Joseph C. Szabo (born December 26, 1957) is a former government official who was the twelfth

Federal Railroad Administrator The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is an agency in the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). The agency was created by the Department of Transportation Act of 1966. The purpose of the FRA is to promulgate and enforce rail saf ...

of the United States. Nominated by President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

on March 20, 2009, he was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

on April 29, 2009. Safety was the top priority of his administration. He stepped down from the position on January 9, 2015 and

Sarah Feinberg Sarah Elizabeth Feinberg (born October 3, 1977) is an American civic employee who previously served as the Interim President of the New York City Transit Authority from 2020 to 2021, and a former Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administratio ...

became the Acting Administrator on January 12, 2015, and subsequently the permanent Administrator.

Life and career

Szabo was born into a longtime railroad family. He started his own railroading career in 1976 with the

Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also co ...

, where he worked in numerous positions, including as a yard switchman, road trainman, and commuter conductor. He served as the

United Transportation Union The United Transportation Union (UTU) was a broad-based, transportation labor union that represented about 70,000 active and retired railroad, bus, mass transit, and airline workers in the United States. The UTU was headquartered in Cleveland, Oh ...

's State Legislative Director from 1996 to 2009. Szabo served more than 20 years in municipal government. He began his public service as a zoning commission member in his native south suburban

Riverdale, Illinois Riverdale is a village in Cook County, Illinois, Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 10,663 at the 2020 census. The village shares its name with the bordering Riverdale, Chicago, Riverdale neighborhood in Chicago. Geography ...

, where he later served as a park district commissioner, village trustee, and ultimately mayor. He also was a member of the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association executive board and transportation committee and the regional Council of Mayors executive committee. Other prior service included membership on the Executive Council of Chicago Metropolis 2020 (later known as Metropolis Strategies), the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, and the Legislative Committee of the Chicago Metropolitan Planning Council. Szabo joined the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) as a Senior Fellow in January 2015 and was named Executive Director in June 2015. CMAP serves as the seven-county region’s official comprehensive planning organization. Adopted in October 2010, its GO TO 2040 plan is helping the 284 communities of northeastern Illinois to implement strategies that address transportation, housing, economic development, open space, the environment, and other quality-of-life issues. The agency's ON TO 2050 comprehensive plan was adopted on October 10, 2018. Szabo announced his retirement from CMAP on February 15, 2019. Szabo earned the Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Governors State University and received an honorary doctorate from

Lewis University Lewis University is a private Roman Catholic and Lasallian university in Romeoville, Illinois, United States. The enrollment is currently around 6,800 students. Lewis offers more than 80 undergraduate majors and programs of study, 22 graduate pro ...

for his lifetime commitment to public service. In March 2015, Amtrak honored him by renaming its key operations facility at Chicago's Union Station as the "Joseph C. Szabo Chicago Control Center," which dispatches 580 trains and 120,000 passengers daily.

References

External links

Full Biography at the FRA's Website
!--dead link--> {{DEFAULTSORT:Szabo, Joseph C. Living people 1957 births Mayors of places in Illinois People from Evergreen Park, Illinois United States Department of Transportation officials Obama administration personnel 21st-century American railroad executives