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TriMet’s Board of Directors today voted to appoint Neil McFarlane as its new general manager.

McFarlane has been TriMet‘s executive director for capital projects since 1998. Before that, he was TriMet’s project control director for the Westside light rail project. He also worked for Metro and managed construction of the Oregon Convention Center.

TriMet has several multimillion-dollar construction projects this year, including the Portland Streetcar Loop, which will extend the streetcar from the Pearl District to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, and the Portland-Milwaukie light rail, which will create a new MAX line between Portland State University and Oak Grove.

“Portland-Milwaukie needs to move into final design and construction over the next few months.” McFarlane said. “There’s a whole series of environmental and Federal Transit Administration approvals coming up for that project.”

Current TriMet general manager Fred Hansen announced in March that he was leaving TriMet to pursue other opportunities. McFarlane will begin his new job on July 1.

And for the record, he rides a TriMet bus each day from his home in Southeast Portland to the Green Line MAX, which takes him to TriMet’s office in the Lloyd District.