Permanent LIRR president within 6 months, MTA head says

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is on the hunt for a permanent LIRR president, the MTA’s chief said Wednesday, two days after interim president Catherine Rinaldi announced she was stepping down.

At the transit authority’s monthly board meeting in Manhattan, chairman and CEO Janno Lieber said the MTA has “begun a search” for the LIRR’s first permanent president since Phillip Eng resigned in February of 2022. Lieber said the MTA is looking to fill the position within six months.

On Monday, Rinaldi announced she would “begin the process of my transitioning out” of her role as interim LIRR president — a position she held for 18 months while simultaneously serving as president of Metro-North, the MTA’s other commuter railroad.

The move followed growing calls from Long Island commuters and their representatives for the MTA to appoint a full-time LIRR leader, who they said could pay closer attention to issues affecting Nassau and Suffolk train riders.

Lieber tapped the LIRR’s senior vice president of operations, Robert Free, to run the railroad as its “acting president.” On Wednesday, Lieber said Free “absolutely will be considered, if he wants to be” for the permanent president’s position.

Despite the LIRR leadership shake-up, Lieber defended the decision to have Rinaldi lead both MTA railroads at the same time. Lieber appointed Rinaldi, a former Long Island Rail Road general counsel, to the dual role as the LIRR prepared to move into Metro-North's longtime Manhattan home, Grand Central.

“There definitely have been real advantages to having somebody who knows both railroads, looking at them in different aspects, side-by-side,” Lieber said.

Rinaldi will continue to advise the LIRR and the MTA on “cross-railroad efficiencies,” Lieber said, including throughout forthcoming contract negotiations with LIRR and Metro-North unions.

MTA officials have not disclosed what Rinaldi will be paid in her new role. 

Free will step into the acting LIRR president's job sometime next month, an MTA spokesperson said. His compensation has not yet been determined.

In public comments before the meeting Wednesday, Lisa Daglian, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, said her group, which includes the LIRR Commuter Council, looks forward to working with Free, and thanked Rinaldi “for the unfathomable amount of work” she put in over the last year and a half.

“Your efforts were and are appreciated,” Daglian said.

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.