He came up with creative funding methods to rejuvenate the New York City subway system. While serving as a leader in the U.S. Transportation Department in Washington, he strengthened Amtrak and obtained federal funding for public transportation.
Mortimer L. Downey, known for his innovative financing that helped rejuvenate the New York City subway system and his extensive involvement in regional and federal transportation policies for over six decades, passed away on Thursday at a retirement facility in Oakton, Virginia. He was 87.
The cause of his death was pulmonary fibrosis, according to Kelley Coyner, a friend, former colleague, and family spokesperson.
Mr. Downey inadvertently became a transportation expert after receiving no job offers from the banking and financial sector recruiters he interviewed with while he was a student at Yale in the late 1950s.
Instead, he joined as a management trainee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which marked the beginning of his journey that eventually led him to Washington. In Washington, he held the position of the longest-serving deputy secretary in the U.S. Transportation Department, serving from 1993 to 2001 during the Clinton administration, under Secretaries Federico Peña and Rodney Slater.
During his eight-year tenure as the department’s chief operating officer, Mr. Downey played a pivotal role in various initiatives, including reforms to Amtrak and the development of the Transportation Equity Act of 1998. This legislation, which was the most costly public works bill ever passed by Congress, authorized an expenditure of $217 billion (equivalent to approximately $413 billion in today’s currency) and provided localities with more flexibility in utilizing federal funds for mass transit.
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“In recent history, there’s hardly anyone who made a more significant contribution to our nation’s transportation and mobility systems than Mort Downey,” Mr. Peña expressed in an email.
During the 1980s, Mr. Downey played a crucial role in formulating three strategies that raised substantial funds for mass transit in the New York metropolitan area, even in the aftermath of the city and state’s financial crisis in the mid-1970s. Alongside Richard Ravitch, the Chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (M.T.A.), Mr. Downey successfully convinced the bond market that an agency running at a deficit for every ride would increase fares or explore other avenues to repay borrowed funds.
Jay Walder, who later served as Chairman of the M.T.A. after Mr. Downey, referred to this credit as the essential foundation for revitalizing the transportation system. Through this approach, the agency secured approximately $3 billion, which was used to acquire 1,500 subway cars, a new bus fleet, and commuter rail trains. These funds also supported the refurbishment of stations, signals, tracks, power systems, and maintenance facilities, as well as upgrading the existing rolling stock.
Furthermore, Mr. Downey devised an innovative lease-back financing arrangement where new subway cars were sold to private companies, allowing them to enjoy tax benefits related to depreciation that a public agency could not. These businesses then leased the subway cars back to the M.T.A.
The high demand for new subway cars led to the establishment of the largest rail car manufacturing plant in the nation, located upstate in New York, which is another part of Mr. Downey’s legacy, as noted by Mr. Walder.
Additionally, in 1985, facing an impending deadline, Mr. Downey orchestrated a swap of approximately $500 million in federal funds initially designated for the ill-fated Westway arterial highway along Manhattan’s Hudson River waterfront, redirecting it to mass transit projects.
Janno Lieber, the Chief Executive of the M.T.A., praised Mr. Downey’s wizardry, both in fiscal matters and otherwise, without which the subsequent improvements would not have been achievable. He referred to Mr. Downey as “the foremost transportation professional of his generation.”
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