(AP) - The head of the agency that runs New York City's subways, buses and commuter trains has quit.

The MTA says Gov. David Paterson has accepted the resignation of executive director and CEO Elliot Sander.

Sander was appointed in January 2007 to head the nation's largest mass transit agency by then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

Sander is leaving in the middle of a financial crisis for the cash-strapped Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The state Legislature just passed a bill that would bail the agency out of severe service cuts and a 33 percent fare hike.