Chief of transit systems in New York, Boston, London dead at 80

CHILMARK, Mass.— Robert Kiley, credited with revitalizing and modernizing public transportation networks in Boston, New York and London has died at 80.

Kiley died Tuesday at his Martha’s Vineyard home of complications of Alzheimer’s disease, according to his family.

Kiley revived Boston’s public transport system in the 1970s and New York’s in the 1980s. He was commissioner of transport for London from 2001 to 2006, overseeing the rebuilding of the century-old Tube, its stations, subway cars and rail infrastructure.

In Boston, he ended decades of patronage by introducing a lottery system for hiring drivers and workers, opening well-paid jobs at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to minorities and women.

In New York, he instituted management reforms and secured $8 billion in state capital funds to rebuild the system.