Polly Trottenberg, familiar to the rail industry in her role as Under Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation, will serve as the Transportation Commissioner for New York City's new mayor, Bill de Blasio, who assumed office Jan. 1, 2014.
Trottenberg is expected to advance de Blasio's agenda to expand Bus Rapid Transit in the city's outer boroughs, and address growing bicycle and pedestrian needs. But New York-area advocates, including those enthusiastic about her appointment, see few signs of any support for expanding rail transit, despite Trottenberg's clear support for same in her former role at DOT, as well as at her previous position as executive director of Building America's Future.
At DOT, she played a key role in developing the federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program to advance multimodal projects.