Metrolinx’s next president and CEO is the former managing director of a Scottish rail firm who resigned amid controversy earlier this year.

The provincial transit agency announced Phil Verster’s appointment at a scheduled news conference at its offices in Union Station on Thursday afternoon, shortly after the Star revealed that he’d been given the post.

Introducing Verster to the media, Metrolinx board chair Rob Prichard said that the 54-year-old South Africa native has the experience and skills necessary to take the helm of the agency as it undergoes a major shift from merely planning transit to consolidating itself as a major builder and operator of rail lines.

“There are few people in the transit and rail industry with the know-how, experience, and skills to drive transformation and maintain service at the same time. Phil Verster is one of them,” Prichard said.

“He has done exactly what Metrolinx needs to do now.”

Verster’s appointment is for a three-year, renewable term, which starts October 1. He will make an annual salary of $479,000.

He takes charge of Metrolinx as the agency is in the midst of a massive, $13.5-billion project to expand and electrify GO Transit, and quadruple the number of trips on the regional rail service to 6,000 a week by 2025.

The agency is also in charge of building new light rail lines in Toronto, Hamilton, and Mississauga.

“This is an exciting time to think about how we continue to change our organization,” said Verster, who is an engineer by training.

He said he considered the CEO job a “fantastic opportunity” to “help with something that is going to transform the transit works in our area for years to come.”

Media reports from Britain and Ireland, where Verster has spent more than a decade in leadership roles at various rail agencies, describe him as a respected figure in the industry.

In 2015, he became managing director of ScotRail Alliance, the operator of Scotland’s passenger rail service. While there he oversaw a $3-billion electrification of the agency’s network.

In January, however, he resigned after just 18 months on the job. The BBC reported that he had been “facing intense pressure” for the agency’s “failure to meet punctuality and reliability targets.”

Two months before his resignation, Network Rail, which oversees rail operation in Britain, hired an outside agency to probe allegations that he had improperly accepted gifts and hospitality from contractors.

On Thursday, Verster told reporters that the third party audit “found absolutely no evidence” to support the allegations, which were made by an anonymous whistleblower.

He acknowledged that ScotRail’s reliability had fallen below target, but said that he put a recovery plan in place that fixed the problem.

As head of Metrolinx, Verster will be taking charge of a less busy agency. ScotRail’s annual ridership is about 93.2 million, while GO Transit, Metrolinx’s main passenger service, carries 69.5 million a year.

He replaces Bruce McCuaig, who stepped down in April after nearly seven years at Metrolinx. McCuaig was a veteran bureaucrat who before becoming Merolinx CEO served three years as deputy transportation minister in Dalton McGuinty’s government.

Opposition MPs said Thursday they were encouraged that Metrolinx had selected a new leader who has experience running a rail agency and isn’t connected to Ontario’s governing party.

“I’m hopeful that this new CEO focuses on his mandate to deliver Metrolinx’s core objectives, and not (Premier) Kathleen Wynne’s political agenda,” said Michael Harris, transportation critic for the Ontario PC Party.

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Harris declined to criticize Verster for past controversies at ScotRail, saying only that he hoped Verster had “learned from” the experience.

After resigning the Scottish agency, Verster spent several months overseeing the East West Rail project, a new line that will link Oxford and Cambridge.

Prior to his time at ScotRail, he served as the managing director of Network Rail’s London North East service for three-and-a-half years. Before that he was deputy CEO of Irish Rail.

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