Ed has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Toronto Railway Historical Association almost since inception in the early 2000s, and has occupied the position of Secretary for many years.  In his “day job”, he has worked as a transportation planner and advisor since graduating from the University of Toronto in 1957 with a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Civil Engineering.  He has been a registered Professional Engineer in Ontario as well as a member of the international Institute of Transportation Engineers since 1958.

Following associations with several major consulting engineering and planning firms in Canada and the United States, Ed co-founded Barton Ashman Canada Limited (later BA Consulting Group) in 1973, and served as President and Chairman of the Board for over 25 years.  During his tenure, he directed transportation planning studies for large-scale urban mixed-use projects across Canada and the United States, as well as in Western Europe, Israel and the Far East.

In 1989, he was retained as an advisor to David Crombie’s Royal Commission on the Future of the Toronto Waterfront, and in 1991 was appointed by the Commission as Co-director of a major study of future options for the Gardiner-Lake Shore corridor.  Later, he was retained by the Waterfront Revitalization Task Force to advise on general transportation matters.

In 2007, he was asked by Metrolinx, the Province of Ontario’s Greater Toronto/Hamilton Transportation Authority, to serve on its advisory committee during the development of the Regional Transportation Plan (“The Big Move”) issued in late 2008, and was also appointed to the Stakeholders’ Advisory Group  relating to Metrolinx’ s “Yonge Relief Network Study”.

Since formerly retiring from BA Group, Ed’s work has been focused on public transit planning and needs analysis culminating in his authorship of a comprehensive 100-year history of rapid transit studies and implementation in the Greater Toronto Area entitled “A Century of Plans, Projects, Politics, and Paralysis” which was published jointly by Neptis Foundation and BA Group in 2015.