TTI’s Jeff Warner Receives Hoy A. Richards Career Achievement Award
The Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) Jeff Warner has been awarded the Hoy A. Richards Career Achievement Award at the 2026 National Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Safety Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.
Presented biennially, the award is the conference’s highest honor, recognizing a career of exemplary achievement in improving the safety of highway-rail grade crossings. Recipients are selected by a committee of industry professionals and are recognized for their contributions to advancing safety through research, implementation, collaboration and mentorship.
Warner is a research scientist and program manager of TTI’s Multimodal Freight Program within the Freight and Trade Division. He has nearly 30 years of experience at TTI, with a research portfolio spanning rail safety, freight planning, truck parking, connected and automated vehicles, hazardous materials and intermodal systems.
Throughout his career, Warner has led and contributed to numerous projects focused on improving grade crossing and railroad trespassing safety and rail-related planning. His work includes collaborations with the Texas Department of Transportation’s Rail Division on grade crossing and rail safety initiatives, as well as national research through the Transportation Research Board Transit Cooperative Research Program and National Cooperative Highway Research Program to develop guidance for mitigating railroad trespassing and evaluating safety performance at railway-highway interfaces.
“Jeff’s career reflects a long-standing commitment to advancing highway-rail grade crossing safety through applied research and collaboration,” says Joe Zietsman, TTI deputy agency director and chief research officer. “His work has led to meaningful, real-world improvements, and this recognition speaks to both his technical contributions and the respect he has earned across the transportation community.”
The Hoy A. Richards Career Achievement Award is named in honor of Hoy A. Richards, a pioneer in grade crossing research at TTI and founder of the conference. The award recognizes individuals whose careers have produced lasting, tangible improvements in rail crossing safety and fostered strong collaboration across industry and regulatory partners.