July 31, 2025 - TRA Austin - 

At the July meeting of the Texas Transportation Commission today, it was announced that Texas Department of Transportation   Rail Division Director Jeffrey "Jeff" Davis has been promoted to Chief Administrative Officer at the agency. The announcement was made by Commissioner Alvin New.

Davis joined TxDOT November 15, 2021 and helped raise the profile of the rail division for both freight and passenger rail projects.

He succeeds Richard McMonagle who, as chief administrative officer, is responsible for the management and control of the Contract Services, Purchasing, Fleet Operations, Human Resources and Support Services Divisions. 

The search for his successor as director of the rail division has not yet been posted on the TxDOT Careers website: https://www.txdot.gov/about/careers.html

"We are going to miss Jeff at the helm of the TxDOT Rail Division, but we congratulate him on his advancement in one of the largest state transportation agencies in the country," said Texas Rail Advocates President Peter LeCody. "Jeff has always been accessible to answer questions and has moved the rail division up in visibility. During his tenure he was responsibile for new grant programs and funding requests for both freight and passenger rail projects."

According to the TxDOT Rail Division website Davis has decades of both public and private sector experience in transit and passenger/freight rail planning, maintenance, operations and executive leadership. His previous experience includes serving in leadership roles for the South Carolina Public Railways, a division of the South Carolina Department of Commerce, which operated the Port Utilities Commission of Charleston, Port Terminal Railroad, and East Cooper and Berkeley Railroad. He served as head of the Mechanical Department and was promoted to manager of Operations and Regulatory Affairs. He has also held leadership positions with CSX serving as manager of Labor Relations and as Terminal Trainmaster in New Orleans.

In 2007, Davis returned to SPCR as executive vice president and chief operating officer. Through his safety-first approach, he led SCPR to meet the milestone of 1,500 days injury free. In 2013, he was named chief executive officer for the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad, where he remained focused on safety and directed the operations of the New Orleans Rail Gateway and the interchange of six Class 1 Railroads: BNSF Railway Co., CN, CSX, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern Railway, and Union Pacific. He has also held the position of chief operating officer for TNW Corporation, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. He also served as the general manager of Hulcher Services, where he was responsible for the Southwest region’s train derailment division.

Davis has a bachelor of science from Southern Wesleyan University in business management.