Charles W. Hoppe, president of Long Island Rail Road from 1990 to 1994, died at age 80, officials from New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced.
Hoppe died on Dec. 22, the MTA said in a statement.
“Hoppe initiated strategic rethinking in a number of areas, from developing new growth opportunities, to rethinking the role of freight, to identifying improved types of cars and locomotives, right down to the language used to run the railroad on a day-to-day basis,” said MTA Chairman and CEO Thomas Prendergast, who in 1994 succeeded Hoppe as LIRR president.
Under Hoppe’s watch, the LIRR’s on-time performance increased to 93% as in 1994, from 89% in 1989, and ridership increased. At the same time, the railroad gained a restored confidence from federal funding partners and embarked on a major rehabilitation of Harold Interlocking, the crucial complex of switches in Sunnyside, Queens, where the LIRR’s tracks merge with Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, and it undertook significant upgrades to its portion of Penn Station.
A memorial mass will be held at St Agnes Catholic Church in Arlington, Va., at 11 a.m. Jan. 15. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or the John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library.
