After 17 months as head of TransLink, Tom Prendergast is Broadway bound to run one of the world’s largest transit systems.
TransLink’s departing president and CEO said Thursday the opportunity to run the New York City Transit Authority was too good to pass up — although he did twice.
“(New York) is a city that never sleeps,” Prendergast said.
“The subway and bus system is the lifeblood of the city … there are eight million people in New York and five million people take the subway and trains.”
He took the job when approached for the third time because he felt “the window of opportunity” was closing and that Metro Vancouver’s transit system was now on sound financial footing.
Ian Jarvis, TransLink’s chief financial officer, will replace Prendergast as interim president and CEO.
Prendergast, who has more than 30 years of transit experience, was a vice-president of the New York City subway system in the 1990s and later was president of the largest commuter railroad in the U.S., the Long Island Railroad.
TransLink chair Dale Parker said TransLink got more than its money’s worth from Prendergast.
“What he’s brought to this organization is phenomenal,” Parker said.
“This is a much stronger management team. The strategy, the way forward is much clearer for us.”
