Amtrak and New Jersey Transit veteran Kevin J. O’Connor has been named Chief Transportation Officer. He will be working closely with Assistant Vice President John McNulty until McNulty’s retirement this summer. During his 36-year career in railroading, O’Connor rose through the ranks, starting at Amtrak where he began his career first as a service attendant, block operator and train dispatcher, then in progressively responsible positions in operations management for Amtrak and NJT. Most recently, he was Vice President and General Manager of Rail Operations for NJT. O’Connor implemented the FRA’s Confidential Close Call Reporting System (C3RS) as well as programs to improve customer service at NJT.
Metro-North Acting Chief Mechanical Officer Michael J. Yaeger has been promoted to CMO. Yaeger has spent 27 years at Metro‐North in the Maintenance of Equipment Department, in project planning and maintenance operations. He has also participated in Metro‐North’s benchmarking efforts, representing the railroad internationally as it sought to identify operational best practices and implement them successfully. Yaeger had been Acting CMO since July 2013.
Glen E. Hayden has to returned to Metro-North in the newly created position of Vice President Engineering, reporting directly to Senior Vice President Operations John E. Kesich. Hayden brings 37 years of experience to this position. During the past 16 years, he worked for Parsons Brinkerhoff, where he was responsible for planning and project management for a number of major transportation projects throughout the Northeast. Hayden spent much of his early career at Metro-North and its predecessor railroads, rising to the position of Chief Engineer. He then worked for F.R. Harris before joining PB. He is a Professional Engineer, licensed in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
Through Hayden, Metro-North’s Maintenance-of-Way Department is now reporting directly to Kesich.