A member of the ERA since 1970, Bob is a graduate of MIT and has worked in the transit and transportation planning profession for 40 years. He retired from MTA NYC Transit in 2019 after 26 years in the Office of Management and Budget, Operations Planning and Strategic Initiatives. Bob has served as ERA’s president since 2012, and five years previously as third vice president and recording secretary. Bob has successfully managed ERA’s annual conventions in Los Angeles (2009), Chicago (2011), Boston (2012), Denver/Salt Lake City (2013), Minneapolis/St. Paul (2014), Houston/Dallas-Fort Worth (2015) Washington-Baltimore (2016), Atlanta and New Orleans (2017), Tucson/El Paso (2019), and San Diego (2022). Bob’s goals include membership expansion and retention, participation in the Association’s missions, continue successful management of Zoom programs and opportunities for selected in-person meetings, and continuation of ERA’s high-quality offerings of publications, monthly programs, and local, national and international trips.
A member of the ERA since 1976, Sandy was first elected to the board of directors in 2005 and has served as first vice president since 2019. In 1996, Sandy took over as editor and designer of Headlights and has produced 30 issues since, plus all three Elevated Railways books by Eric Oszustowicz. Sandy developed and maintains the ERA website and has been a co-administrator of the ERA Facebook page since it was started by Philip Hom in 2011. A graduate of Parsons School of Design, he currently heads a graphic design consulting practice.
Jeff has been a member of the ERA for 52 years, having joined in January of 1970. He has always been active, initially by helping to stuff envelopes for mailings at the ERA’s old offices at 145 Greenwich Street and 4 West 40th Street. Jeff, along with member James Mattina, created the initial database of members when the ERA received its very first personal computer back in the 1980s. During those years, Jeff served as membership secretary and also helped to arrange several memorable excursions on the LIRR. For several years he was the recording secretary of the New York Division and an occasional contributing editor of the Bulletin. When the New York Division was merged into the National, he became a director on the new board and once again has been able to help out on the National level. In 2018 Jeff took over as editor-in-chief of the Bulletin.
Robert joined the ERA in 2013, but was a railfan well before that. He’s served as third vice president and recording secretary since 2014 and has managed all local trips for the ERA during that period. He implemented new e-mail techniques for the Bulletin, increasing the reliability of mailings and improving engagement with members while simultaneously reducing operating costs for the club. Robert began his transportation career working at four agencies of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority. He is now a senior manager of industrial engineering at Amtrak where he helps rebuild our critical rail infrastructure on the Northeast Corridor.
Sasha joined the ERA early in 2014 and has since been involved with the organization in numerous roles, including co-editing the Bulletin with the late Ron Yee from 2014 until 2020, and still serves as an occasional contributor to the Bulletin. Sasha serves as the remote ERA office manager and also oversees the ERA Twitter page, which he created. A graduate of the State University of New York at Potsdam, Sasha is currently working for M&T Bank and formerly worked with the City of New York Human Resources Administration (NYC HRA) and First Transit. Sasha also serves as a member of the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority’s (NFTA) Citizens Advisory Committee.
A member of ERA since 1963, Michael previously held office as director of ERA. He has served as a member of the New York Division Board of Directors for many years and national treasurer since 1990. He is a retired transportation industry professional with over 50 years of experience as a transportation planner, light rail operations planner and transit scheduler.
Paul Grether has 17 years of experience in the transit and passenger railroad industry. His current responsibilities involve rail activation of a large commuter rail extension and terminal station project for a major North American commuter railroad. Previously Paul managed the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (Cincinnati Metro) Bus Operations, Planning Department, start-up of the Cincinnati Streetcar, and railroad holdings. Paul started his transit career at the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) in various functions including FTA program management, planning, bus and rail operations, and program management of the Atlanta Streetcar. Paul is the immediate past chair of the American Public Transportation Association Streetcar Subcommittee. Paul is a graduate of Georgia Tech with an undergraduate degree in industrial management and a graduate degree in city and regional planning/civil engineering.
Subutay has been a member of the ERA since January 1994. A lifelong New Yorker and Queens native, his interest in electric railways began as a childhood fascination with the New York City Subway and eventually encompassed railways everywhere.
Over the years, he has served the ERA extensively in several capacities. Soon after joining the organization he started volunteering at ERA’s headquarters, then located in Grand Central Terminal. He assisted with monthly mailings, office administration, and devoted particular attention to the maintenance of the Sprague Library. He served previously on the ERA National Board in the early 2000s.
Additionally, Subutay has been writing for the Bulletin since the late 1990s when it was a New York Division publication. His articles and photography span a wide variety of railway subjects and geography. He was recently appointed as the Bulletin’s associate editor.
Subutay is a transportation professional with over 31 years of varied experience as a cartographer, consultant and operations manager. His professional work can be easily observed around New York City, as the public benefits from his cartographic work on the WalkNYC system of pedestrian wayfinding maps and the newest generation of NYC Subway Neighborhood maps. As a consultant, he worked on the planning studies which yielded the current expansions of the region’s passenger rail network. Following 25 years in the private sector, he is currently a track and structures manager in the public sector.