Veteran railroad signal engineer Keith Holt has left Amtrak, where he was Deputy Chief Engineer, Communications and Signals, to become Director of Engineering for Railroad Systems at WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff.
Holt will be responsible for leadership, direction and management of engineering services for railroad and rail transit projects and will support WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff’s related business initiatives across the U.S.
Holt has more than 41 years of experience in the design, construction and maintenance of signal and train control systems. At Amtrak, he had overall responsibility for the railroad’s signal and train control systems, including Positive Train Control (among them the Northeast Corridor’s recently completes ACSES technology) communications systems and computerized dispatching systems.
Holt started his career in 1975 with division of Safetran Systems Corp. (now a part of Siemens) in Louisville, Ky., in systems design and construction. In 1983, he joined Union Switch & Signal (now Ansaldo STS) in Pittsburgh, Pa. In 1990 joined Amtrak as Senior Director Signal Construction and became Deputy Chief Engineer C&S in 1992.
Holt received a B.S. in electrical engineering from Western Kentucky University. He is active in the Transportation Research Board and is a member of the AREMA (American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association) and the AAR (Association of American Railroads).