executive posts at NYC Transit on a temporary basis.

In addition to Feinberg, there's an acting chief operating officer and acting vice presidents in charge of the subway and customer environment.

“They’re gone and somebody new comes in and they get the permanent position and they come with with different ideas," said Carrube, who runs the Subway Surface Supervisors Association. "And everything that you just worked with or worked for with the interim official is pretty much out the window.”

One advocate, Rachael Fauss, senior analyst at Reinvent Albany, says permanent leadership signals to riders there's a commitment by executives to see their plans through.

"I think you don’t want to have the constant filling of these executive positions by interim leaders," Fauss said. "It doesn’t give riders the full confidence that that person is going to be there for the long haul, for them.”

An MTA source said that Feinberg maintains the support of Cuomo, who controls the MTA and that she would be in the mix to run the entire MTA if the current chairman Pat Foye steps down.

She reportedly was offered the job before, but declined because of her young child.

Feinberg is evasive about whether she would want to stay atop NYC Transit after the pandemic.

“I think we’ll figure that out when we get through the crisis at hand," she said.