Community Transit has named Mark Holmes the agency’s new chief operating officer. Holmes, who starts March 21, will oversee the Snohomish County transit agency’s transportation operations as well as fleet and facilities maintenance.

Holmes has 35 years of experience in bus operations and bus and rail service planning with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in New York, the largest transit agency in the U.S. He currently serves as deputy general manager of transportation for MTA Regional Bus Operations, responsible for service management, incident management and operator safety training, as well as overseeing more than 7,500 coach operators, managers and supervisors.

Prior to his current role, Holmes served more than seven years as chief officer of operations planning for the MTA Bus Company. He led the introduction of bus rapid transit at MTA Bus, dubbed Select Bus Service (SBS). The 2016 and 2017 rollouts of the Q70SBS (aka“The LaGuardia Link”) and the Q52/53SBS, respectively, feature off-board fare collection, and innovative bus priority treatments, which have dramatically improved bus speeds along these two very busy corridors. Holmes was at the forefront of the Staten Island Express, Bronx Bus Network Redesigns, and a key lead on the massive Queens Bus Network Redesign, the largest bus redesign in the nation. He began his career at MTA in 1987 as a traffic checker and continually advanced through the agency, earning a reputation as a collaborative partner, dynamic leader and industry expert.

“Mark is an accomplished leader grounded by his lifelong commitment to excellence in public transit,” said Community Transit CEO Ric Ilgenfritz. “His vast experience and passion for quality transit make him the ideal person to help us restructure our network to improve mobility, integrate with light rail in 2024, and respond to Snohomish County’s vibrant growth into the future.”

Holmes said he was drawn to Community Transit “because of the agency’s mission and the dedicated and first-class team that works to support this mission every day. Community Transit is evolving and growing along with Snohomish County and the Puget Sound region and I’m thrilled to be a part of the agency’s next chapter.”

Holmes earned a bachelor of science in marketing from Saint John’s University in Jamaica, New York, as well as a certificate in public transportation and operations planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. He has also served as a lecturer on Transit Operations and Planning for the School of Civil Engineering at the City College of New York in New York City.