Keith Parker, VIA CEO Could Be Atlanta Bound...He is Certainly Well Qualified....

VIA Metropolitan Transit CEO and President Keith Parker was picked Friday as one of two finalists for chief of the Atlanta transit system.

The board of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, or MARTA, said the other finalist is Stephen G. Bland, CEO of the Allegheny County Port Authority, which run the regional transit system in Pittsburgh.

Parker has been in charge of VIA the last three years. Before then, he was chief of transit in Charlotte, N.C., where he had been an assistant city manager.

He's also held executive positions at transit systems in Vancouver, Wash., and Richmond, Va., near where Parker was born and raised.

Priscilla Ingle, spokeswoman for VIA, said Parker was tied up in meetings Friday afternoon and couldn't respond to news that the final selection was down to him and Bland.

She provided a statement that read: “The selection process is still under way. Mr. Parker continues to serve our agency and remains committed to advancing the vision of VIA Metropolitan Transit.”

VIA board members didn't seemed surprised that Parker had made the penultimate cut. And they voiced admiration for an executive they said has greatly improved the local public transportation scene.

“Obviously, we would hate to see Mr. Parker go,” Mary Briseño said. “He's done a tremendous job for us and left us in a better place then we were before. But I don't want to be premature; hopefully, maybe he'll see things differently” and not leave San Antonio.

Board member Gerald Lee agreed Parker leaves behind a string of successes, should he take the Atlanta job.

“In the past three years he's been remarkable, from getting grants to establishing the first nontraditional bus service in San Antonio to laying the groundwork for street cars,” he said. “That will all be the legacy of Keith Parker.”

According to information released by MARTA, Bland has been on numerous local, state and national transit boards. He is a past chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Transportation Association and a past president of the New York Public Transit Association.

MARTA has a $435 million operating budget for fiscal 2013, spokesman Lyle V. Harris said. In 2010, the agency counted about 146.2 million passenger trips.

VIA's 2013 forecasted operating budget is $176.9 million. In 2011, the agency recorded 44.6 million trips.

mstoeltje@express-news.net

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