Thomas Jenkins PE, joined HNTB Corp. as a national transit/rail consultant.
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Thomas Jenkins PE, joined HNTB Corp. as a national transit/rail consultant.
Thomas Jenkins PE, joined HNTB Corp. as a national transit/rail consultant. He is based in the firm’s Santa Ana, California, office, focusing on advancing growth of HNTB in the transit industry while providing strategic advice to the firm’s transit team and clients in Southern California and nationwide.
Jenkins has more than five decades of extensive experience in highway and transit planning, engineering, financing and project management. He specializes in delivering complex, multimodal and multidisciplinary infrastructure projects.
Prior to joining HNTB, Jenkins was principal professional associate and project manager for another consulting firm where he served as project team leader on Public-Private Partnership Consulting Services for Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Jenkins also served as project manager of the project management consultant team on the 11-mile Mid-Coast Corridor Transit Project for the San Diego Association of Governments.
Earlier in his career, he served as the first executive director of the Orange County Transportation Commission (now Orange County Transportation Authority). He also was the staff director of planning and engineering for the then newly formed Orange County Transit District.
Jenkins’ project experience in the Los Angeles area includes Purple Line (Westside) Subway Extension; Regional Connector Project; Crenshaw/LAX Project; Eastside LRT Phase I; Foothill LRT Extension; Foothill Transit formation; Metro Red Line; Metro Blue Line; Metro Green Line; and US 101 Corridor Study. Additionally, in the San Diego region, Jenkins provided project management on the I-15 Managed Lane Corridor.
The region’s fixed-route system finished out the year with a total of 373.5 million rides. Adding 12.3 million rides over 2024 represents an increase that is equal to the annual transit ridership of Kansas City.
The service is a flexible, reservation-based transit service designed to close the first- and last-mile gaps and connect riders to employment for just $5 per day.
The upgraded system, which went live earlier this month, supports METRO’s METRONow vision to enhance the customer experience, improve service reliability, and strengthen long-term regional mobility.
The agreement provides competitive wages and reflects strong labor-management collaboration, positive working relationships, and a shared commitment to building a world-class transit system for the community, said RTA CEO Lona Edwards Hankins.
The priorities are outlined in the 2026 Board and CEO Initiatives and Action Plan, which serves as a roadmap to guide the agency’s work throughout the year and ensure continued progress and accountability on voter-approved transportation investments and essential mobility services.
