ATLANTA — Jeffrey Parker, who led the Metropolitan Atlanta Speedy Transit Authority throughout a time of growth after which through the pandemic when public transportation ridership plummeted, has died, the company introduced.
A spokesperson for the company, Stephany Fisher, stated that Parker killed himself when he was struck by a practice within the East Lake Station in DeKalb County at about 10:30 p.m. Friday.
“He was an excellent chief and steward of MARTA whose passing leaves us all heartbroken,” MARTA Chairwoman Rita Scott stated in a press release posted on the company’s web site. “We're devastated at this loss as we valued Jeff’s management and regarded ahead to him bringing his imaginative and prescient for transit to fruition. The whole metro Atlanta area owes him a debt of gratitude for his transformational efforts and we won't cease working to construct on the muse he created.”
Others expressed their condolences, together with Gov. Brian Kemp, who tweeted that Parker “had an unimaginable thoughts for transportation and logistics and a coronary heart for individuals.”
Parker was a nationally acknowledged transportation chief. On its web site, MARTA stated Parker had greater than 35 years of expertise within the transportation business. Throughout his profession he served as commissioner of the Connecticut Division of Transportation and held management posts throughout his 20-year tenure on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
In response to the web site, Parker was persistently acknowledged as one among Atlanta’s most influential leaders, most just lately named amongst Atlanta Journal’s Most Highly effective Folks of 2020 and Atlanta Enterprise Chronicle’s Energy 100: Most Influential Atlantans of 2020. Parker was additionally acknowledged in 2019 by the Atlanta Chapter of Girls’s Transportation Seminar as its “Man of the Yr” for his robust file of hiring and selling ladies within the transportation business.
In his almost 4 years main MARTA, the 55-year-old Parker oversaw growth plans in Atlanta and Clayton County, in keeping with The Atlanta Journal Structure. The paper additionally pointed to his “stable efficiency” through the 2019 Tremendous Bowl in Atlanta, when a whole lot of 1000's rode trains on their technique to and from the sport and different Tremendous Bowl-related occasions.
Whereas he helped negotiate a brand new labor settlement that resulted in 3% annual raises for employees, he additionally helped information MARTA through the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the crucial difficult instances for MARTA and transportation businesses across the nation as ridership plummeted and diseases amongst staffers elevated.
On Saturday, the MARTA Board of Administrators voted unanimously to call Collie Greenwood because the company’s interim basic supervisor and CEO. Greenwood joined MARTA in 2019 as head of bus operations and was promoted to deputy basic manger of operations in January of final 12 months, in keeping with a press launch from the company.
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