Pete Tomlin is an expert in transit signalling systems, who was employed by both the Toronto Transit Commission, the New York City Transit Authority, Hong Kong and the London Underground.
Tomlin was responsible for installing the signal system on London's Jubilee line, in 1997, and the West Rail and Ma On Shan subway lines in Hong Kong, before coming to Toronto to upgrade the signal system on the Yonge-University Line.
Andy Byford, who became the General Manager of New York's MTA, after five years as General Manager of the TTC, in 2017, would hire Tomlin, who had worked under him in Toronto, in January 2019.Byford described his hiring of Tomlin as a "coup", because multiple other systems had also wanted to hire him.According to the New York Daily News it was his expertise in upgrading the signal infrastructure subways use that put him in demand.Many major cities share the problem of their most used lines approaching, or occasionally exceeding, their maximum passenger carrying capacity.Improving the signals system, so trains can run closer together, thus more frequently, can increase a subway line's passenger capacity, postponing the day they needed to be supplemented by new parallel lines.
Tomlin was hired during the middle of a hiring freeze.
According to The Globe and Mail Tomlin had overseen modernization of the signal systems of both London and Hong Kong's subway systems, prior to coming to Toronto.
In describing the challenge of gradually replacing a subway line's signals system, while it is still in use, Tomlin said “A colleague of mine once described it like … conducting open-heart surgery on a 100-year-old person while he’s eating his lunch.”
Byford had repeatedly clashed with Governor Andrew Cuomo, and finally resigned, on January 15, 2020.Tomlin resigned nine days later, on January 24, 2020.