After 20 years of running the Corridor Transportation Corporation, the management company that runs Connect-a-Ride and Howard Transit, Ray Ambrose will step down at the end of the month and the new CEO, John Powell, will take over.

"I've been contemplating this for over a year now, and although it's probably not the best economic time to do this, I'm ready for a change," Ambrose said.

"I don't have anything firm lined up, but I'm weighing several options and may do some consulting work in the meantime."

New CEO Powell has moved to Columbia from Chattanooga, Tenn., where he was the executive director of the Advanced Transportation Technology Institute, a nonprofit company that focuses on environmentally friendly transit options, such as electric and fuel-cell vehicles.

In addition to familiarizing himself with Maryland's transportation regulations, Powell, who met with CTC officials in their Laurel offices this week, said his top priority is ridership.

"In today's economic times, when fuel is going up and down, one of the biggest challenges is maintaining ridership and keeping a quality service," Powell said.

Born in Pontiac, Mich., Powell has worked in public transportation in various management positions in numerous states for more than 30 years. His most recent position as general manager of a transit system was 14 years ago, when he ran the Worcester Regional Transit Authority in Massachusetts.

When the 1996 Olympics were held in Atlanta, Powell managed all of the transportation needs for the event, which included overseeing the largest fleet of electric vehicles in Olympic history.

Although Powell has worked in management for much larger transit operations than CTC, in cities such as Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Detroit and Cleveland, he said he was attracted to CTC for two reasons.

"I like the uniqueness of the operation in that it provides transit to four counties," he said. "Secondly, I like this area. I've never lived in the D.C./Baltimore area, but I've always wanted to live here. I have friends here and with my work, have traveled here a lot and I like it."

Powell said he realizes he has big shoes to fill, considering that Ambrose nurtured and tweaked the system from its inception when there were only 148,000 riders to today, when the system has a ridership of slightly less than 2 million.

"Ray's done a wonderful job building the system from the ground up and coming behind him and the 20 years of relationships he built is going to be challenging," Powell said.

Walt Townsend, who became president of the Baltimore Washington Corridor Chamber in 1989, two months before Ambrose came on board with CTC, praised Ambrose for successfully expanding CTC and maintaining quality services, often during difficult times.

"He's given 20 years of his life in blood, sweat and tears to the people of this region," Townsend said. "When he was the only person in his division, there were times when some thought CTC wouldn't last, but he proved them wrong, which is emblematic of the type of person he is. He saw opportunity to grow the system and he did."

Unlike most transit systems, which are government operated, CTC is a private nonprofit bus service that receives government contracts, in addition to funding from businesses.

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