advertisement

---

During the past nine months, Dale Zehner has served as Virginia Railway Express’ (VRE) acting chief executive officer to succeed Pete Sklannik Jr., who resigned. Now, Zehner can drop the word "acting" from his title. The agency has appointed him CEO.

Hired in 1995 as manager-budget and finance, Zehner also served as director-planning, customer service and public affairs, and chief of staff, before being named assistant CEO in January 2002. Since joining the agency, he has helped increase ridership from 7,400 daily riders to 15,000, and create new marketing and customer service initiatives.

Zehner, 57, recently oversaw the completion of VRE’s Phase 2 Strategic Plan, which maps out the agency’s goals through 2025. Issues include determining the ultimate size and extent of the network, and frequency and type of service; projecting the amount of capital investment required in the core network through 2025 for stations, parking, rolling stock, train storage and infrastructure; estimating potential ridership benefits, capital cost and other impacts of potential extensions; and prioritizing capital investment needs and service expansion options.