Houston’s Mayor Parker Appoints Sanjay Ramabhadran to the METRO Board

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Swearing in Sanjay Ram and Barron Wallace

HOUSTON: Houston Mayor Annise Parker has appointed Sanjay Ramabhadran to the Metropolitan Transit Authority (METRO) and the appointment was confirmed by Houston City Council on May 27, 2015. He becomes the first Indian-American to serve on the METRO Board.  METRO operates a regional multimodal transportation system across 1,300 square miles with 2,663 route miles, a 22.7 mile light rail system, 20 Transit Centers, 29 Park & Ride Facilities, HOV/HOT lanes and the complementary paratransit service, METROLift.

Sanjay Ramabhadran, a registered Professional Engineer, has provided engineering and master planning services to the Industrial and Governmental market segments for 20 years.  As Vice President at CP&Y, he directed a Corporate Practice focused on water and infrastructure across the firm’s offices. Previously, he was Principal-In-Charge of a $1 billion global consulting firm, where he managed a Business Practice for Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma. He has been an invited speaker at the US-India Infrastructure Summit in New Delhi.

His civic involvement has included serving as Chairman of the Board of Directors of LEADERSHIP HOUSTON; Director in the Texas Lyceum – a state-wide leadership group focused on public policy issues impacting Texas; Steering Committee Member – Houston General Plan; Senior Fellow – American Leadership Forum; President of the HESS Club (Houston’s oldest engineering organization); President of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston; Chairperson of the Houston Mayor’s International Trade & Development Council (South Asia); City of Houston – Building & Standards Commission; Greater Houston Partnership’s Public Safety Task Force; Connecting Communities Initiative at Rice University’s Kinder Institute; Co-Chair of the Civic Engagement Advisory Committee for the City of Houston – Public Library; Advisory Council – Houston Arts Alliance; Past-President of the Indo-American Political Action Committee; and Board of Directors of the Indo-American Charity Foundation.

Sanjay Ram was honored as one of the 2012 Ten Outstanding Young Americans (TOYA) by the United States Junior Chamber.  He was previously selected as one of Five Outstanding Young Texans in 2011 by the Texas Jaycees and one of Five Outstanding Young Houstonians for the year 2010 by the Houston Jaycees.  Selected as an ASIA 21 Young Leader, he represent the United States at the 2010 Global  Asia 21 Leadership Summit in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Communities that are part of the METRO area include the cities of Houston, Bellaire, Bunker Hill Village, El Lago, Hedwig Village, Hilshire Village, Humble, Hunters Creek, Katy, Missouri City, Piney Point, Southside Place, Spring Valley, Taylor Lake Village and West University Place. Major portions of unincorporated Harris County are also included.  With a total annual ridership of over 11.3 million, METRORail ranks as the second most-travelled light rail system in the Southern United States and the 12th most-traveled light rail system in the United States, with the third highest ridership per track mile.  The METRORail system consists of three light-rail lines and a fleet of 66 rail cars: The Red Line (North), Green Line (East End) and the Purple Line (Southeast). The Red Line is a 13-mile line that originally opened in 2004 as the Main Street Line.  The Green Line runs through the historic East End with seven stations, including Magnolia Park Transit Center, BBVA Stadium and the Theater District. The Purple Line runs through Southeast Houston with 11 stops that include the University of Houston, Third Ward, the Convention District and Theater District.

METRO has 1,230 buses and is paving the way for a cleaner Houston with 443 transit diesel-hybrid buses in operation.  METROLift is a complementary paratransit service offered by the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County in accordance with the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).   High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes operate on the Southwest, Gulf, North, Eastex and Northwest freeways. Since 2001, METRO also has been operating concurrent-flow Diamond HOV Lanes, located on the Katy Freeway between Texas Highway 6 and Texas Highway 99 (Grand Parkway) in Katy.  METRO has 29 Park & Ride lots with more than 33,000 available parking spaces. Direct nonstop service to Downtown, the Texas Medical Center or other major employment centers in the METRO service area is available from Park & Ride lots.  METRO’s 20 Transit Centers serve as efficient “hubs” to allow bus and/or METRORail riders from various locations to assemble at a central point to take advantage of express trips or other route-to-route transfers.