Silien to retire from Parsons Brinckerhoff

Joseph S. Silien, whose career in the rail transportation industry spans more than 40 years, has announced his retirement, effective Jan. 7, 2011, as Vice President and Mid-Atlantic/Southeast Region Manager for Parsons Brinckerhoff’s Transit & Rail Technical Excellence Center. Silien joined PB in 1996.

After graduating from Columbia University with Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in urban planning, Silien joined the Urban Mass Transportation Administration (now the Federal Transit Administration), where he served as the first Director of the Office of Rail Technology. He was responsible for the development of the urban rail test facilities at the Transportation Test Center (now TTCI) in Pueblo, Colo., as well as for the first UMTA-sponsored rail research and development program. A variety of innovative vehicle projects were undertaken during his tenure at UMTA, including demonstration of the first a.c. powered transit cars (in Cleveland), and dual-mode gas turbine-electric cars (in New York). Silien is credited with being among those transportation professionals who helped develop modern of light rail transit in the U.S.

In 1976, Silen became the Executive Director of the transit authority serving metropolitan Rochester, NY, with a four-county fixed route and demand-responsive system. In 1989, Joe joined ABB Traction where, as Vice President of Business Development, he was responsible for the North American tour of the Swedish X2000 high speed tilting train, which Amtrak evaluated during its Northeast Corridor high speed trainset procurement program.

Silien has been active in the Transportation Research Board and the American Public Transportation Association, where he served as the first chairman of APTA’s Light Rail Transit Committee. He was the founding chairman of the Intercity Corridor Development Committee, now APTA’s High Speed Rail Committee, overseeing APTA’s inclusion of the former High Speed Ground Transportation Association.