Jay Walder: MTA condition's 'terrible'

Former MTA chief Jay Walder apparently wasn't so thrilled with the transit system he left for a higher-paying job in China.

In his first interview as the newly minted chief of Hong Kong-based transit agency MTR Corp., Walder called the condition of the MTA's infrastructure "terrible" before praising his new railway system.

"New York, when I arrived there, was in a financial crisis," Walder said in his remarks to reporters in China.

"The system simply did not have enough money to operate. The assets were not being renewed and the infrastructure was in terrible condition.

"I think we have a very different situation here," Walder, 52, said. "We have a first-class railway; we have a sustainable financial model."

Despite the challenges he faced in New York, Walder said he was "able to right that financial basis and to be able to put the system back on firm financial footing."

An MTA spokesman said the agency had no comment on Walder's remarks.

SEE PHOTOSLIRR trains and commuters through the years

When Walder left the MTA in October, he said, "I wish we could have done more to be able to improve services. You have to play the hand you're dealt.

"In a different world, in a different way, all of the attention, all of the energy, would have gone into improving services," Walder said, "and that would've been great."

Walder began a 30-month contract with MTR this week for a salary of about $930,000 a year, far more than the $350,000 he was making at the MTA when he left before his contract ended.

Walder said he's not going to leave before his stint in Hong Kong is up, vowing, "I'm here to stay."