Thomas S. Marking

NMTA Director

Thomas Marking, AARP of New Mexico

Representing: Professional Business Director
Term Expiration Date: April 2024

Contact Information:
Office: (817) 845-8005
Email: [email protected]

Tom Marking retired from HDR Engineering in 2014. He moved to Santa Fe in 2018, and has been a volunteer with AARP New Mexico since 2019, serving on its Advocacy Team supporting state legislation affecting the 50+ population. He represented AARP from 2019 to 2020 on the Santa Fe County Complete Count Committee for the 2020 Census, helping all New Mexicans to be counted.

He is committed to improving public transportation in New Mexico. Adequate funding for capital, operations and maintenance for public agencies and other providers is vital for many residents across the state. AARP’s target demographic of the 50+ population and their families relies on transit. Tom is committed to AARP’s Livable Communities initiative, which supports efforts of neighborhoods, towns, cities and rural areas to be great places for people of all ages. This includes safe walkable streets, housing and transportation options, access to services, and opportunities to participate in community activities. Public transportation links all these. “Every transit rider is a pedestrian, and that connection is vital to serving riders and supporting transit”, he says.

Tom is an urban planning professional with more than 30 years of private and public sector experience in transportation, environmental clearance, and project development activities. His projects have included rail and bus transportation facilities location and design, managing and conducting transportation studies, preparing environmental documents, access and parking studies, and land development and site planning. He has extensive knowledge of transportation and land use planning, including long-range planning practices and local development approval processes.

He was Senior Transportation Planner for HDR Engineering in its Dallas office managing and contributing to environmental approvals for Light Rail Transit projects. He also prepared long-range planning and project implementation studies for streetcar systems and projects in Dallas and San Antonio. As Principal Transportation Planner for S. R. Beard & Associates, he provided planning, program management and environmental consulting services to public transportation agency clients, including Houston METRO, Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), and Phoenix Valley Metro Rail. Tom was the Alternatives Analysis Task Leader for DFW International Airport Rail Access Study, including FTA and FAA coordination. He was Manager of Facilities Planning and Manager of Facilities Zoning at DART for over five years. He was responsible for initial design for 15 LRT and two Commuter Rail stations, and for site selection for bus Transit Center facilities, downtown bus passenger transfer facilities, and a new bus operations facility. He managed and obtained city development approvals for these facilities.

Tom has a Master of City and Regional Planning degree from Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Pomona College. He has also completed graduate studies in Transportation Modeling at the University of Texas at Arlington, and a Certificate in Managing the Environmental Process at the National Transit Institute, Rutgers University.

Tom has been a member of the American Planning Association and American Public Transit Association.