Report: Mass Transit Leader Downey Dies at 87

Mortimer L. Downey III (Photo Courtesy of the National Academy of Public Administration)

Mortimer L. Downey III, a nationally recognized leader in urban mass transit died on Nov. 2 at the age of 87, according to a report by The Washington Post.

Downey spent six years as a Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Director, including a stint as Chairman in 2015 and 2016, when he oversaw “the most fractious troubled period in the system’s 47-year history,” according to the report.

In June 2009, a WMATA Red Line train accident killed nine and injured 80 near Fort Totten station in Northeast Washington. In the wake of the crisis, The Washington Post reports, the Obama Administration named federal appointees to the WMATA Board “with the hope of reassuring commuters that safety and stronger administrative oversight were important to the system’s management.”

According to the report, his work on the Board “initially drew praise as he helped introduce safety measures.” As Chairman, however, “operational and financial crises mounted, and a hard corps of dissident board members emerged who said he was failing to introduce urgently needed reforms.” In turn, Downey accused them of “divisive rhetoric,” stalling WMATA’s expansion plans and unreasonably limiting borrowing measures.

They “made life so miserable for Downey that he decided not to seek reelection as Chairman,” The Washington Post reported in 2016. “They did so partly by raising questions about what they saw as a conflict of interest between his work on the board and a consulting deal he had with a Metro contractor. It resulted in an ethics investigation that he deeply resented, but he was ultimately cleared.” According to the report, Downey had been accused of having a conflict of interest as a paid adviser to an engineering company with ties to the transit agency.

“Despite the bad feelings, Downey felt vindicated later for having overseen the selection of Paul J. Wiedefeld as the system’s new Chief Executive and General Manager in November 2015,” according to The Washington Post report.

“WMATA is saddened to learn of the passing of former federal Board Member, Board Chair and transit industry titan Mort Downey,” the agency said in a statement. “Downey served on WMATA’s Board of Directors from 2010-2016 and was the very first federal member appointed to the Board. His decades of transportation experience were invaluable to the Board, particularly in policy setting and oversight.

“As Board Chair, he led the Board in taking on some of WMATA’s toughest challenges, including the recruitment and selection of a new General Manager, overseeing Metro’s responses to Federal Transit Administration and National Transportation Safety Board safety findings, and its oversight of Metro’s response to the FTA’s Financial Management Oversight findings.

“Mort was also known for encouraging Board members to take on a more public role during their Board service, especially in their interactions with Metro’s riders, and led the Board’s first “Meet-and-Greet” sessions with customers. His impact on the Authority, transit and transportation is immeasurable. His distinguished service will always be remembered. Our condolences to his family, former colleagues, and friends.”

In the 1960s and 1970s, Downey worked with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) and became a transportation program analyst for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Budget. He was the U.S. Transportation Department’s Assistant Secretary for Budget and Programs from 1977 to 1981.

According to the report, Downey came to WMATA after having earned a reputation for strong management with the “largest independent public authority in the country”—New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)—and then at the Transportation Department under Bill Clinton.

“As the MTA’s Executive Director and CFO from 1986 to 1993, Mortimer Downey led the agency through one of the most important eras in New York City Transit history—the subway system’s revival,” said MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber in a statement. “That comeback—starting with investments in a new fleet of subway cars—was in large part made possible because Mort pioneered borrowing in tax exempt bond markets for the MTA to fund its first Capital Programs. Without his wizardry, fiscal and otherwise, all the improvements that followed wouldn’t have been possible.”

“Mort later went on to be the longest-serving federal Deputy Secretary of Transportation in USDOT history, which is where I came to know him as a boss, and as a friend and mentor to all. In every role—including his service on the Boards of Amtrak, the Mineta Transportation Institute, and WMATA—Mort brought the same brilliance and passion that made him the premier transportation professional of his generation.”

Downey was born in Springfield, Mass., on Aug. 9, 1936. He graduated in 1954 from the private Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., and in 1958 from Yale University. He received a master’s degree in public administration from New York University in 1966.

In 1961, Downey married Dorothea Joyce Vander Meyden, a physical therapist. She died in 2013. He is survived by his two sons, Stephen M. Downey of Dix Hills, N.Y., and Christopher S. Downey of Chatham, N.J.; and seven grandchildren.

According to The Washington Post report, Downey died at a retirement home in Oakton, Va., of pulmonary fibrosis, said his former friend and colleague Kelley Coyner.