Episode 49
Driving the Future of Transit: CEO Roundtable from APTA TRANSform 2025
Recorded Live at the APTA TRANSform Conference in Boston
In this special live edition of Transit Unplugged, host Paul Comfort moderates an inspiring CEO Roundtable with five industry leaders shaping the future of mobility. Recorded on-site at APTA TRANSform 2025 in Boston, the conversation dives into the real-world challenges and opportunities facing transit systems today—and the leadership vision driving change.
Joining Paul are:
Ben Limmer (Connecticut DOT)
Kenneth McDonald (Long Beach Transit and APTA CEO of the Year)
Jessica Mefford-Miller (Valley Metro)
Ben Stupka (RTA of Southeast Michigan), and Amanda Wanke (DART – Des Moines).
Together, they explore key themes:
The biggest transformations their agencies have experienced in the past two years
• How leaders pivot under pressure and lead through uncertainty
• Innovation in action—new projects and technologies transforming service
• A day in the life of a modern transit CEO
• Their vision for the next decade of mobility
This uplifting roundtable is packed with practical insights, real-world leadership lessons, and inspiration for everyone working to move people—and communities—forward.
Transcript
Welcome to the Transit Unplugged Live, CEO Round table at the Vontas booth 2025.
Speaker:I'm Paul Comfort, the host of Transit Unplugged, and we're excited
Speaker:to be today at the APTA TRANSform Conference with a panel of five
Speaker:of America's leading transit CEOs.
Speaker:Let's give them all a round of applause.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Bring it in from the sides if you'd like to.
Speaker:Let's go right down and talk.
Speaker:Actually, let me start with Ken McDonald, who is the APTA CEO of the year in 2025.
Speaker:And, next to him, Ben Stupka, the Executive Director of the
Speaker:RTA in Detroit, and a graduate of Leadership APTA this year.
Speaker:Congratulations.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:And Amanda Wanke she's CEO of Dart, Des Moines Transit.
Speaker:And then my good friend, Ben Limmer, who we were just up filming an episode
Speaker:of our TV show there in Connecticut.
Speaker:He's head of CT Transit.
Speaker:And, Jessica Mefford Miller, CEO of Valley Metro in Phoenix, where
Speaker:we filmed an episode last year.
Speaker:Thank you so much for being here.
Speaker:The goal of the show and the goal of this live panel is to elicit great
Speaker:responses from CEOs and executives about what they're working on, what
Speaker:it's like to live a day in their life, and also what they see the future as.
Speaker:So let's start.
Speaker:With Jessica.
Speaker:So Jessica heads up the transit system.
Speaker:She came from Bi-State in St. Louis, where I got to know her some there.
Speaker:And, now she's the CEO in Phoenix, Arizona.
Speaker:So give us a little about your agency.
Speaker:Tell us about the size and scope of your responsibilities.
Speaker:Let's start with you.
Speaker:Thanks.
Speaker:Paul Valley Metro is the regional public transportation authority for the Phoenix
Speaker:Metropolitan Region, and we operate bus, light rail, paratransit, demand responsive
Speaker:service, as well as streetcar across the vast Maricopa County metropolitan region.
Speaker:We have a number of operators across Valley Metro.
Speaker:The Valley Metro team itself, including our contract workforce, is about 2000.
Speaker:2000 people.
Speaker:And, you just recently opened a whole new line.
Speaker:Tell us about that.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:We opened the South Central Light Rail extension in June of this year.
Speaker:Five and a half miles, eight stations connecting downtown
Speaker:Phoenix with South Central Phoenix.
Speaker:So we celebrated that with 5,000 of our friends and neighbors on a hot
Speaker:and sunny day in Phoenix in June.
Speaker:5,000 people out for a transit event.
Speaker:That's saying something that's exciting.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:Ben Limmer has been a good friend of mine for a long time.
Speaker:He heads up Connecticut transit authority, kind of similar to what
Speaker:Maryland is, a statewide agency.
Speaker:He heads up transit.
Speaker:There's very unique responsibility.
Speaker:Tell us about what you've got going there, Ben.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, you're spot on.
Speaker:We are one of the few states where the statewide organization actually
Speaker:operates the transit system.
Speaker:So we have about 700 buses.
Speaker:We have 420 rail cars.
Speaker:We have three commuter rail lines, of course bus routes all over the state.
Speaker:And we, similar to Jessica use a lot of contracted operators.
Speaker:All in all, it's about 6,500 employees providing transit
Speaker:services throughout our state.
Speaker:And I'm very happy to be up here 'cause I was born in Michigan, went
Speaker:to college in Iowa, and my first big transit job was in Phoenix.
Speaker:So happy to be up here with these folks.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:And, in Connecticut, Ben, tell us about the place of, you may not
Speaker:have known this, but Connecticut is the birthplace of an American icon.
Speaker:The hamburger.
Speaker:And you get nothing but the bread and the burgers.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:So don't ask for like jalapenos or something, 'cause
Speaker:you are not gonna get it.
Speaker:Literally the hamburger was invented and first sold there in Connecticut.
Speaker:Anyway, just interesting little fact.
Speaker:Alright, Amanda, tell us about Des Moines, Iowa and your transit agency there.
Speaker:Good afternoon.
Speaker:I'm Amanda and the Des Moines area Regional Transit Authority is
Speaker:made up of 11 member governments, including a county and 10 cities.
Speaker:We have approximately 130 vehicles and about 300 employees operating fixed route,
Speaker:microtransit, and paratransit as well.
Speaker:Ken, tell us about Long Beach Transit.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I'm Ken McDonald, I'm the President and the CEO at Long Beach Transit,
Speaker:which is south of LA County in well southern part of LA County.
Speaker:We have about 250 buses.
Speaker:We carry about 19 million people a year.
Speaker:So we are in a dense urban area.
Speaker:We have four water taxis that we also operate in paratransit.
Speaker:Important thing about us we had paratransit operation in 1978, so
Speaker:long before paratransit was something in the industry, Long Beach Transit
Speaker:was providing that service to people with the necessity to get around
Speaker:on outside of our regular buses.
Speaker:That's great, man.
Speaker:Thanks.
Speaker:Ben.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:tell us about what's happening in Detroit.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And explain the structure.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:It's kind of similar to Chicago, but your RTA actually operates service.
Speaker:Yeah, we're, so we're a pretty unique and young agency, so we're about 10 years old.
Speaker:The Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan covers a four county
Speaker:region, so about 4 million people.
Speaker:There's three large transit providers that we work with.
Speaker:We're the funding agency and the regional planning agency, and we
Speaker:run regional programs for them.
Speaker:So if you take the full scope of the entire region, we're talking about three
Speaker:major agencies, two rail operations, about several dozen, over 50 small
Speaker:community operations, 600 buses.
Speaker:Tons of- 10,000 bus stops.
Speaker:It's a pretty big scope.
Speaker:We just recently started operating some express bus services under a contract.
Speaker:Those are our first major express bus services we've ever had in the region.
Speaker:And then just last year, about a year ago in October, we took
Speaker:over the streetcar operation.
Speaker:So my day to day is things at a very, very high level and things at a
Speaker:very, very close to the street level.
Speaker:So it can be very varied.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Alright, let's go to you Ken.
Speaker:Tell us about the biggest transformation that your agency
Speaker:has had in the last couple years.
Speaker:So, I think our biggest in 2016 we started switching over to a hundred
Speaker:percent zero emission vehicles.
Speaker:That was a big transition for our agency.
Speaker:We are now going through halfway through this project, and our biggest challenge
Speaker:right now is I tell folks that we found out that is it the chicken or the egg?
Speaker:And I found out it is the chicken.
Speaker:You need to have the infrastructure before you can buy electric buses.
Speaker:So we are going through a lot of infrastructure upgrade at
Speaker:Long Beach Transit right now.
Speaker:Is your goal to go all electric or are you gonna add hydrogen
Speaker:or what's your game plan?
Speaker:Half, half electric, half hydrogen is our plan.
Speaker:So we are-
Speaker:That's good, man.
Speaker:-close to 75% completed on electric and about to begin hydrogen.
Speaker:Excellent.
Speaker:Wow, that's good.
Speaker:I'm a big advocate of looking into hydrogen.
Speaker:I think that's a sustainable fuel for the future.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:Amanda, how about you?
Speaker:What's some of the biggest transformations you've had there?
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:So we are right in the middle of our biggest transformation in
Speaker:more than a decade, and we are re-imagining our transit network.
Speaker:But then even going beyond that, we're looking at everything from our fare
Speaker:policy to an economic impact study to new partnerships and programs.
Speaker:But we're starting first with the network and focusing that service
Speaker:because I think for all of us we need to deliver the best possible service
Speaker:in the best, in the most important corridors, and the region's changed a lot.
Speaker:Travel patterns have changed a lot, and it's time to change that service.
Speaker:How big is Des Moines?
Speaker:The greater Des Moines region is about 750,000 as a region.
Speaker:Des Moines itself is around 250.
Speaker:Okay, very good.
Speaker:If you're just coming up, this is a live Transit Unplugged Roundtable with
Speaker:five of America's number one CEOs.
Speaker:Next up is my good buddy, Ben Limmer from Connecticut.
Speaker:Ben, you've got so much going on up there.
Speaker:I was so impressed with your operations when I was there just last month.
Speaker:While we were there, Ben and I got the experience of being able to go to
Speaker:an REO Speed Wagon Styx concert and interview the lead singers for our show.
Speaker:And so that was kind of fun.
Speaker:The lead singer of Styx, which was my band back in the eighties,
Speaker:you know, so that was pretty cool.
Speaker:But, tell us about some new transformations you've got going on.
Speaker:You got so much happening.
Speaker:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker:And thank you for coming up.
Speaker:We really did ride buses and trains when Paul came up.
Speaker:We didn't have fun the entire time, but we tried to.
Speaker:Transformations, I mean, similar to my partners up here , I'd say one of the
Speaker:biggest ones is we invested, noticed during COVID and actually even before
Speaker:that, that our bus system was really the workhorse of our transit network.
Speaker:Everyone loves the rail system to take you to New York or wherever
Speaker:that might be throughout the state.
Speaker:But the bus system was really the workhorse.
Speaker:The governor recognized that.
Speaker:So we invested about 15% more of our operating budget towards beefing up
Speaker:our bus system and the returns on the ridership and the support we got from
Speaker:the public was really off the chart.
Speaker:So as we look forward, we too are going to do a re-imagining a bus system.
Speaker:I think you're not cool in 2025 if you don't do one.
Speaker:So looking forward to that.
Speaker:Alright, so you've got so much going on too.
Speaker:You just had a brand new line open up.
Speaker:Also, Ben's system just celebrated 50 years.
Speaker:That was great.
Speaker:We got to see that we were there.
Speaker:Alright, tell us what's happening there in the last two years.
Speaker:What's the coolest thing?
Speaker:The most biggest transformation.
Speaker:So for us the biggest transformation that we've implemented has been rail expansion.
Speaker:And in the last three years we have opened three rail expansion projects,
Speaker:two light rail, one streetcar, all ahead of schedule, all under budget.
Speaker:So building out this system and continuing the economic development and
Speaker:the communities around us I think has been our biggest transformation so far.
Speaker:But we wanna keep up with the cool kids, of course.
Speaker:And we remember that 70% of our customers every day are actually
Speaker:riding the bus portion of our system.
Speaker:So next month we kick off the public engagement portion of our bus network
Speaker:redesign called Your Voice Your Ride, where for the first time in 20
Speaker:years, if you can believe that we are re-imagining mobility across the streets
Speaker:in the Phoenix metropolitan region.
Speaker:I love the artwork you had installed in your stations.
Speaker:Talk about that for just a minute.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We have a wonderful arts in transit program at Valley Metro.
Speaker:By board policy, 1% of our capital program budgets are devoted to art.
Speaker:Many of those art installations include artists from our local
Speaker:and regional communities.
Speaker:And on our South Central extension, we were very focused on evoking the
Speaker:culture and the history of those communities throughout our eight stations.
Speaker:So it's a wonderful program.
Speaker:We have a program called Arts Line.
Speaker:You can find us online where you can see a beautiful photos and
Speaker:descriptions of those pieces of artwork.
Speaker:Or better yet, come visit us take a ride, enjoy some art, some culture, some great
Speaker:food, as Paul and I did when he visited.
Speaker:Oh, yeah, man, that was good.
Speaker:Yeah, you gotta see her episode.
Speaker:It's fun.
Speaker:Alright, so we are at the Vontas booth today and I want
Speaker:to introduce Simon Ferguson, who helps lead up the group here.
Speaker:Thank you so much for your sponsorship today.
Speaker:And Peter Aczel.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:So Peter had a question for me.
Speaker:He wanted me to ask you all the, today when we met this morning, and that was,
Speaker:how about you, Jessica, tell us about a day in the life of Jessica Mefford
Speaker:Miller as CEO of the transit agency.
Speaker:What did you do on a, I know every day is different, but what's
Speaker:an average day for you like?
Speaker:Yeah, so one of the things I love about this role is that every day is different.
Speaker:It is diverse.
Speaker:So each day includes communicating with at least some of my 19 member,
Speaker:elected official board members.
Speaker:So that's a lot.
Speaker:Our 11 executive team members who are responsible for running the organization.
Speaker:And on any given day, I'm probably touching six or so different
Speaker:projects and programs that we're doing deep, deep dives into.
Speaker:And then at some point in each day, I'm consulting our dashboard so I
Speaker:know where we stand with respect to our performance, our operations, as
Speaker:well as our customer sentiment data.
Speaker:And then ideally, I make it home at a good time to see my children and
Speaker:have a workout, which is the one thing I do for myself to de-stress from
Speaker:the intensity of those busy days.
Speaker:Let me ask you a question on capital projects.
Speaker:So you have a lot of them.
Speaker:How do you hold your engineering department and all the A&E
Speaker:vendors that are there, how do you hold them accountable?
Speaker:Do you do like regular quarterly meetings where they have to come in
Speaker:and justify, or what do you do there?
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:We have layers of meetings.
Speaker:It culminates actually in a quarterly meeting with the Federal Transit
Speaker:Administration, our state safety oversight and our project management oversight.
Speaker:But these detailed meetings review all of our progress
Speaker:against schedule, against budget.
Speaker:We identify those critical path issues, and then within our teams
Speaker:we have very well-defined touch points and escalation points.
Speaker:So if we're not solving something at that field supervisor or resident
Speaker:engineer level, we have a clear process for quickly escalating that
Speaker:so that we can resolve any issues with schedule, budget, contract, challenge,
Speaker:so we can keep our projects moving.
Speaker:And that is one way we've been able to finish ahead of schedule and under budget.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:One of the things people don't understand about CEOs is the agencies they oversee,
Speaker:all these are larger size agencies, are almost, they're almost like
Speaker:little mini mayors is what I call it.
Speaker:You're like a mayor of a city.
Speaker:You've got so many operations spread Out.
Speaker:All kinds of construction projects.
Speaker:You're interacting with the city council and state legislature.
Speaker:Ben has to go up there and do that as a state agency.
Speaker:And you become almost like a politician.
Speaker:You have to lead from the front.
Speaker:You're making speeches and all like that.
Speaker:So the average day of a CEO oftentimes doesn't just happen
Speaker:during the working hours.
Speaker:I remember, and I'm sure you guys do the same, I remember laying in bed 11
Speaker:o'clock at night like this, texting on my phone, and my wife's like,
Speaker:"Paul, put your phone down. You need to go to sleep." I gotta do this.
Speaker:You know, somebody needs a response to, right?
Speaker:Ben, let's send it down to you.
Speaker:What's a day in your life like, man, being an RTA where you kind
Speaker:of oversee three agencies, plus you have your own operation?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I wish I could say we were as organized and buttoned up as your operation.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So we're still, we're still kind of a small operation.
Speaker:So, the one thing I wanted to touch on, we do spend a lot of time with the
Speaker:state legislature and our partners.
Speaker:So particularly over the last couple of weeks as a state budget is hopefully gonna
Speaker:be passed by the end of September so we can, you know, can keep paying bills.
Speaker:So we, just last week, I went up with the CEOs from the other major agencies
Speaker:and did a whole tour of the state capital with all the key legislators.
Speaker:So that was really important piece of advocacy that we're
Speaker:doing at a state level.
Speaker:So I do spend a lot of time doing that.
Speaker:I answered a text from my board chair at 5:30 on a Saturday morning, just like,
Speaker:I'm sure all the rest of you guys do.
Speaker:, And then for us, it's really learning how to also deal with things at that
Speaker:level, but then also the day-to-day operations of a streetcar system.
Speaker:So last week right before I came here, we just buttoned up our triennial
Speaker:safety audit, which was so much fun.
Speaker:So that's the first time I'd been through something like that.
Speaker:So it's kind of ping ponging back and forth between things at the ground
Speaker:level and things at a very high level.
Speaker:I gotta tell you-
Speaker:It's not boring.
Speaker:Detroit is my new favorite American city.
Speaker:The one from this year.
Speaker:I'm not kidding, man.
Speaker:And shout out to your new leaders there, right?
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Tiffany Gunter, the new head of SMART.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:It is phenomenal.
Speaker:Great, there.
Speaker:And Robert Cramer there.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Running the city DDOT.
Speaker:You guys have an amazing team.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Speaking of team, lemme call out my new buddy, Demetrius here from New York City.
Speaker:Let's give the CEO of New York City Transit a round of
Speaker:applause for being here today.
Speaker:Great to see you, Demetrius.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We just had him on the podcast to kick off super September.
Speaker:Thanks for coming by, brother.
Speaker:Let me just ask you, how are things going in New York?
Speaker:Gimme a, gimme a quick shout out.
Speaker:It's New York baby.
Speaker:It's always great.
Speaker:You gotta listen to his podcast.
Speaker:How many jobs have you had?
Speaker:Man in the agency?
Speaker:22 jobs.
Speaker:He's worked his way up in the agency to the president of New York City Transit.
Speaker:40% of all the rides that happen in any given day in America on
Speaker:transit happened with that man.
Speaker:He had 40% of all the rides in America happen in New York City.
Speaker:So a great ambassador for our industry.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Let's give him a round of applause, man.
Speaker:It's good.
Speaker:He's a superstar.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Let's talk about leadership under pressure.
Speaker:Speaking of another superstar, CEO of the year.
Speaker:Come on, Ken, share with us a moment when your leadership team this year
Speaker:had to pivot to meet a challenge.
Speaker:There's so many things that happen any given day.
Speaker:You can't plan your day.
Speaker:When's the last time your team had to pivot?
Speaker:I think we do that every day.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You get up in the morning and you decide, I'm gonna go to work, and you
Speaker:pivot as soon as you hit the office.
Speaker:So I think the, as a CEO, I find I spend about 75% of my time
Speaker:outside of the organization.
Speaker:I used to think it was-
Speaker:Oh wow.
Speaker:I used to think it was 60, but I have a deputy who runs mostly of
Speaker:the inside, but I find I spend a lot of time with customers,
Speaker:with the board, with politicians.
Speaker:You get all these questions and now in Long Beach with the Olympics and
Speaker:FIFA coming up, we are planning, we have 11 events of the Olympics
Speaker:that will be held in Long Beach.
Speaker:So we have to think about tha transportation.
Speaker:So being, planning for the Olympics and for FIFA is a big
Speaker:part of our daily life right now.
Speaker:That's good.
Speaker:How about you, Amanda?
Speaker:Tell us about a time recently where you've had to pivot.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, like you said, pivoting is a part every day.
Speaker:Adaptability is one of our core values as an organization, and it is, you
Speaker:have to adapt out on the street.
Speaker:You have to adapt to the politics.
Speaker:One of ours within the last year was when some of our member governments, we
Speaker:were made up of 11 member governments, had a disagreement that went quite
Speaker:public and gained a lot of attention.
Speaker:We pivoted and took that opportunity and we always say, take lemons
Speaker:and make 'em into lemonade.
Speaker:And so we took that opportunity to talk about the importance of working together
Speaker:regionally and to do some education on what state and federal government
Speaker:says about the importance of doing transit regionally and all that goes
Speaker:into running a transit agency because you all, we all make it look so easy.
Speaker:So sometimes taking that step back.
Speaker:To help people understand how complicated it is and why we all need to be a part
Speaker:of it together is really important.
Speaker:Ben, other than eating the best pizza in America that you and I
Speaker:had in New Haven, tell us about a time when you've had to pivot.
Speaker:Well, the big secret about that is I'm actually from Detroit and I think
Speaker:that pizza is much better, but please don't tell the people back home.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, so yeah
Speaker:And by the way, all the ingredients are flown in from Italy.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:At that place, man
Speaker:This is true.
Speaker:Check out the episode we've got coming up where they show us how
Speaker:they make the pizza and all there.
Speaker:It's considered, it's ranked number one.
Speaker:Sorry, go ahead.
Speaker:Yeah, no problem.
Speaker:I mean, certainly, you know, you do, definitely your day can change
Speaker:very quickly, as everyone has said.
Speaker:The one example that sticks out is unfortunately we're seeing a lot more
Speaker:of the extreme weather in the northeast.
Speaker:So late last year, we had a significant rainfall and we had a large washout on
Speaker:one of our rail lines, the Waterbury line.
Speaker:So we had to quickly work with our partners in New York to quickly
Speaker:mobilize and get the situation fixed.
Speaker:But it involved, you know, dozens of local towns, the state legislature, obviously.
Speaker:And since we are A DOT, we had pretty quick access to some
Speaker:significant engineering and rebuild resources that, you know, that's
Speaker:just a small one that sticks out.
Speaker:One of the other fun things we got to do in Connecticut last month was Ben runs
Speaker:ferries that take cars across this river.
Speaker:And they have the oldest ferry in America that's still
Speaker:operating from the 1600s there.
Speaker:This wasn't that one, this was the other one.
Speaker:But I got to sit in the driver's seat, the captain's seat, and drive
Speaker:the ferry over with cars on it.
Speaker:That was pretty fun.
Speaker:I know I wasn't supposed to say that out loud, but I was, was a good sign.
Speaker:I would much rather Jessica drive the ferry, but my nobody fell overboard.
Speaker:My car was on the ferry.
Speaker:And seeing you drive made me very nervous, but hey.
Speaker:Rightfully so, brother.
Speaker:All right, Jessica, tell us about a time you've had to pivot.
Speaker:You've had so many interesting... she's got America's car-free city
Speaker:or town there in your area too.
Speaker:Talk about that for a second.
Speaker:That's kind of fun.
Speaker:And then any pivoting.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So we have Culdesac, which is a development located in Tempe.
Speaker:It is a car-free community.
Speaker:There is no parking within Culdesac.
Speaker:When you lease an apartment in that development you'll get a transit pass.
Speaker:You'll also get a membership with a discount to Lyft for rides and
Speaker:you'll get an e-bicycle, which super handy in the Phoenix Summer.
Speaker:So yeah, check it out, Culdesac.
Speaker:We pivot a lot.
Speaker:So transit is 24/7/365.
Speaker:So in the interest of keeping it real, , the last time our team
Speaker:pivoted is about the time my head hit the pillow last night.
Speaker:Things happen.
Speaker:We are a big system.
Speaker:We have 38.5 miles of street running light rail, and three
Speaker:miles of street running streetcar.
Speaker:And last night we did have a situation where a motor vehicle impacted one
Speaker:of our trains in revenue service and everybody walked away thankfully, but I
Speaker:had teams on the ground who are working at this moment to rerail that train.
Speaker:And to support our revenue service.
Speaker:And so that means everyone steps into not only their role, but also stretch roles.
Speaker:So I'm up through the night getting information from my team, communicating
Speaker:with our board and elected officials.
Speaker:I have staff who are communicating with the public.
Speaker:We were able to single track for revenue operations and the 4:00 AM hour today.
Speaker:And now we'll work to recover that service and rebuild our overhead catenary
Speaker:system today, moving into tomorrow.
Speaker:So that takes everyone working together.
Speaker:We're working in shifts.
Speaker:I've got team who are flying back from Boston to Phoenix right now to
Speaker:support that effort, but this is just, doesn't happen every day, thankfully.
Speaker:But things happen and we have to work to respond, and I'd like to think the
Speaker:success of our team and our collaboration and teamwork are never more apparent
Speaker:than when things don't go as planned.
Speaker:Let's talk about ridership.
Speaker:It's not the number one most important end all, be all, do all,
Speaker:but it is something that we're measured by, by those who fund us.
Speaker:And so we have to know the room and the room for people that are
Speaker:politicians and the funding agencies often ask us about ridership.
Speaker:So, let's start with you Jessica.
Speaker:What are you doing to rebuild ridership?
Speaker:Where are you at in ridership?
Speaker:Yeah, so our rail ridership, not surprisingly, because our rail system
Speaker:is so young and it is growing, so rail ridership has returned in Phoenix faster
Speaker:than rail ridership at a national scale.
Speaker:Our bus ridership has been more sluggish though, and what we're doing about
Speaker:that is investing in network redesign.
Speaker:We've also doubled down on the fundamentals.
Speaker:We're improving on time performance.
Speaker:We've improved connections between roots and our customer responsiveness,
Speaker:and now we'll redesign those route to reflect where people are traveling more.
Speaker:We're also doing a lot of marketing and campaigning, messaging around safety and
Speaker:security in the system where we've had a lot of big wins and messaging about
Speaker:the availability of transit and some of the tools that we have to make buying
Speaker:your fare and planning your trip easier.
Speaker:Who else wants to tackle that one?
Speaker:Anybody else wanna say anything about ridership?
Speaker:Yeah, so at DART in Des Moines we're at almost 4 million rides a year.
Speaker:One of the biggest trends we're seeing with other agencies and their designs
Speaker:and we are looking at is really the hours of service and the span of service.
Speaker:You know, we used to be very commute heavy, peak oriented service, and now
Speaker:spreading that service out through the days, through the nights, through
Speaker:the weekends, um, is really important, especially as we look at getting
Speaker:people to retail and service jobs.
Speaker:And that change in providing the service when people need it and
Speaker:meeting those changes is critical.
Speaker:Anybody else, Ben?
Speaker:Yes and, to everything that we just said.
Speaker:I'd say the two other things that we're seeing in Metro Detroit, SMART,
Speaker:which is a suburban bus system, has had a lot of success with the flexible
Speaker:on demand type zone service, I'm sure other folks have experimented with.
Speaker:We've seen a lot of ridership gains in that service.
Speaker:And then we, about three years ago, put out our first full express bus line
Speaker:connecting Ann Arbor to downtown Detroit.
Speaker:It's just a simple 16 hour round, 16 round trips a day.
Speaker:Very simple service.
Speaker:In three years, I've not seen anything less than a 15% ridership increase every
Speaker:single month, which just goes to show if you put just basic good, solid service
Speaker:where people are gonna use it, even in the Motor City, people will absolutely use it.
Speaker:I keep waiting.
Speaker:Every month I get my report.
Speaker:I'm like, this is the month it's gonna be flat, and it keeps going up and up and up.
Speaker:Something we're gonna probably have to deal with when I get back is
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Talk about that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, the city of Windsor actually had what we call the tunnel bus that
Speaker:would deliver workers over to Detroit mostly nurses and hospital workers.
Speaker:And that service was just eliminated about a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker:There was some Canadian political reasons for that, funding reasons.
Speaker:There's other reasons that I think we all understand in terms
Speaker:of relationships with Canada.
Speaker:So, we're gonna be having a conversation on the Detroit side of
Speaker:that equation to see, you know, is there something we can, we can solve
Speaker:from a regional transit perspective.
Speaker:And talk about the new bridge you got coming in between Canada and-
Speaker:Gordie Howe, Gordie Howe Bridge, should be open next year.
Speaker:So that'll have a bike ped path.
Speaker:That project's been under construction and under planning for as long as I've been
Speaker:in planning, which is gosh 20 or 30 years.
Speaker:I actually started as an environmental advocate on the other side of that bridge.
Speaker:I'll just leave it at that.
Speaker:And now you're building it.
Speaker:And now I'm excited it's being built.
Speaker:But yeah, so next year that's gonna open.
Speaker:And so again, having that connection, that transit connection, figuring
Speaker:out how we can do that with our partners in Windsor, 'cause they're
Speaker:essentially a suburb of Detroit.
Speaker:And our hospital systems rely on those workers.
Speaker:So we're gonna have to get, when I get back, we'll have to figure
Speaker:out how we're gonna rebuild that relationship and that service.
Speaker:Ken, I wanted to ask you about culture.
Speaker:You've done a great job there, building culture and
Speaker:retaining staff and attracting.
Speaker:Tell us how you've done it.
Speaker:Yeah, I think the most important part is we have five strategic priorities
Speaker:that we rely on to plan it and design everything for the organization.
Speaker:One of those is serving the customers first.
Speaker:That whatever decision that you make in the organization,
Speaker:think of the customers first.
Speaker:So that customer first identity have gone through our organization.
Speaker:All our employees believe that that's where we begin.
Speaker:'cause that's the purpose that we are here for.
Speaker:We are here to serve our customers.
Speaker:So having a customer-centric environment has been really, really powerful to
Speaker:changing the culture in the organization.
Speaker:Ben, how about you down here?
Speaker:This Ben.
Speaker:Yeah, go ahead, Ben Limmer.
Speaker:So yeah, I mean, definitely focus on the customer.
Speaker:We like to say the, you know, the customer experience is our North Star.
Speaker:But as far as building a culture internally is getting out, riding
Speaker:the system, engaging with customers directly, engaging with, you
Speaker:know, bus drivers, mechanics directly, hear directly from them.
Speaker:And go to where they work, you know, go to their office and, you
Speaker:know, most importantly, listen.
Speaker:And follow up on what you are hearing from your frontline staff.
Speaker:They are the face of the service and they absolutely need to be taken care of.
Speaker:It goes a long way.
Speaker:Alright, we're gonna pivot now to AI technology.
Speaker:What are we doing right now with the latest technologies?
Speaker:I recently did a podcast with Harry Wilson, who's the head of
Speaker:MV Transportation, a great guy.
Speaker:He actually was in Detroit helping lead the turnaround for General Motors for
Speaker:the federal government a few years ago.
Speaker:And he told me something that's resonated with me.
Speaker:He said, "Paul, AI is gonna be bigger than cell phones and the internet.
Speaker:That's the impact it's gonna have on our world." Are any of you all
Speaker:seeing the impact in your agency?
Speaker:How are you using it?
Speaker:Is there any other new technologies?
Speaker:You wanna start, Jessica?
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:So, customer experience is our North Star and our strategic plan, and so we do a
Speaker:lot of interaction with our customers.
Speaker:We use traditional channels like surveys and follow up focus groups, but to
Speaker:really keep our thumb on the pulse of our customers, we're using a tool, made
Speaker:by AlphaVu that allows us to upload all of our customer contact data.
Speaker:And then they also pull in social media data as well as
Speaker:information from the news media.
Speaker:And they have a tool called Ask Your Data.
Speaker:And it really is an AI query so I can ask my data, what are customers saying
Speaker:today about security on the system?
Speaker:Which is a question I ask of my data several times a week.
Speaker:These days, and I was actually just sharing this with administrator Molinaro
Speaker:in a conversation earlier, here's how I know how we're doing in security.
Speaker:It bears out in the monthly data in the stats.
Speaker:But to really see what the customers are saying, it'll give you kind of temperature
Speaker:information and then pull out illustrative comments that actual customers have made
Speaker:or the public have made in social media channels and tell you what they're saying.
Speaker:So that is a great quick way to really keep your thumb on
Speaker:the pulse of the riding public.
Speaker:Do you have anybody like monitoring social media at your agency or responding to
Speaker:Twitter X and all that kind of stuff?
Speaker:Yeah, we do.
Speaker:Of course, we've got a communications team who is responding to that
Speaker:and really mining that data and using AI helps us give more pointed
Speaker:responses and it helps us be relevant.
Speaker:So we're talking about what the people are talking about.
Speaker:That's interesting.
Speaker:Go ahead, Ben.
Speaker:Or you wanted Amanda.
Speaker:Yeah, so I think one thing that's really important is with AI is we
Speaker:are all operating pretty leanly.
Speaker:As a government funded, taxpayer funded, we really wanna return that investment.
Speaker:And so AI is one of the biggest ways to help our staff be more
Speaker:efficient, get things done quicker.
Speaker:And that's one of the ways we're starting as an organization.
Speaker:Again, I know there's a lot of fear out there about how it might
Speaker:replace jobs, but for us it can be a multiplier where we don't have the
Speaker:opportunity to hire more people, but we can make sure our people have tools
Speaker:to do their job faster and better.
Speaker:And then, as you're answering Ken, are you doing autonomous vehicles?
Speaker:I'm interested in that if you've got any ideas on that.
Speaker:No, on the autonomous vehicle, but I've been very fortunate that one of
Speaker:my board members own an AI company.
Speaker:So we meet once a month and talk about how we bring that into the organization,
Speaker:and that has been tremendous in helping me to bring AI into our organization.
Speaker:'cause I have an expert who is actually free that's helping me
Speaker:to bring it into the organization.
Speaker:And it's, and employees have embraced it.
Speaker:I've been very surprised at how fast employees embrace this new technology
Speaker:to help them to do a better job.
Speaker:And one of the things I tell them is put on their computer, and
Speaker:this was given to me on a book I read, how can AI help with this?
Speaker:Put it on your computer, and every time you have a problem,
Speaker:ask, how can AI help me here?
Speaker:Write it on a sticky note, huh?
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Old school for new school.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Either the Bens wanna say anything on that?
Speaker:We are partnering with the City of Detroit to do some AV shuttles as
Speaker:well, but I'll let Ben talk about other Ben talk about the other AI stuff.
Speaker:Alright, Ben, we'll bring it down to you.
Speaker:Ben Limmer from Connecticut.
Speaker:Yeah, I was gonna touch on the automated bus project we have going on.
Speaker:Oh yeah, Ben.
Speaker:Yeah, so we have a BRT line called the CTfastrak.
Speaker:It runs between New Britain and downtown Hartford.
Speaker:It's about 10 miles, been around about 10 years.
Speaker:Also just had a birthday.
Speaker:Ridership wise has been wildly successful, all of the TOD surrounding
Speaker:these stations, but it is a formerly used to be a railroad corridor, so
Speaker:it's free from automobile traffic.
Speaker:So there's a ton of operational enhancements that you need to operate a
Speaker:successful BRT line, but it's also the perfect place to test autonomous buses.
Speaker:So we are working on a couple of pilot projects in that space.
Speaker:Super excited.
Speaker:Got one more question left for everybody, but I want you to
Speaker:imagine a scenario like this.
Speaker:Imagine you wanted to go from one city to the next.
Speaker:And you were able to have a vehicle, autonomous vehicle pick
Speaker:you up at your front door, take you to the high speed rail station.
Speaker:The high speed rail station would take you at 300 kilometers per
Speaker:hour, and take you to the next city.
Speaker:And what would take you multiple hours, shorten it.
Speaker:When you got to the station there was everything you needed there.
Speaker:Coffee, your bags you brought with you, and then you're picked up by
Speaker:an autonomous vehicle and taken to the location you want to be at.
Speaker:Imagine the power of that seamless transportation experience that we
Speaker:don't quite have yet here in America.
Speaker:So with that is our background context, which I would love to see.
Speaker:Maybe part of that could also be an, I wanna be the first in America to
Speaker:ride the autonomous helicopter that lands on my front yard and takes
Speaker:me to the top of the FTA building.
Speaker:But, so let's look at the future, Jessica.
Speaker:It may not be as fantastic as that.
Speaker:But in your mind, talk to us about what the future of public
Speaker:transportation looks like to you, say in five or 10 years in Phoenix.
Speaker:So what we're working toward and what I see happening in Phoenix is that the
Speaker:bulk of the miles for our customers trips are gonna take place on our mass modes.
Speaker:Those are our big buses and our trains that are designed to carry large volumes
Speaker:of people over longer, short distances.
Speaker:But what we're experimenting with in the Valley where we have a lot
Speaker:of lower density communities, that might be a reality on the beginning
Speaker:or end or both of a customer's trip, is demand responsive service.
Speaker:So right now we've got microtransit in place.
Speaker:We also did a pilot program in the city of Chandler.
Speaker:Got shortened a little bit because of the pandemic, but they used Waymo and
Speaker:it, they were piloting that with senior citizens specifically to see the tolerance
Speaker:of that type of service with this demographic, which is pretty important
Speaker:if you're in the Sunbelt like I am.
Speaker:And they loved it.
Speaker:It was fantastic.
Speaker:So I can see smaller autonomous vehicles operating on the ends of
Speaker:trips, and then our high capacity vehicles operating and carrying most
Speaker:of the people for the long trips.
Speaker:And for those people who choose to live in our dense, vibrant communities across
Speaker:the valley, maybe they're spending most of their time on those big buses.
Speaker:Or those trains, but we're getting people to the other places that might
Speaker:not be well served by a 40 or a 60 foot bus and certainly doesn't have
Speaker:the density to support rail service.
Speaker:That's beautiful.
Speaker:I love that vision.
Speaker:All right, Ben, what's your vision for five or 10 years for Connecticut?
Speaker:I do think that Jessica's answer is absolutely spot on for the whole country.
Speaker:Y ou know, we do a lot of customer satisfaction, customer surveys.
Speaker:So on top of everything Jessica outlined, it's just making the
Speaker:system more accessible, whether it's a tap and ride to get on.
Speaker:I mean, we gotta be the last industry on earth that you couldn't
Speaker:just tap something to get on.
Speaker:You know, real time information as far as when the next bus or train is coming.
Speaker:You know, it's really all the little things to just modernize
Speaker:the system to make it easier and more comfortable to use.
Speaker:So, Amanda, how about you?
Speaker:What's your vision?
Speaker:Again, on top of what these folks said, one of the key words for us and within
Speaker:the industry needs to be sustainability.
Speaker:And that can mean a lot of things, but our riders and our employees and
Speaker:our communities need us to provide sustainable transit for the long term.
Speaker:And we have to work together at all levels, local, state, federal, and between
Speaker:our communities, which those relationships and that work can be really difficult.
Speaker:So I envision 10 years from now where some of those relationships are a
Speaker:lot smoother and we're living in a world where I hope there is a lot
Speaker:more respect and listening for each other and helping each other because
Speaker:that's the only way we as an industry, and a region, are going to succeed.
Speaker:Excellent.
Speaker:APTA CEO of the year.
Speaker:Come on, Ken.
Speaker:For me, the most important part is easy access to our system.
Speaker:We have to make the system wayfinding and access to get into our system.
Speaker:A couple of months ago I had never ridden Waymo and I took a ride in
Speaker:there, scared at first do I get in a car that no one is driving.
Speaker:But when I got into the vehicle and at the end of my trip, I thought, we have
Speaker:to look at how we use this in transit.
Speaker:Because it is way ahead of where we are in terms of having a 40 foot bus.
Speaker:How do we extend our service with vehicles that are with no, with
Speaker:no one operating it, but getting you to where you need to go?
Speaker:So to me, there's a vision about wayfinding accessibility and less
Speaker:cost to operate the vehicles.
Speaker:Excellent.
Speaker:Love it.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Bring us home.
Speaker:You put me at the end of an august panel after the CEO of the
Speaker:year, so I can say ditto, ditto, ditto all the way down the line.
Speaker:I think, and we all touched on this, you know, transit and the reason I love this
Speaker:industry is an absolute reflection of our society in the very best of what we are
Speaker:in this nation and in our communities.
Speaker:Whether it be innovation, partnership, customer focus, safety focus.
Speaker:So I just see nothing but good things in the road ahead.
Speaker:Bigger roles for transit, making land use decisions, economic decisions,
Speaker:being at that table when those decisions are made, I'm sure we've
Speaker:all been impacted by those decisions.
Speaker:So really I just see a bigger and bigger role for transit, the
Speaker:technology and all those things that will help us play that role.
Speaker:I think nothing but good things ahead.
Speaker:Nothing but blue skies, huh?
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:That's beautiful.
Speaker:Well, thank you all for being here today.
Speaker:Let's give our august panel a round of applause.
Speaker:As I mentioned, this will be on Transit Unplugged the podcast.
Speaker:I also just wanna make one final closing thought, kind of
Speaker:a point of personal privilege.
Speaker:I served as CEO of the MTA in Baltimore, and I can tell you the lives they
Speaker:lead, and it's a life of sacrifice for the good of the community.
Speaker:This is not an eight to five job.
Speaker:This is a job that literally is 24/7.
Speaker:Part of the purpose why I started the Transit Unplugged podcast
Speaker:was I wanted to give CEOs a chance to tell their own story.
Speaker:Most of the time when they're in the media, they're responding real time
Speaker:to a crisis like Jessica had too.
Speaker:And they don't get an opportunity to talk about all the good things that
Speaker:are going on because there is so much good happening in the industry.
Speaker:Let's all become transit evangelists in our own communities and speak to the 85%
Speaker:of voters who say they support public transportation even though they don't
Speaker:use it, and they support it because it provides access to jobs, number one.
Speaker:Number two, because it provides service to the elderly and people with disabilities.
Speaker:And number three, because it provides access to services
Speaker:for lower income people.
Speaker:And the 85% of Americans that don't ride transit still see value in their tax
Speaker:dollars coming to us for those reasons.
Speaker:Thank you for listening to this episode of Transit Unplugged, the world's
Speaker:number one transit executive podcast.
Speaker:I'm Julie Gates, executive producer of the podcast.
Speaker:Many thanks to the team that makes this show happen.
Speaker:Host and producer, Paul Comfort, producer Chris O'Keefe, editor
Speaker:Patrick Emile, associate producer Cyndi Raskin, and consultants Dan
Speaker:Meisner and Jonas Woos at Bumper.
Speaker:Transit Unplugged is being brought to you by Modaxo.
Speaker:Passionate about moving the world's people.
Speaker:If you would enjoy behind the scenes insights and updates from the show,
Speaker:sign up for our weekly newsletter, which has links to can't-miss conversations
Speaker:with the biggest names in mobility.
Speaker:Head to transitunplugged.com and scroll to the bottom of the page to sign up.
Speaker:Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you on the next episode of Transit Unplugged.
