Episode 40
Inside Sacramento’s transit system: TOD Initiatives and Safety Innovations with CEO Henry Li
Get ready for a packed episode as we welcome Henry Li, CEO of the Sacramento Regional Transit District (SacRT), to the show. Henry takes us behind the scenes of SacRT, sharing insights into the major initiatives currently shaping the future of transit in the region like students ride free program and transit oriented development (TOD).
We'll dive into how transit-oriented development is transforming Sacramento, the innovative approaches SacRT is taking to ensure rider safety, and the challenges and successes they faced along the way.
Henry's impressive career in the transit industry brings a wealth of knowledge to our discussion. From his start in Atlanta at MARTA to leading one of the nation's most dynamic transit systems, Henry's journey is nothing short of inspiring.
Coming up next week we start a two-part series from Paul's trip to Alaska. First up is Alaska's largest city, Anchorage, where you're never more than 15 minutes from wilderness and the transit system is built for outdoor adventure.
Transit Unplugged is brought to you by Modaxo https://www.modaxo.com
- Host: Paul Comfort
- Producer: Paul Comfort
- Editor and Writer: Tris Hussey
- Executive Producer: Julie Gates
Special thanks to:
- Brand design: Tina Olagundoye
- Social Media: Tatyana Mechkarova
- Marketing content, Transit Unplugged Newsletter, & transit puns: Tris Hussey
If you have a question or comment, email us at info@transitunplugged.com.
Follow us on social media: LinkedIn - Twitter - Threads- Instagram - Facebook
Sign up for the Transit Unplugged Newsletter
0:00 Inside Sacramento's transit system: TOD Initiatives and Safety Innovations with CEO Henry Li
00:13 Road Trip to Sacramento and Alaska
00:40 Sacramento Heatwave and SacRT Introduction
01:04 Interview with Henry Li: Challenges and Achievements
05:40 Innovative Safety and Security Measures
10:17 Systematic Project Management at SacRT
15:10 Transit Oriented Development Initiatives
17:55 Transition to Zero Emissions
19:52 Henry Li's Career Highlights and Community Impact
22:25 Coming up next week on Transit Unplugged
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the guests, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Modaxo Inc., its affiliates or subsidiaries, or any entities they represent (“Modaxo”). This production belongs to Modaxo, and may contain information that may be subject to trademark, copyright, or other intellectual property rights and restrictions. This production provides general information, and should not be relied on as legal advice or opinion. Modaxo specifically disclaims all warranties, express or implied, and will not be liable for any losses, claims, or damages arising from the use of this presentation, from any material contained in it, or from any action or decision taken in response to it.
Transcript
Hi, I'm Paul Comfort and this is Transit Unplugged, the world's
Speaker:leading transportation podcast that interviews Top Transit Executives.
Speaker:I recently went on a road trip, with Transit Unplugged for
Speaker:the TV show and the podcast.
Speaker:We visited Sacramento, California, where this podcast was recorded,
Speaker:and then we went on to Alaska, where we visited its two biggest
Speaker:cities of Anchorage and Fairbanks.
Speaker:Over the next three weeks, we're going to bring you the interviews that I
Speaker:recorded at those three locations.
Speaker:I think you'll find them fascinating because I did them all live, in person,
Speaker:not over Zoom, and we did it at multiple locations, at each transit agency.
Speaker:When I visited Sacramento, it was very hot that week.
Speaker:It was, record breaking heat, 112 degrees outside.
Speaker:We did a lot of the interviews outside, and you may even notice
Speaker:the kind of the heat exhaustion, which I almost think I got.
Speaker:we had a great trip, though, there.
Speaker:I mean, we saw so many cool things.
Speaker:You've got to watch the Transit Unplugged TV show, which will be
Speaker:coming up on YouTube, to see what Henry and I are talking about.
Speaker:Who's Henry?
Speaker:It's Henry Li.
Speaker:He's the CEO of SacRT, Sacramento Regional Transit, and we started our
Speaker:interview actually standing right on the Capitol steps of the Capitol building.
Speaker:Henry Li is one of
Speaker:the shining lights in our industry.
Speaker:He won APTA's CEO of the Year in
Speaker:2019 and SacRT won the System
Speaker:of the Year in 2021.
Speaker:But the picture wasn't always so rosy.
Speaker:When
Speaker:Henry joined SacRT as CEO nine
Speaker:years ago, after eight years as CFO He was facing a lot of challenges and a board
Speaker:that wanted to see things turned around.
Speaker:Nine years ago, when
Speaker:I joined SacRT, we were
Speaker:in a very bad situation.
Speaker:Safety and security was, you know, number one problem, and, our
Speaker:fare evasion rate was over 20%.
Speaker:Oh, that's high.
Speaker:Crime rate was high, too.
Speaker:And our board gave me a very firm directive saying you
Speaker:have to address this Henry.
Speaker:We start, you know, to look at the industry, the best practices and think
Speaker:about what is the best way to address, you know, our, you know, situation here too.
Speaker:And we developed a award winning safety and security program
Speaker:and implemented, whole bunch of industry leading edge innovations.
Speaker:Sacramento is the capital of California, our biggest state and the
Speaker:fifth largest economy in the world.
Speaker:They are a large system serving 2.
Speaker:6 million people across six counties in the city of Sacramento.
Speaker:They have bus, light rail, and paratransit.
Speaker:And notably, one of the first, largest, and most efficient on demand
Speaker:microtransit systems in the world.
Speaker:Like many systems, this on demand microtransit is a crucial connector
Speaker:for disadvantaged communities.
Speaker:and microtransit helps augment their paratransit service by letting
Speaker:some paratransit riders use less expensive microtransit versus
Speaker:the traditional accessible bus.
Speaker:The, the system, actually majority of the, you know, the zones, or the operations
Speaker:are in the disadvantaged communities.
Speaker:And those disadvantaged communities, customers, they very much, they
Speaker:don't either do not have the personal vehicles or you know, they, they just
Speaker:simply, you know, cannot drive anymore.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So this.
Speaker:On demand, microtransit service is not just, you know, provide convenient
Speaker:service for the ordinary, citizens.
Speaker:It's more towards to help the, you know, disadvantaged community,
Speaker:elderly, wheelchair customers, yes.
Speaker:To the, you know, hospitals and you know, grocery stores and other
Speaker:places or to our, you know, bus hubs.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:For our system.
Speaker:Okay, yeah, yeah, like first and last mile.
Speaker:SacRT is back to
Speaker:about 80% percent of their 2019 ridership levels.
Speaker:Some parts of the system, like light rail, lag behind because fewer government
Speaker:workers are going into the office.
Speaker:But there's one area that has boosted ridership and will help
Speaker:build ridership for years to come.
Speaker:Students.
Speaker:SacRT was
Speaker:the first large system to let all K 12 students ride for
Speaker:free on the entire system.
Speaker:And not just to and from school, but ride anywhere on the entire system.
Speaker:anytime.
Speaker:This gives kids a way to get to activities on their own and
Speaker:parents a break from driving.
Speaker:In 2018, there were 300, 000 students riding the system,
Speaker:for a total ridership of 1.
Speaker:5 million.
Speaker:students.
Speaker:Now, it's more than 4.
Speaker:2 million.
Speaker:kids.
Speaker:These are young people who are building the transit habit early and
Speaker:will become the riders of the future.
Speaker:We did system wide free.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:So students are not just ride to school.
Speaker:They go to, you know, after school activities.
Speaker:Oh, all that's free.
Speaker:And all other activities.
Speaker:That really removes the barrier, you know, for the students to,
Speaker:you know, to, to go anywhere and, also, you know, build the future.
Speaker:That's right, I was going to say, it's a brilliant strategy.
Speaker:Yeah, the future, you know, transit riders and also, just imagine, the parents, they
Speaker:do not have to, spend enormous of times.
Speaker:to take the kids to school, whatever.
Speaker:So that is so, you know, amazing.
Speaker:For part two of this interview we moved to Mulvaney's restaurant
Speaker:and actually recorded the interview in their wine cellar.
Speaker:Mulvaney's is a farm to fork restaurant and part of a huge farm
Speaker:to fork movement in Sacramento.
Speaker:Watch our episode of Transit Unplugged TV to actually see some of the food up close.
Speaker:One of the major projects over the last nine years of Henry's tenure has been
Speaker:reducing fare evasion and reducing crime.
Speaker:We talked about how he accomplished it.
Speaker:When I was CEO in Baltimore, like all agency CEOs, I was
Speaker:laser focused on safety, safety for my employees and passengers.
Speaker:And a combination of transit ambassadors and a Voice of God system, as they call
Speaker:it, have netted some amazing results, including awards from TSA and APTA
Speaker:and what we have been doing, you know, first strict, strictly comply with
Speaker:regulatory requirements, laser focus on every step of safe operations,
Speaker:because the whole operations, you used to be a big agency CEO, you know,
Speaker:everything, every, you know, element of the business, you know, step.
Speaker:involved safety.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So, so we'll focus on every step of the safe operations and implement
Speaker:a whole bunch of, initiatives, innovative initiatives to ensure
Speaker:we are on top of the game.
Speaker:For example, we're likely to be the nation's first large light rail system
Speaker:with the large size of ambassador program.
Speaker:We did not have that before I came here.
Speaker:Since you know, I come here, we, employed up to 70 ambassadors.
Speaker:The ambassadors, they serve two purpose.
Speaker:One is provide, you know, real time customer service.
Speaker:Secondly, they, you know, act as a deterrent to potential,
Speaker:you know, safety related or crime related, you know, issues.
Speaker:Because if you say somebody wear uniform with, you know, some equipments,
Speaker:then the, then people who, you know, may have some bad intention,
Speaker:they may, you know, think, think
Speaker:twice, yeah.
Speaker:Now, are these, are they armed or not armed?
Speaker:They are not armed, but we have security guards, and also
Speaker:police officers, they are armed.
Speaker:And another initiative, you know, is the, we call it the Voice of God.
Speaker:What does that mean is we have a very robust, security operational center.
Speaker:Staff through the center, in the center, staff located real time cameras.
Speaker:Over like 1, 500 cameras throughout our system, to locate, to send any
Speaker:suspicious activities if they found.
Speaker:One, you know, a suspicious activity, they will speak over
Speaker:the loud, you know, speaker in that station or in that location.
Speaker:You know, directly speak from the security Center, through the, you
Speaker:know The camera and the loudspeaker in that particular light rail station
Speaker:to tell, hey, this person wears a red jacket, you are not supposed
Speaker:to, you know, smoke waste, whatever.
Speaker:And 95 percent of the time.
Speaker:Those people complied.
Speaker:So we did not have to send police officers or security guards or ambassadors there.
Speaker:That's really interesting.
Speaker:So the industry, you know, brand that as a Voice of God and, that actually saved
Speaker:lots of resources through technology.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:So, so as a result, our fare evasion rate reduced from over 20 percent
Speaker:eight years ago to less than 1%.
Speaker:Really?
Speaker:That's really good.
Speaker:And the crime rate used to be very high compared to our industry standard.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Now it's also the lowest in the industry too.
Speaker:But we are very proud of the awards we received for safety and security.
Speaker:For example, in 2019 and 2022, We received federal TSA, Transportation
Speaker:Security Administration's gold award for system security.
Speaker:We received award twice.
Speaker:And in 2020, 2021, and 2023, three years, we received APTA's gold award.
Speaker:For light rail security, too.
Speaker:That's amazing.
Speaker:So, so later on we said, let's not apply for the awards
Speaker:anymore, because, you know, we
Speaker:Leave it, let somebody else get it.
Speaker:but we never, you know, stop, you know, continue to improve.
Speaker:I got to talk to Henry about how he turned things
Speaker:around at SacRT and how his
Speaker:agency manages to have three or more major project initiatives
Speaker:going at the same time.
Speaker:We all know managing large projects and initiatives is almost a project
Speaker:itself, but Henry and his team have a systematic, six step process for
Speaker:making sure projects are successful.
Speaker:in the last eight, nine years since I come here.
Speaker:we focus on first is the physical sustainability, and secondly, you
Speaker:know, have a customer centric culture.
Speaker:And the third is a business optimization.
Speaker:And the fourth is a strong accountability.
Speaker:And we have been relentless in our our efforts to streamline business
Speaker:process, do more with less, and maintain a laser focus on customer service.
Speaker:We have developed a robust customer service practices to be able to
Speaker:implement, to immediately address concerns from our customers within
Speaker:two hours or, you know, majority of the time, two hours or up to one day.
Speaker:Our financial is strong because of our emphasis on business optimization.
Speaker:For example, our cost per mile for bus and rail are way below our California peers.
Speaker:We maintain a strong A2 financial rating and a stable outlook with rating agencies.
Speaker:And also, We, you know, maintain a strong reserve and long term,
Speaker:you know, physical sustainability.
Speaker:result of that, the Sacramento Region Taxpayer Association award us the first
Speaker:award they gave to the public agency in 2019, gave us the award, the Physical
Speaker:Sustainability You know, governance award.
Speaker:Really?
Speaker:The Taxpayers Association?
Speaker:we're very proud of that, you know, that is the result of our relentless, you know,
Speaker:effort to, to run our organization, you know, most efficient and effective way.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Congratulations on that.
Speaker:very much.
Speaker:That's amazing, yeah.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:the reason we were able to, to, to, to implement this, you know, major
Speaker:initiatives, is because we have, we, we set up, upward six step, you know, like
Speaker:upward cycle of the, you know, practices, you know, the, the, the six steps include
Speaker:first to have a clear vision, second step is to have bold initiatives to implement
Speaker:the vision, and then the third step, which is critical, which is effective execution.
Speaker:we can have wonderful initiatives, but to implement that initiative,
Speaker:It's very difficult to effectively implement and execute.
Speaker:How do you do that, Henry?
Speaker:Do you like have, when you have a big project, do you have meetings
Speaker:where you kind of hold people accountable and those kind of things?
Speaker:So, you know, to be able to, that's the fourth step, which is strong partnership
Speaker:and collaboration among all partners.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And for example, our, you know, Ride Free students, Ride Free program,
Speaker:we have to work with so many school districts, school principals.
Speaker:cities and counties and others to make sure we are all on the same page.
Speaker:Then, because they have to pay, you know, some money investment in this program too.
Speaker:And, then the The fifth step, like we talked about, we need to
Speaker:have a great performance metrics.
Speaker:And the sixth, and the next step is a strong accountability.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And this is a cycle from the vision to the bold initiative to the effective execution
Speaker:and strong collaboration and performance metrics and a strong accountability.
Speaker:Then you continue this cycle.
Speaker:You continue to, in each major initiative, you use this cycle to continue to
Speaker:do, you know, to, to move forward.
Speaker:Then you become better and better and more effective to implement other initiatives.
Speaker:In any given moment, we have at least three or more major initiatives
Speaker:going on within our agency.
Speaker:By doing that, first, we were able to develop a strong team.
Speaker:Our, you know, leadership and our employees, they improved their
Speaker:competency, they become better and better.
Speaker:Secondly, and we learned from the previous initiatives, how we implement
Speaker:that, we can implement the next initiative in a much better way, right?
Speaker:That's why we, you know, were able to implement a lot of, you know,
Speaker:leading, edge industry initiatives.
Speaker:We shifted gears to talk about one of the hottest topics in transit right now.
Speaker:Transit oriented
Speaker:development.
Speaker:SacRT has been
Speaker:working on TOD for decades and is responsible for building many housing
Speaker:units all connected to light rail.
Speaker:So, we have, A big light rail system with 54, light rail stations, majority
Speaker:of light rail stations, we have, you know, large surplus lands or, you know,
Speaker:large underutilized, park and ride lots.
Speaker:And, our goal, you know, from beginning 30, 40 years ago was
Speaker:trying to develop TODs around, you know, those major, hubs or stations.
Speaker:And since I come here, we, we really, you know, jumpstart that.
Speaker:So far we have, you know, implemented eight TODs and we have multiple other
Speaker:TODs in the planning stage or in the, You know, starting, you know, stage.
Speaker:For example, one, you know, major development area is
Speaker:the Sacramento Rail Yards.
Speaker:Sacramento Rail Yards is a 244 acre urban infilled development site.
Speaker:And which is largest across the country is the urban infill development.
Speaker:And we are building one new light rail station and another, you know, mile, mile
Speaker:and a half light rail track to be able to, attract more developments in this area.
Speaker:Just the housing, development alone, there are more than 10,000
Speaker:housing units are being built.
Speaker:Actually, some of them
Speaker:already finished.
Speaker:And, we're going to take a look at, you know, a lot of, TOD we just completed
Speaker:last year, which is, the Wexler, students housing in 65th Street Library Station.
Speaker:And we'll work with the developer.
Speaker:Private developer to build, 230 units.
Speaker:state of the art students housing, complex with about right now 700,
Speaker:SAC State students are living there.
Speaker:as a result of that, the developers built two hotels because the housing
Speaker:development is so successful.
Speaker:And then, not just to build two more hotels, they're going to build
Speaker:a lot of housing units, about 300 housing units, in that location.
Speaker:along our light rail lines, more than 20,000 you know, affordable
Speaker:housing and market rate housing units are being built or wanted to
Speaker:build or are being built right now.
Speaker:That's amazing.
Speaker:Henry went on to talk about
Speaker:the grants SacRT recently
Speaker:received for their transition to zero emissions, including
Speaker:28 hydrogen fuel cell buses.
Speaker:Well, actually last Friday, uh, the, you know, U.
Speaker:S.
Speaker:DOT or FTA announced the, awards No.
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:And low emission.
Speaker:No low emission, you know, grants, $1.5 billion grants for the nation.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:nine billion dollars, you know, request from many different agencies.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:we put a, a wonderful application together, to do three things.
Speaker:One, to purchase 29, hydrogen fuel cell buses.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:Second, modernize our, bus maintenance facility, you
Speaker:know, disadvantaged community.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Which serve, which serves about 37 percent of our entire services.
Speaker:The third one is a robust workforce development program.
Speaker:And, to be able to, you know, operate hydrogen, you know, bus, bus fleet,
Speaker:we have to build a hydrogen facility or actually, you know, station there.
Speaker:And that will be the first hydrogen fueling station in the Capital Region.
Speaker:The first one.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:And, as a result, well, really thanks to FTA.
Speaker:we were able to receive a close to $77 million grant, which is the
Speaker:third largest one, largest grant.
Speaker:the grant deal, will help us to improve our service reliability, address our
Speaker:air quality, you know, concern and, and also ready, you know, to help us.
Speaker:move to the, you know, zero emission, you know, future.
Speaker:I wanted to wrap our conversation with some highlights from his career.
Speaker:Henry started at MARTA in Atlanta working under Nat Ford.
Speaker:Nat was a tremendous mentor to Henry and encouraged him in his career.
Speaker:He came to SacRT in 2016 and
Speaker:has been CEO there for nearly 10 years.
Speaker:And he's accomplished a lot in those 10 years, including awards for the best CEO
Speaker:and the best system awards from APTA.
Speaker:But it's his work with his people and the community that he seems most proud of.
Speaker:In 2016, I joined SACAR T as CEO, and now it is in my ninth year.
Speaker:I'm so grateful, by working collaboratively with my board.
Speaker:community partners, unions, and employees, we have achieved historical transformation
Speaker:with amazing results, such as, we have over 80 percent customer satisfaction,
Speaker:you know, industry wide is about 70%, we achieved 83 percent of employee
Speaker:satisfaction too, and 96 percent of our The early this year, you know, survey,
Speaker:independent survey, you know, said that they are happy to work for SacRT.
Speaker:Wow, that's wonderful.
Speaker:And we also have absolutely outstanding community partnership here.
Speaker:In last five years, five suburban in the capital region, six county, five
Speaker:suburban transit systems annexed into S To improve the whole region's, connectivity,
Speaker:service connectivity, and also, you know, improve, improve the efficiency
Speaker:through the, economies of scale.
Speaker:And, I also want to just want to say this, you know, I'm very grateful
Speaker:to have a wonderful board here.
Speaker:And they actually now giving me an open entity contract, you know, so my future,
Speaker:you know, plan is to stay here, you know, as long as I can to continue to, you
Speaker:know, move this agency to the next level.
Speaker:That's wonderful.
Speaker:Well, Henry, this has been, I can see why your board did that.
Speaker:I can see why you got those awards.
Speaker:You truly are a remarkable leader and it's, it's been a pleasure to talk to
Speaker:you about the great initiatives that you're doing here and, we look forward
Speaker:to seeing you continue to be a shining example for our industry in the future.
Speaker:Appreciate it.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Transit Unplugged.
Speaker:Hi, I'm Tris Hussey editor of the podcast.
Speaker:And I also want to thank our
Speaker:guests, Henry Li Mulvaney's restaurant,
Speaker:and
Speaker:everyone at SacRT for helping
Speaker:to make this episode possible.
Speaker:As Paul said at the start of the show, this is just the first of
Speaker:three podcast episodes and three episodes of Transit Unplugged TV from
Speaker:his trip to California and Alaska.
Speaker:Make sure you follow us.
Speaker:So you don't miss a single episode.
Speaker:Speaking of upcoming episodes.
Speaker:Next week, we have the first of the two episodes coming to you from Alaska.
Speaker:First up.
Speaker:Alaska's largest city Anchorage.
Speaker:We hope you'll join us to learn more about Alaska, Anchorage,
Speaker:and the Land of the Midnight Sun.
Speaker:Transit Unplugged is brought to you by Modaxo at Modaxo.
Speaker:We're passionate about moving the world's
Speaker:people and at Transit Unplugged,
Speaker:we're passionate about telling those stories.
Speaker:So until
Speaker:next week, ride safe and
Speaker:ride happy.
