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On Friday, MTA New York City Transit (NYCT) announced the first in a series of planned “sweeping” structural changes in the department of subways, which provides service to more than 5 million riders daily.

The agency made two senior-level personnel moves to “make certain that all critical maintenance functions are fully and completely performed in the areas of power, track, signals, communications and subway cars,” said NYCT President Thomas Prendergast in a prepared statement.

The agency named Carmen Bianco senior vice president for subways and announced that Steven Feil — who held that position since 2007 — will assume the newly created role of VP and chief maintenance officer.

Previously NYCT’s assistant VP for system safety between 1991 and 1995, Bianco has held various senior-level positions at New Jersey Transit and Amtrak, where at one time he was acting VP of operations. Feil previously was chief operating officer for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, and VP and general manager of operations for the Hudson-Bergen line for Washington Group International.

“With this change in structure, maintenance resources will be centralized, absorbed from the current decentralized group and line general manager structure, which does not provide for the most efficient and effective use of those limited resources,” said Prendergast. “The line general manager program will remain, but with a more focused role on transportation and customer service.”