At the Lexington Ave.-59th St. subway station, commuters pass a colorful artwork by Elizabeth Murray bearing this W.B. Yeats quote: “In dreams begin responsibility.” It is hard to imagine a better epigraph for New York’s transit system — built on ambition and hampered by an institution — the Metropolitan Transportation Authority — designed to protect our elected officials from owning responsibility.
For decades, mayors have kept the MTA at arm’s length. The reason is simple: the authority is not under the mayor’s direct control. Its finances depend heavily on state funding. That financial dependence comes with gubernatorial strings.
Mayor Mamdani can change all of that.
He campaigned on making buses free (and faster), arguing that transit should be a tool of economic relief, not a financial burden. Voters embraced that vision — it’s not a stretch to argue that’s why he won, and no coincidence that he chose to take his oath of office in the abandoned subway station beneath City Hall.
The question now is whether City Hall will accept real responsibility for delivering it.
I want to be clear: As a former MTA chair I do not agree with Mamdani’s proposal to make buses free. Nevertheless, some version of it is likely to move forward, and I hope he succeeds in something I couldn’t do — finally making New York’s bus system work for the millions who rely on it every day.
Mamdani should start by doing something no mayor has done: nominate himself to serve as one of the city’s representatives on the MTA Board.
Unlike the below-ground oath of office, this would not be a symbolic gesture. Sitting on the board would signal that the city’s transit system is a core mayoral responsibility.
There is precedent for this kind of leadership. Twenty-five years ago, London faced a similar dilemma. The British government funded and managed London’s declining transport system with little local control. That changed in 2000, when Ken Livingstone became London’s first directly elected mayor and assumed the role of chair of Transport for London.
I worked at TfL during that period and witnessed Livingstone treat transportation as a defining responsibility of city leadership. He campaigned on expanding what the system could deliver and accepted political ownership for the consequences.
That ownership imposed discipline. It forced difficult trade-offs, including support for fare increases he had long opposed, resulting in reinvestment in the Underground, a transformed bus network and safer streets.
New York should learn from London’s success. Clear political ownership matters. Having Mamdani himself on the MTA Board would move the region closer to a model where the city’s top elected official owns and champions public transit.
Critics may worry that a mayor serving on the MTA Board would politicize the agency or blur lines of authority. But the MTA already operates within a political framework shaped by state and regional appointments.
Mamdani’s direct participation at the MTA Board table would help reassure the public that his free-fare proposal is achievable within the authority’s broader financial reality and that its effects on the overall transit network are being taken seriously. In any case, free fares are the easier part of his bus agenda.
Speeding up buses is far harder. We know what works: dedicated lanes, signal priority, enforced curb rules, route redesigns and faster boarding. The success of the 14th St. Busway proves the point. Select Bus Service should continue to expand, but it cannot be the backbone of a citywide solution when only 20 of more than 300 bus routes benefit from it.
The real obstacle to faster buses is our collective tolerance for behavior that paralyzes the streets: double-parking “just for a minute,” blocking bus stops and rushing intersections. These actions feel normal, even harmless — but multiplied thousands of times a day, they bring the city to a standstill.
Here, the mayor can shape street design, traffic enforcement, parking policy and interagency coordination to get buses moving. The mayor can elevate bus speed as a top-tier priority in an authority historically dominated by subway concerns. That shift would really matter — especially for the most vulnerable riders most reliant on our bus system.
Accountability cannot stop at buses. Subway safety, including policing and social services, also depends heavily on decisions made at City Hall. The mayor’s focus on buses should reinforce, not distract from, the city’s broader responsibility for the entire transit system.
The artwork at 59th St. offers a quiet reminder. Dreams are easy. Responsibility is harder. By taking a seat on the MTA Board, the mayor can show New Yorkers that he is a leader willing to accept both.
Walder is a former chairman and chief executive of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and a former senior leader at Transport for London.
