WMATA Tabs Dwyer as COO

Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
Brian Dwyer, incoming COO for WMATA. (Photograph Courtesy of WSP USA)

Brian Dwyer, incoming COO for WMATA. (Photograph Courtesy of WSP USA)

Brian Dwyer on Aug. 8 will join Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) as Chief Operating Officer. He succeeds Joe Leader, who resigned in May.

Both Leader and former General Manager and CEO Paul J. Wiedefeld stepped down from WMATA on May 16, just one day after the transit agency announced it was removing from service 72 rail operators due to a lapse in recertification.

The Washington Post on Aug. 2 reported Dwyer’s appointment at WMATA, where he will be “responsible for managing daily operations of Metrorail, Metrobus, MetroAccess paratransit services and Metro Transit Police.” He will focus on “returning to service Metro’s [WMATA’s] 7000-series railcars, most of which remain suspended because of a defect in wheels and axles that has been found in several of the cars,” plus “opening the long-delayed Silver Line extension to Dulles International Airport and Loudoun County, and overseeing bus service that will replace the Yellow Line for eight months starting in September as Metro rehabilitates a bridge and tunnel.”

Dwyer will report to Randy Clarke, who took over as General Manager and CEO in late July. (Andy Off, WMATA’s Executive Vice President, Capital Delivery, had been leading WMATA on an interim basis since Wiedefeld’s departure in May.)

Dwyer served most recently as Vice President and Northeast Region Transit Rail Market Lead at WSP USA. Previously, he was Vice President and Director of Transit for STV, working on operational readiness for the Confederation Line Light Rail in Ottawa, Canada; project management on safety and training reviews for TriMet in Portland, Ore., and Metro Transit in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn.; operational and safety tasks for Maryland Transit Administration, including implementation of an operations safety rules compliance program; and a variety of project management and task management services for the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA).

For nearly 25 years, Dwyer worked for MBTA, starting as a Red Line train attendant in 1988 and rising through the ranks until he retired in 2011 as Director of Light Rail Operations.

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