Since he became president of New York City Transit, Andy Byford has been dropping hints about his long-term subway modernization plan. Finally, at Wednesday's board meeting of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, he will present it in full.

"This plan will be no mere tweak of what we currently do. It is a full-blown NYCT renaissance," Byford said at the Regional Plan Association conference last month. "A top-to-bottom modernization of every aspect of our operation."

Byford said the plan won't be cheap, quick or easy to deliver, but it will be controversial. "Producing a plan is one thing. Delivering and funding it is quite another," he said.

"Something has to give if we're to expedite upgrading the 20 or so lines that are still held back by their conventional signaling with all of its inherent reliability and capacity constraints," he said at the conference, hinting that he would call for ending 24-hour service on some lines.

"Our plan, critically, will cost out how to re-signal the subway in the shortest time frames, the biggest most transformational task that faces us," he said.

He also expects to lay out a strategy to make every station fully accessible and "set out a path for a resurgence of our bus network."

"Be careful what you wish for," he warned. 

Byford is also expected to make changes to the MTA's corporate structure.

"The days of top down militaristic, macho, male-dominated, my-way-or-the-highway, 'I'm-the-boss-you-do-it-or-else' — that has to change," Byford said. 

Last July, MTA Chairman Joe Lhota unveiled his $800 million Subway Action Plan, which was created to "stabilize" the system and reduce the number of "major incidents" that cause delays. But the MTA's on-time performance has continued to decline, while major disruptions were up last month compared to a year earlier.