Thirty-year industry veteran brings expertise leading all aspects of large-scale railroad infrastructure programs that help enhance passenger rail service
PHILADELPHIA (Jan. 10, 2024) – Ray Verrelle, PE, has joined HNTB as a senior project director and vice president, supporting the firm’s transit and rail practice. Verrelle comes to HNTB from Amtrak, where he worked in various capacities for the past 18 years, including most recently serving as Amtrak’s vice president of 
engineering services.
In his new role, Verrelle will work alongside clients and project teams to help advance large scale projects and programs that improve and enhance rail infrastructure. This will include leadership on all aspects of the project lifecycle, from scope development to cost and quality control, and project management.
“With historic levels of investment going into modernizing our nation’s railroad infrastructure and increasing service frequency and speed, Ray’s expertise, understanding of all aspects of large-scale rail capital programs, railroad operations and leadership within the railroad industry, will play a vital role in HNTB continuing to provide exceptional service to our clients to help them achieve success on their highest priority and most complex projects, ” said Greg May, eastern U.S. transit and rail leader and senior vice president.
Verrelle brings 30 years of experience in the railroad industry in the areas of design and construction, project and program management as well as operations and railroad infrastructure maintenance. This includes an extensive background in safety, civil and electrical engineering on a variety of railroad projects.
During his time at Amtrak, he was responsible for all engineering design, standards, safety protocols, operating procedures and construction support for track, structures, major stations, electric traction and communications and signals. He also served as the assets owner and led development of programs that focused on restoring aging assets into a state of good repair and was responsible for the creation of the agency’s first dedicated research, data and analytics engineering team to develop new technologies to improve infrastructure reliability.
Verrelle is an active member of the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-Of-Way Association (AREMA), including currently serving as the President. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from Temple University.