New TRE Chief Has a Tall Order
By Gordon Dickson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
Apr. 24–FORT WORTH — Bill Farquhar is modest about his role as the new leader of the Trinity Railway Express.
“My focus will be on on-time service, clean trains, a friendly, customer service-oriented staff,” said Farquhar, who started work as TRE’s chief operating officer April 16. “In other words, what you can expect from the Trinity Railway Express already.”
Tarrant County officials say the 48-year-old native Californian was brought in to manage commuter rail expansion in the western Metroplex through 2012, including adding TRE express trains, adding track to the TRE line and opening a proposed line from southwest Fort Worth to Grapevine and Dallas/Fort Worth Airport.
Farquhar worked the past two years in Nashville, Tenn., where he directed the opening of the Music City Star commuter rail line in September.
“He understands how to build one and get one going,” said Fort Worth Transportation Authority President Dick Ruddell, who selected Farquhar. The agency, also known as the T, co-owns TRE with Dallas Area Rapid Transit.
Tall order
Important steps remain before the commuter rail line from southwest Fort Worth to D/FW can open:
Less than half the money to cover the estimated $390 million in startup costs has been identified, and planners are taking a risk that federal grant money will be available to fill the gaps.
A federally required environmental study, which can take years, has not begun.
The T doesn’t have agreements with the owners of the railroad tracks — DART and the Fort Worth & Western Railroad — to use the lines.
Rail cars must be bought.
Stations must be built.
Success in Nashville
The TRE began service in 1996, and it now carries about 8,000 riders a day between downtown Fort Worth and Dallas, with stops in Northeast Tarrant County and Irving.
In Nashville, Farquhar was hired in 2005 as commuter rail director for the Music City Star, which runs four trains with 600 riders a day.
Farquhar arrived in Nashville after the project had been funded, cleared environmental review and locomotives and railcars were on site.
But he managed the rehabilitation of the 32-mile line between Nashville and Lebanon, Tenn. — including new railroad ties and signals — and platforms at six stops.
What Farquhar lacks in style and big-city executive experience, he makes up for with attention to detail, said Jay Johnson, city administrator of Franklin, Tenn.
“He’s not exactly a public speaker. I don’t know if Bill brings a lot to the table there,” said Johnson, who served on the committee that interviewed Farquhar for the Nashville job. “But the reconstruction of the track was really accomplished while he was here. That, and putting together the schedule. In my opinion, he pulled all the pieces together.”
Job duties
Farquhar was hired for his new post after Pete Sklannik, TRE’s leader since 2003, resigned to join a transportation consulting firm.
Farquhar’s responsibilities at the TRE are split between its two owner agencies. The T makes administrative decisions, while DART handles purchasing.
As chief operating officer, Farquhar will be the highest-ranking employee at TRE’s yard in west Irving and will represent TRE before the T and DART governing boards.
Farquhar also will supervise the contract with Herzog Transit Services, which operates TRE day to day. Most TRE workers, including those who operate trains, are Herzog employees.
IN THE KNOW
William T. “Bill” Farquhar
Occupation: Chief operating officer, Trinity Railway Express
Salary: $116,000 a year
Background: Raised in San Diego, San Francisco and Denver. Certified locomotive engineer. Planner for Coaster commuter rail line in San Diego. Worked several weeks on loan to commuter rail startups in Seattle, where he reviewed the schedules and trained customer service employees, and the Altamont Commuter Express in Stockton, Calif., where he created an emergency response plan and a data system. Rail planner for Korve Engineering of Oakland and Metrolink rail in Los Angeles.
Education: Bachelor’s degree in management and administration from Charter Oaks State College, a distance-learning school based in Connecticut, in 2005. Turned to Charter Oaks after learning he had not been awarded a degree at San Diego State University, where he studied urban transportation from 1986 to 1992. He was missing one test, but because the curriculum had changed, he needed two more semesters of classes. “As my career kept on, it just kept bothering me that I didn’t have a degree,” he said. He also took classes at Arapahoe (Colo.) Community College between 1977 and 1992.
SOURCES: Bill Farquhar, Fort Worth Transportation Authority, Charter Oaks State College
——
Gordon Dickson, 817-685-3816 gdickson@star-telegram.com
—–
Copyright (c) 2007, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
KualaLumpur:1708,