New York City Transit — the MTA division that runs the city’s buses, subways and Access-A-Ride — is appointing new leadership in each system, the Daily News has learned.
Transit officials confirmed Thursday what multiple sources told The News — that the current acting leaders in subways and paratransit (Access-A-Ride) will be made permanent: Bill Amarosa in the Department of Subways and Rachel Cohen in Paratransit.
“We did a national search for the best of the best,” NYCT President Demetrius Crichlow told The News Thursday. “It just so happened the cream that rose to the top was already here [at NYCT].”
Additionally, bus boss Frank Annicaro will leave his role in May, sources said, and head to Albany to lead that city’s Capital District Transportation Authority as CEO. The MTA’s current operations planning chief, Chris Pangilinan, will serve as the senior vice president of buses in an acting capacity until a permanent successor for Annicaro is chosen.
The MTA is also hiring Bernard Jackson, formerly of Dallas Area Rapid Transit, to serve as NYCT’s chief operating officer — effectively, Crichlow’s number two.
Jackson started his transit career as a bus driver in Chicago, before rising through the ranks to oversee both bus and subway operations in the Windy City over the course of almost three decades. Jackson then went to the Los Angeles Metro before overseeing operations in Dallas.
Amarosa, the new vice president of subways, is a Queens native. A lifelong subway buff, he interned with NYCT in high school, and earned a nod from the Guinness Book of World Records in 2007 for traveling through all of the system’s stations in the least amount of time.
Amarosa joined the MTA in 2008 and spent years conducting in-house data analysis on the subway and bus lines. He became the vice president of operations support for the Department of Subways in 2022, and has been serving as acting head of subways since December 2024.
Pangilinan, who will run buses until a permanent leader is appointed, rose to his current planning role in 2024 after heading MTA Paratransit for two years. He has also worked for San Francisco Muni — San Francisco’s transit network — the U.S. Department of Transportation and rideshare giant Uber.
Cohen, now the vice president of paratransit, was given that responsibility in an acting capacity after Pangilinan’s promotion in 2024. She joined New York City Transit in 2018 following a stint at the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission.
Cohen’s and Amarosa’s promotions are expected to be effective by the end of the week. Jackson is expected to start in early May.