Ken Philmus moves to ACS, Carlyle Group, Penn Pike (PERSONNEL)

Ken Philmus is the new managing director of transportation systems and services at ACS. Appointed a senior vice-president he'll be responsible for managing the company's huge E-ZPass customer service centers, among other things.

"I'm looking forward to getting back into the nitty-gritty of management," he told us. Philmus spent 33 years in tolling at the Port Authority New York New Jersey (PANYNJ) coming up from toll plaza superintendent to head of tolling - Director, Tunnels, Bridges & Terminals PANYNJ. In that position he oversaw the expansion of E-ZPass electronic tolling in some of the country's busiest toll plazas at the George Washington Bridge, the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels and others. He was in charge of the PA's first move to open road tolling - on the Outerbridge Crossing NJ-Staten Island.

Philmus normally worked out of the South Tower of the World Trade Center but on Sept 11 2001 when Islamist terrorists struck he was at an IBTTA meeting in Boston. Scores of his colleagues perished. He rushed back to deal with the aftermath.

PANYNJ was a pioneer among the old-line toll agencies in introducing peak/off-peak pricing and night-time duscounts for trucks in that period. It saw a major undercover investigation and roundup of thieving toll collectors. And as head of tolls at PANYNJ Philmus was involved in difficult politics of toll rate increases and competing governors.

The past three years Philmus has been Vice President and National Director of Toll Services with DMJM Harris/Aecom - mostly business development for that company.

At ACS Philmus will be moving the office from Washington DC to the McCarter Highway building housing the New Jersey E-ZPass Service Center in Newark NJ. The New York service center is moving close by too, just over the Goethals bridge on Staten Island.

The office also manages FasTrak customer service in the San Francisco Bay area, PrePass for trucks and PierPass at the LA ports.

ACS is Affiliated Computer Services with head offices in Dallas TX. Philmus will work to Michael Huerta, group president of ACS Transportation Solutions - unless Huerta takes a position in the Obama administration.

Brian Chase victim of financial crash/economies

Carlyle Group, a private equity fund based in Washington DC has confirmed its Infrastructure group laid off staff.

About 100 got notices last week they were being terminated, a spokesman says, a 10% cut in staff. In the tolling area Brian Chase, formerly at Nossaman, was one who got the chop.

Penn Pike lays off 62

Joe Brimmeier CEO of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission says he's trimming staff to reduce costs. 62 were given notice late last month and another smaller lay-off is possible. That's about 3% of staff.

Brimmeier says its "very tough to do" but essential in the present financial climate. Traffic is down 1.6% on last year. The Turnpike has major financial obligations to the state as part of Act 44 passed mid-2007.

We doubt there will be cuts in his IT department which Brimmeier holds in high respect. He told us he's confident his IT guys can even crack the code of a pacemaker.

TOLLROADSnews 2008-12-09