Buck Ennis

Mayor Bill de Blasio jumped into the campaign to convince New York City Transit chief Andy Byford, AKA Train Daddy, not to quit. In his weekly "Ask the Mayor" segment Friday on WNYC, de Blasio told host Brian Lehrer that the British-born subway savior is a ‘singular talent’ and he hopes he can be persuaded to withdraw his resignation, which Byford submitted Thursday. “How many people can handle the MTA?” de Blasio asked Lehrer.

Last year New York City Transit President Andy Byford, was everywhere. The British-born technocrat spent his first year on the job hawking his Fast Forward plan—to modernize the subways and buses—at town halls, in front of civic and industry groups, on 60 Minutes and in these pages as well as those of The New Yorker. But there were signs that Byford was in danger of crossing the man who controls the system: Governor Andrew Cuomo.