As a child, Demetrius Crichlow noticed that his father’s palms were often stained black with grease after long days as a train car repairman in New York City’s transit system.
The image instilled a profound admiration for rail work in Mr. Crichlow, whose grandfather also worked for the system. He has gone on to have a 27-year career with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that has elevated him into its executive ranks.
His family history with the authority has contributed to his reverence for it. “We never had a want for anything because transit gave it to us,” Mr. Crichlow, 49, said.
Now, he is taking on a new role that will test him as none of his previous posts have. Last month, Mr. Crichlow was named the head of New York City Transit, the division of the M.T.A. that runs the subway and bus networks.
He steps into a position that is arguably second only to Janno Leiber, the M.T.A.’s chief executive, in wielding responsibility for the largest and busiest subway system on the continent. More accustomed to working in the background, Mr. Crichlow is entering the spotlight at a time when the M.T.A. is under even more intense scrutiny than usual.
In January, the agency will debut congestion pricing, a tolling program that will charge most drivers $9 to enter the most traffic-jammed streets of Manhattan. The plan, which aims to raise some $15 billion for crucial improvements to the aging mass transit system, has incensed many opponents. A barrage of lawsuits is trying to stop it, and President-elect Donald J. Trump has vowed to kill it, creating great fiscal uncertainty for the M.T.A.
At the same time, subways and buses are losing millions of dollars annually to people who evade the fare, ridership levels have not fully rebounded from the depths of the coronavirus pandemic and some passengers complain about feeling unsafe.
And the M.T.A., long a battleground for city and state officials, is again in the political spotlight. Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a famously hands-on administrator of the M.T.A. during his time in Albany, criticized a project to shut down a section of the A train for repairs this winter as he builds on his potential candidacy for next year’s New York City mayoral race.
It would be noteworthy if Mr. Crichlow lasted more than a couple of years in the job. Over the past decade, the transit division has not retained a president longer than three years.
“It is — make no mistake about it — one of the most challenging jobs in the United States or anywhere,” said Lisa Daglian, the executive director of the authority’s Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee, a watchdog group. “It’s not a job I would want.”
Mr. Crichlow had been the interim head of New York City Transit since June. His appointment to the permanent post made him the first Black man to have the job at an institution that employs tens of thousands of transit workers, 67 percent of whom are Black and Latino men and women.
“To be the first is significant because it represents so much hope for others who have similar talents like I do,” he said.
He grew up in Long Island with four brothers and three sisters. His younger sister, Melanie Ramsey, said that when she was a teenager, he was protective and often helped her navigate the subway, giving her advice about the most efficient routes. Their father, Belford Crichlow, would take them on train rides to teach them about the transit system. Ms. Ramsey described her brother as “a man of few words” who works hard but does not seek recognition.
His mother, Gloria Crichlow, said she was proud when her son began his first transit job as an assistant signalman at the Long Island Rail Road in 1997, earning $32,000 per year. In his early years, Mr. Crichlow recalled “digging ditches and climbing poles” — tasks that were physically demanding but afforded him a good salary and benefits even though he did not have a college degree.
During his early years at the M.T.A., Mr. Crichlow mastered the authority’s rigorous coursework and then helped friends cram for tests about equipment and safety.
Nowadays, his co-workers said, he frequently traverses the sprawling system from early morning until late night, shaking the hands of track workers, line superintendents and train operators. His wife, Gisela Crichlow, a stay-at-home mother, jokingly calls him “the man who never sleeps.” Mr. Crichlow said that is a misnomer; he averages about four hours per night.
He rose through the ranks over the decades, and in July 2021, he was named senior vice president of subways. Since that time, train reliability improved, and ridership soared from roughly 51 percent to 76 percent of prepandemic rates.
Mr. Lieber said that he wants Mr. Crichlow, a soft-spoken father of three with a head of neatly cropped salt-and-pepper curls, to improve service, to combat a public perception that the subway is dangerous and to tamp down fare evasion.
“There’s no silver bullet,” Mr. Crichlow said earlier this month as he crisscrossed the system wearing a dark suit adorned with a miniature blue rose — the M.T.A.’s signature color. “It takes a lot of small improvements.”
In his new job, Mr. Crichlow will build on a data system that measures the time it takes for trains to travel between stations in order to figure out the cause of delays. He has also worked to find train operators who take too long to finish trips and provided mentoring services to help them improve their performance. Next year, he will use newly installed cameras in all subway cars to improve safety. He will also bring in training for all frontline employees to defuse potentially dangerous situations with riders.
Mr. Lieber said that concerns about retention at the agency were overblown. He is optimistic that Mr. Crichlow, “a guy with a lot of energy” who is well liked by many peers, will stay on the job longer than his predecessors.
Even with his gusto, the job of running New York City’s subway and bus system is demanding, involving oversight of roughly 49,000 people who work around the clock to deliver service to four million riders every weekday. And some of the toughest challenges that Mr. Crichlow will face are out of his control.
“He’s got longevity in his own career and in his family history with the transit authority, but what he needs more than anything else is the loyalty of the governor and the Legislature so he has the resources to work with and deliver,” said Danny Pearlstein, a spokesman for Riders Alliance. “It demands commitment from politicians.”
For Mr. Crichlow, the hardest part of the job is handling when a worker dies or is seriously injured. He said he keeps the obituary of two workers on his desk to remind himself about the importance of safety protocols. On days when a death or injury occurs, his wife said that “he feels like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders.”
His longtime friend and colleague Steve Hurst, 46, said that Mr. Crichlow is being rightfully rewarded for many hours toiling in the system. He reminisced over early days when they quizzed each other on the Long Island Rail Road’s paths. Mr. Hurst said that despite his remarkable achievements, Mr. Crichlow has stayed humble, and their relationship remains unchanged.
“I saw him on Wednesday, and here he is, the president of transit,” Mr. Hurst said during a recent phone call. “And I felt like I was still talking to the person that was in my train dispatching class.”
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