Underground Man
 

Crossposted to uk.transport.london and nyc.transit



"Jon Bell" wrote (on misc.transport.urban-transit):

The February 9 issue of _New Yorker_ magazine has an interesting article
titled "Underground Man", about the experiences of Bob Kiley (former head
of NY's MTA) as London's transport commissioner under mayor Ken
Livingstone.

David Gunn (who ran the NYC subway under Kiley and now runs Amtrak) plays
a "bit part" in the story, because Kiley brought him over to help out.
But he didn't last long, after a run-in with some Treasury bureaucrats:

| [Gunn:] "I was straight off an overnight plane, unshaved, still in
| jeans, and this young woman from the Treasury starts lecturing me about
| how you buy subway cars. I said, 'Who the hell are you to tell me?
| Have you ever bought a subway car?'" Another representative from the
| Government side--"a lord, or whatever," Gunn recalled--tried to make
| peace, saying, "You New Yorkers are certainly outspoken." Gunn said,
| "I'm from Canada, and I didn't come over here to be lectured." Within
| a month, Gunn had left for Nova Scotia.

Kiley, on the other hand, has apparently fared much better, although with
some ups and downs.

--
Jon Bell Presbyterian College
Dept. of Physics and Computer Science Clinton, South Carolina USA