Celebrating Paul’s Newest Book: The New Future of Public Transportation

Paul Comfort: 00:00:05

This is Transit Unplugged.

Paul Comfort: 00:00:06

I'm Paul Comfort.

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On today's episode of the Transit Unplugged podcast, we

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talk about some of the hottest topics in public transportation.

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And.

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They are written in a book called The New Future of Public Transportation,

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which I put together with 30 of my friends and leaders of top transit

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agencies, consultants, and experts in the technology field from around the world.

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The book is out now.

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It is The New Future of Public Transportation, basically the next

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phase of my The book I wrote a few years ago, before the pandemic, called

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The Future of Public Transportation, and Society of Automotive Engineers

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reached out to me about nine months to a year ago and asked me if I would

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be interested in writing an updated version, kind of a post pandemic version.

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What are the hot topics now?

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You know, new things that we weren't really talking a lot about before.

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Back then, cybersecurity, AI driven advancements, hydrogen fuel buses,

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infrastructure challenges, workforce shortages, all of those things.

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And so I accepted and invited these 30 top leaders from around the world

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to write on five topics, people, modal futures, zero emission vehicles,

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data, funding and faring, and for one extra bonus, geographic futures.

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later on in the podcast at the end, I'll go through each of them and what

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their chapters are about, but this, as an intro, is an exciting time to

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talk about these important issues.

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On today's episode of the podcast, I, spent some time talking to two

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of the guests who wrote in the book.

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first is Dr.

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Karen Philbrick, a friend of mine, and executive director

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Mineta Transportation Institute.

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She wrote about cybersecurity, workforce shortages, operator mental health,

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rebuilding ridership, safety in transit.

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She talks about that on an interview right after this opening.

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Then after that, we hear from Paige Malott, who is a high speed rail

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researcher with the International Union of Railways and a consultant

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with her own company P7 Strategies.

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this is one of the hottest topics.

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You know, we just had Brightline Trains, break ground on the

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Southern California, kind of L.

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A.

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to Las Vegas route they're going to have

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so, it's on the minds of people here in the U.

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S., and of course, they really know how to do this well in Europe and Asia, and

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she's seen half the rail systems in the world, and talks about them on today's

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podcast on the second part of the show.

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And then on the third part, as I mentioned, we'll dive a little bit

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into all the other, contributors to the book and what their topics are.

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It's a great day to celebrate the new future of public transportation.

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Now let's join my conversation with Dr.

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Philbrick.

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Great to have Dr.

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Karen Philbrick with us as our first guest on today's podcast.

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Karen's a good friend of mine and Executive Director of the Minetta

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Transportation Institute, one of the top think tanks and study groups

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in the country and the world when it comes to public transportation.

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Dr.

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Philbrick, thank you so much for being with us tonight.

Karen Philbrick: 00:02:47

Thank you for having me and thank you for your leadership

Karen Philbrick: 00:02:50

in putting together this book.

Karen Philbrick: 00:02:51

It's an indispensable resource for transportation professionals and

Karen Philbrick: 00:02:55

people just interested in our sector.

Karen Philbrick: 00:02:58

You are phenomenal.

Karen Philbrick: 00:02:59

Thank you, Paul.

Paul Comfort: 00:03:00

Oh, thanks, Karen.

Paul Comfort: 00:03:01

That's great.

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I really appreciate that.

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Yeah, the book is exciting.

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And as we record this today on May Day, May 1st, the book has rocketed to number

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one, Even before, today was supposed to be the launch day, which is why we're

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recording today, but Amazon put it out a little early, and it already went

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to number one in multiple categories.

Paul Comfort: 00:03:18

So very exciting, and I'm sure your chapter is one of the big reasons why I

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care, which is why I wanted you on the show today, because you cover probably

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more topics than anybody else in the book.

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there are 30 chapters written by 30 different individuals, mine is on people,

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leadership and stuff, but your chapter really digs into five hot topics, which

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I know people are going to want to know the latest about, because you all have

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done a lot of studies on these, and you have some personal, knowledge about some

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of these topics I think that'll be very interesting, and they are cyber security,

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workforce shortages, operator mental health, assaults on transit, overall

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safety, and then rebuilding ridership.

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You think we can dig into some of them today?

Karen Philbrick: 00:03:56

I think we can, and I think we should.

Paul Comfort: 00:03:58

Yeah, good.

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You know, I was just out in the Midwest part of the country with a

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CEO, and he told me they just had a ransomware attack, and they had

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just worked their way through it.

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They didn't pay the ransom, but it was very difficult, very challenging.

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I actually did a presentation with him, and his laptop was shut down.

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He couldn't do anything.

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He lost the presentation.

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It was, you know, it's, that's small potatoes compared to what really

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happens, but it has a big effect, doesn't it, on a transit agency.

Karen Philbrick: 00:04:23

Absolutely, it affects every level of the transit agency

Karen Philbrick: 00:04:26

and potentially the riding public.

Karen Philbrick: 00:04:28

I mean, Paul, when we talk about our systems, cybersecurity has

Karen Philbrick: 00:04:32

to be a part of the conversation.

Karen Philbrick: 00:04:34

I mean, you've read the news yourself that multiple transit agencies over

Karen Philbrick: 00:04:37

the last 5 or 6 years have been impacted, not only here in California,

Karen Philbrick: 00:04:42

but even the systems in New York City and everywhere in between.

Karen Philbrick: 00:04:46

Not only does it disrupt service, It can actually have a negative impact

Karen Philbrick: 00:04:50

on people's safety and viability if there is some sort of breach.

Karen Philbrick: 00:04:55

And I think the main takeaway, particularly that I'd like to emphasize is

Karen Philbrick: 00:04:59

the fact that 80 to 90% of cybersecurity breaches are the result of staff members

Karen Philbrick: 00:05:06

who unknowingly open up malware or ransomware within their own emails.

Karen Philbrick: 00:05:11

So having that IT security tips, training on such issues is absolutely

Karen Philbrick: 00:05:17

important to the well being and seamless connection of all of our systems.

Paul Comfort: 00:05:21

That's great.

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That's good advice.

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I know a lot of agencies are working on that.

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You know, I've talked to some senior IT people in big companies and transit

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agencies recently, and they told me they're literally getting thousands

Paul Comfort: 00:05:33

of attacks every day against their, you know, they're just being hit

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from, sometimes, you know, foreign countries, it's coming from them, etc.

Paul Comfort: 00:05:40

And so it's so important to keep those security measures up.

Karen Philbrick: 00:05:43

And to make sure that you are downloading

Karen Philbrick: 00:05:45

any of the different patches and other things that are happening.

Karen Philbrick: 00:05:49

But really, Paul, we need to train people that when they get an email that

Karen Philbrick: 00:05:52

has a really cute dog or a cute cat or something else they're interested in,

Karen Philbrick: 00:05:56

good God, don't open it, move right along.

Karen Philbrick: 00:05:58

And, and, you know, that's talking about more of the software, if

Karen Philbrick: 00:06:01

you will, and the people focus.

Karen Philbrick: 00:06:03

I want to give one example, and this was in 2018 with the

Karen Philbrick: 00:06:06

Bay Area Rapid Transit, BART.

Karen Philbrick: 00:06:09

Prior to the pandemic, it was the fifth busiest passenger

Karen Philbrick: 00:06:12

rail system in the nation.

Karen Philbrick: 00:06:13

It's here in the Bay Area specifically, but in 2018, they found that 86%

Karen Philbrick: 00:06:20

of 1000 hardware devices, 86%.

Karen Philbrick: 00:06:24

That Cisco had supplied to them, contained hidden back doors on the devices that

Karen Philbrick: 00:06:30

sent information to foreign nationals that are hostile to American interests.

Karen Philbrick: 00:06:35

BART did everything right, as soon as they found this, everything

Karen Philbrick: 00:06:39

was replaced within 72 hours.

Karen Philbrick: 00:06:41

But that's the level of granular detail that we need.

Karen Philbrick: 00:06:44

We can't just trust what comes from suppliers and vendors.

Karen Philbrick: 00:06:48

We have to have RFPs and other paperwork that are very specific about

Karen Philbrick: 00:06:51

some of the technology safeguards that are being put into place.

Paul Comfort: 00:06:55

Wow, that's amazing.

Paul Comfort: 00:06:56

And you guys at the Minetta Transportation Institute, didn't you just have a

Paul Comfort: 00:06:59

study or something on this topic?

Karen Philbrick: 00:07:01

Yeah, we've done quite a few studies on this topic with our

Karen Philbrick: 00:07:04

MTI Research Associate, Scott Belcher.

Karen Philbrick: 00:07:06

In fact, some of that work has resulted in congressional testimony.

Karen Philbrick: 00:07:10

And really, we tried to identify what was the issue within public transportation,

Karen Philbrick: 00:07:14

and we worked hand in glove with the American Public Transportation

Karen Philbrick: 00:07:18

Association, commonly known as APTA, to help survey the different transit

Karen Philbrick: 00:07:22

agencies to determine where those hotspots were and what best practices

Karen Philbrick: 00:07:27

could be introduced into our sector to help with any of these issues.

Karen Philbrick: 00:07:31

So we continue that line of work.

Karen Philbrick: 00:07:33

We are paying very close attention to it.

Paul Comfort: 00:07:35

That's wonderful.

Paul Comfort: 00:07:36

Let's move on to the next topic then, which I know is near and

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dear to both of our hearts, and that is workforce shortages.

Paul Comfort: 00:07:42

Post pandemic, a lot of transit agencies have had trouble.

Paul Comfort: 00:07:45

What do you have to say about that?

Karen Philbrick: 00:07:46

I have more than you can imagine to say about This is one

Karen Philbrick: 00:07:50

of the areas that I am particularly passionate about, and I want to

Karen Philbrick: 00:07:53

just step back for a minute, Paul.

Karen Philbrick: 00:07:55

When you gave me the honor and the privilege of asking me to contribute,

Karen Philbrick: 00:07:59

I sat and I thought, what, what do I get most passionate about?

Karen Philbrick: 00:08:03

What do I think are the big issues?

Karen Philbrick: 00:08:05

And workforce shortage was right up there, because what I always like to

Karen Philbrick: 00:08:08

say is transportation touches us all, whether it's how we get from point A to

Karen Philbrick: 00:08:12

point B, or whether it's the food we eat.

Karen Philbrick: 00:08:15

For The devices we use and in fact some of the latest scientific literature

Karen Philbrick: 00:08:19

shows that people who are socially isolated have physical health that

Karen Philbrick: 00:08:23

can be the equivalent of people who smoke up to 15 cigarettes a day.

Karen Philbrick: 00:08:27

So when you talk about how vital connection is, you're obviously

Karen Philbrick: 00:08:31

talking about public transportation.

Karen Philbrick: 00:08:33

Oh, I have goosebumps.

Karen Philbrick: 00:08:34

I just love this.

Karen Philbrick: 00:08:36

But we are suffering.

Karen Philbrick: 00:08:37

This started before the pandemic.

Karen Philbrick: 00:08:39

In fact, in 2019, we at the Institute did some research.

Karen Philbrick: 00:08:43

That documented that shortage, but also reflected the percent

Karen Philbrick: 00:08:46

of the workforce that were women.

Karen Philbrick: 00:08:48

At that time, it was fewer than 15%.

Karen Philbrick: 00:08:51

We have seen some growth in that area, but we are still woefully underrepresented.

Karen Philbrick: 00:08:56

APTA did a recent study that looked at workforce shortage.

Karen Philbrick: 00:09:00

They found that 96 percent of agencies reported experiencing

Karen Philbrick: 00:09:04

such a shortage and that in many cases, it's impacted operations.

Karen Philbrick: 00:09:09

Furthermore, when you look at our transit operators, the frontline, the

Karen Philbrick: 00:09:12

people are making it happen every day.

Karen Philbrick: 00:09:15

Oh, this is, this is scary now.

Karen Philbrick: 00:09:17

43 percent of the operators are 55 or older.

Karen Philbrick: 00:09:21

We're talking retirement folks, and we are competing with every other

Karen Philbrick: 00:09:24

sector for that qualified workforce.

Karen Philbrick: 00:09:27

So when I think about that, I think how are we going to get people excited?

Karen Philbrick: 00:09:31

How interested in joining our ranks?

Karen Philbrick: 00:09:33

So at the Institute, we've developed workforce programs All the way into

Karen Philbrick: 00:09:37

preschool, so kids can start learning about the industry and what exists for

Karen Philbrick: 00:09:42

their future, and we need to start young.

Karen Philbrick: 00:09:44

If we're starting when people are in their 20s, we've missed that boat, and

Karen Philbrick: 00:09:48

we need to talk about jobs in transit in a different way that really reflects the

Karen Philbrick: 00:09:52

power of these positions and the impact that they have on people's lives, as well

Karen Philbrick: 00:09:56

as their communities, and that shortage, last comment that we face, is that It's

Karen Philbrick: 00:10:00

from the front line to the C suite.

Karen Philbrick: 00:10:02

So we have opportunities across that pipeline, regardless of

Karen Philbrick: 00:10:06

what people are interested in.

Paul Comfort: 00:10:08

I just heard, from Frank White, in Kansas City recently that, from

Paul Comfort: 00:10:11

the APTA CEO summit that he went to, in Savannah somewhere he got this number

Paul Comfort: 00:10:15

that was announced there that the average age of a CEO of a transit system is 58.

Paul Comfort: 00:10:20

we're all getting toward that retirement age.

Paul Comfort: 00:10:21

It's something.

Paul Comfort: 00:10:22

Well, this is good stuff.

Paul Comfort: 00:10:24

That's right.

Paul Comfort: 00:10:24

You've got great information in the book about it as well.

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and you are chapter four, by the way, in the book, right after mine.

Paul Comfort: 00:10:31

I'm three, you're four, we're right next to each other.

Paul Comfort: 00:10:33

So, we're in the people section, you know, so it's, Aaron Weinstein talks

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about customer experience and I talk about transportation leadership.

Paul Comfort: 00:10:41

You talk about these workforce shortages, mental health, and then

Paul Comfort: 00:10:44

Daphne LeBlanc talks about the future of succession planning and labor shortages.

Paul Comfort: 00:10:48

It's a great grouping of chapters there together.

Paul Comfort: 00:10:51

And let's switch into that topic then for a minute if we could, Dr.

Paul Comfort: 00:10:54

Philbrick, which is operator mental health.

Paul Comfort: 00:10:56

what are your thoughts on that?

Karen Philbrick: 00:10:57

I think that we are not paying close enough

Karen Philbrick: 00:11:00

attention to mental health.

Karen Philbrick: 00:11:02

I think when we take ourselves out of the transport sector and think of humanity,

Karen Philbrick: 00:11:07

we can never even try to understand what another person is experiencing.

Karen Philbrick: 00:11:12

And even though we may all present with happy faces, we might have some serious

Karen Philbrick: 00:11:16

trauma that's happening underneath and particularly in the transportation sector.

Karen Philbrick: 00:11:20

which tends to be relatively male dominated that can in times have

Karen Philbrick: 00:11:25

more of a machismo sort of culture.

Karen Philbrick: 00:11:27

People are not feeling comfortable, safe, or transparent enough to be

Karen Philbrick: 00:11:32

able to talk about some of the issues that they're really experiencing.

Karen Philbrick: 00:11:35

And for me, I'm a psychologist by training, double master's,

Karen Philbrick: 00:11:39

PhD, different disciplines.

Karen Philbrick: 00:11:41

My entire career has been in transportation.

Karen Philbrick: 00:11:43

And so when something happens in our industry, it.

Karen Philbrick: 00:11:46

It affects me deeply, not only intellectually and cognitively, but

Karen Philbrick: 00:11:51

emotionally, and as you might recall, we lost a great person in our industry

Karen Philbrick: 00:11:56

in 2022 when CEO Jeff Parker of MARTA in Atlanta committed suicide by

Karen Philbrick: 00:12:02

laying down in front of his own train.

Karen Philbrick: 00:12:04

This was a wonderful man.

Karen Philbrick: 00:12:05

You've heard me tell this story before.

Karen Philbrick: 00:12:07

And nobody knew, including his wife and his children, how bad he was suffering.

Karen Philbrick: 00:12:13

And I can't help but to wonder if we just allowed people a little bit more space.

Karen Philbrick: 00:12:17

To be that human and to really talk with each other to provide that social

Karen Philbrick: 00:12:22

support that we would excel all together that everybody would be raised up.

Karen Philbrick: 00:12:27

But unfortunately, I don't know that transit agencies are spending

Karen Philbrick: 00:12:31

the time, the money, or the or the resources to take intentional steps

Karen Philbrick: 00:12:36

to address this issue at present.

Karen Philbrick: 00:12:37

I do think there's movement in the air.

Karen Philbrick: 00:12:40

I do think that people are becoming more comfortable talking about this,

Karen Philbrick: 00:12:43

but we need to get over that hump so that collectively we can be better.

Paul Comfort: 00:12:47

That's good.

Paul Comfort: 00:12:48

And then, you know, there's been a lot of talk about, crime on transit, assaults

Paul Comfort: 00:12:53

on transit, you know, in New York City, it seems like every week there's a

Paul Comfort: 00:12:56

story that comes out about something terrible that's happened on a platform.

Paul Comfort: 00:12:59

where are we on that, do you think, in the country?

Karen Philbrick: 00:13:02

Well, we are improving, but we have a long

Karen Philbrick: 00:13:05

runway to really address this issue.

Karen Philbrick: 00:13:07

And I think about what you just said in terms of assault.

Karen Philbrick: 00:13:11

Whether it's assault on the operator or assault on the rider, this is happening.

Karen Philbrick: 00:13:15

People being put into experiences that may not be comfortable.

Karen Philbrick: 00:13:20

And yes, we have training on de escalation.

Karen Philbrick: 00:13:23

We have some transit agencies not having operators do fare

Karen Philbrick: 00:13:26

enforcement, for example, which can reduce some of that tension.

Karen Philbrick: 00:13:30

But still, think about you going to your job every day and

Karen Philbrick: 00:13:33

wondering if you'll get spit on.

Karen Philbrick: 00:13:35

Hit,

Karen Philbrick: 00:13:36

kicked, punched, or verbally yelled at.

Karen Philbrick: 00:13:38

It's not a comfortable situation.

Karen Philbrick: 00:13:41

And if I may just go back.

Karen Philbrick: 00:13:42

Many, many years now, I started my career looking at operator response to

Karen Philbrick: 00:13:47

trauma, particularly person under the train incidents, whether that was a

Karen Philbrick: 00:13:51

grade crossing accident or a trespasser incident, and in thousands, literally

Karen Philbrick: 00:13:56

thousands of interviews I conducted, what emerged Was the profile of being

Karen Philbrick: 00:14:01

spat upon being more emotionally damaging and difficult psychologically

Karen Philbrick: 00:14:07

than perhaps having an incident where someone lost their life under the train?

Karen Philbrick: 00:14:11

Because, of course, the operators can't swerve.

Karen Philbrick: 00:14:13

They have no control over what happens, but they are left.

Karen Philbrick: 00:14:17

Hostage to watch what happens in front of them and that has a serious

Karen Philbrick: 00:14:21

negative emotional impact in some cases.

Karen Philbrick: 00:14:24

So, when I think about assault, I think about we can't presume

Karen Philbrick: 00:14:27

to know what the impact is on someone who's had that experience.

Karen Philbrick: 00:14:31

We need to put in more safety measures, more safeguards.

Karen Philbrick: 00:14:34

And when it comes to ridership itself, you yourself have likely

Karen Philbrick: 00:14:38

read some of the most horrifying stories of rape and other attacks

Karen Philbrick: 00:14:42

that happened on the actual train car.

Karen Philbrick: 00:14:47

It's just, it's absolutely devastating, but we are working

Karen Philbrick: 00:14:50

as an industry to overcome that.

Karen Philbrick: 00:14:52

We have many, many examples of how assault is being addressed,

Karen Philbrick: 00:14:56

not only with the operators, but helping to support the riding public.

Karen Philbrick: 00:15:00

In fact, the Institute was codified into law through California Senate Bill 1161.

Karen Philbrick: 00:15:05

To develop a survey to quantify the issue, because right now you can't

Karen Philbrick: 00:15:09

compare apples and oranges, and a small agency might be recording data in a

Karen Philbrick: 00:15:14

different way than a larger agency.

Karen Philbrick: 00:15:16

So, get an accurate picture.

Karen Philbrick: 00:15:17

We're developing a template for a survey to document the existence of this,

Karen Philbrick: 00:15:22

and then to look at best practices for mitigating that experience.

Paul Comfort: 00:15:27

That's great.

Paul Comfort: 00:15:28

Lastly, let's jump into rebuilding ridership.

Paul Comfort: 00:15:31

The transit world is coming back, and I think we're coming back strong, but a lot

Paul Comfort: 00:15:35

of agencies are tapping out at around 70 80 percent of their pre pandemic ridership

Paul Comfort: 00:15:40

because we are in a new world now with hybrid work schedules, the three day city.

Paul Comfort: 00:15:44

What are you seeing?

Karen Philbrick: 00:15:45

Well, I'm seeing it depends on the area that you live.

Karen Philbrick: 00:15:49

So, I'm going to go back to what I know best, and that's

Karen Philbrick: 00:15:51

Silicon Valley and the Bay Area.

Karen Philbrick: 00:15:53

We have one of the lowest return to work rates in the nation, in large part

Karen Philbrick: 00:15:57

because we're in the Silicon Valley and it's a tech driven economy where

Karen Philbrick: 00:16:02

people can do their jobs remotely.

Karen Philbrick: 00:16:05

So, what we're seeing is agencies looking at ridership trends

Karen Philbrick: 00:16:09

and changing their service.

Karen Philbrick: 00:16:10

Maybe they no longer provide bimodal service at the peak distribution hours.

Karen Philbrick: 00:16:15

Maybe they offer more evening service or more weekend service because they're

Karen Philbrick: 00:16:19

seeing riders using the system for reasons other than commuting to work.

Karen Philbrick: 00:16:23

And I think we need to really pay close attention to that.

Karen Philbrick: 00:16:26

Certainly, we've seen ridership rebound very strongly on the East

Karen Philbrick: 00:16:29

Coast, particularly in Washington, D.

Karen Philbrick: 00:16:32

C.

Karen Philbrick: 00:16:32

and New York City.

Karen Philbrick: 00:16:33

We do see some of our other agencies struggling because people are still

Karen Philbrick: 00:16:37

working through the cognitive mindset of the pandemic and feeling like exposure

Karen Philbrick: 00:16:42

might be strong, or they got used to being in their own vehicle and have

Karen Philbrick: 00:16:46

forgotten the ease, the convenience, the sustainability of using transit instead.

Karen Philbrick: 00:16:52

So I think we need to be nimble, we need to be able to pivot, we

Karen Philbrick: 00:16:55

need to look at the ridership numbers, and we need to adjust to

Karen Philbrick: 00:16:58

provide the best service possible.

Karen Philbrick: 00:17:00

And in doing so, we'll rebuild that ridership.

Paul Comfort: 00:17:03

That's good.

Paul Comfort: 00:17:03

I always think about what Jeremy Yap told me.

Paul Comfort: 00:17:06

He runs Singapore's LTA transit system.

Paul Comfort: 00:17:09

And after the pandemic, he said, you know, the silver lining is I don't have the peak

Paul Comfort: 00:17:13

of the peak of the peak anymore, where I have to put all my resources out there.

Paul Comfort: 00:17:16

Now I can spread them out.

Paul Comfort: 00:17:18

And serve more people throughout the day.

Paul Comfort: 00:17:19

And I think, well, like you said, that's what a lot of transit agencies have done.

Paul Comfort: 00:17:22

Dr.

Paul Comfort: 00:17:23

Philbrick, thank you so much for being not only a part of our podcast today, but

Paul Comfort: 00:17:27

an integral part of our new book, The New Future of Public Transportation, talking

Paul Comfort: 00:17:31

even more in depth on all these topics.

Karen Philbrick: 00:17:34

Thank you for having me.

Karen Philbrick: 00:17:35

It was just delightful.

Paul Comfort: 00:17:36

Thank you so much.

Paul Comfort: 00:17:37

You bet.

Paul Comfort: 00:17:41

What a great interview with Dr.

Paul Comfort: 00:17:43

Karen Philbrick, Executive Director of the Minetta Transportation Institute,

Paul Comfort: 00:17:47

where she covered some of the hottest topics affecting our industry that

Paul Comfort: 00:17:50

she wrote about in my book, The New Future of Public Transportation.

Paul Comfort: 00:17:55

Now we interview Paige Malott, who is a high speed rail consultant and

Paul Comfort: 00:17:59

researcher with the International Union of Railways, and she talks about what's

Paul Comfort: 00:18:03

happening with high speed rail around the world and here in the United States.

Paul Comfort: 00:18:07

Thanks Let's listen in.

Paul Comfort: 00:18:08

Great to have Paige Malott with us today.

Paul Comfort: 00:18:10

She is a high speed rail consultant, a researcher, has her own consulting

Paul Comfort: 00:18:15

firm, P7 Strategies, and has written an amazing chapter in my book, and it

Paul Comfort: 00:18:21

is on the future of high speed rail.

Paul Comfort: 00:18:23

Paige, thanks so much for being with us today on the podcast to talk about it.

Paige Malott: 00:18:26

Thanks for having me, Paul.

Paige Malott: 00:18:27

Glad to be here.

Paul Comfort: 00:18:28

Yeah, I, you know, this is one of the hottest

Paul Comfort: 00:18:30

topics, clearly in America right now, but also around the world.

Paul Comfort: 00:18:33

In America, people are, know, all about Brightline trains right now, right?

Paul Comfort: 00:18:37

Brightline trains in Southern California over to Vegas is the latest.

Paul Comfort: 00:18:41

Hot thing, they just did a groundbreaking, I actually got invited to it, uh,

Paul Comfort: 00:18:44

it was just a couple weeks ago, wasn't able to make it, but, so,

Paul Comfort: 00:18:47

higher speed rail, I know that's not real traditional high speed rail,

Paul Comfort: 00:18:50

is on people's minds here in the U.

Paul Comfort: 00:18:52

S., and you told me, you just came back from an amazing trip

Paul Comfort: 00:18:55

to Korea, tell me about that.

Paige Malott: 00:18:56

That's right, yeah, so I was able to visit Korea, visit

Paige Malott: 00:19:00

Seoul for their 20th anniversary of their high speed rail system.

Paige Malott: 00:19:04

So Korea has the 4th high speed rail system that opened in the world with their

Paige Malott: 00:19:08

line running from Seoul to Busan, and they had an amazing exhibit with historical

Paige Malott: 00:19:14

artifacts, with representations of future trains, with art projects, and we even

Paige Malott: 00:19:18

did a tour of the maintenance facility.

Paige Malott: 00:19:20

I was able to go there with the International Union of Railways

Paige Malott: 00:19:23

and talk about a little bit of research that I'm doing.

Paige Malott: 00:19:26

On high speed rail stations at airports, so it was a really good time.

Paige Malott: 00:19:28

great to check it out and have that firsthand experience

Paige Malott: 00:19:31

to bring back to the States.

Paul Comfort: 00:19:32

Yeah.

Paul Comfort: 00:19:33

A long time ago, it might have been, I don't know, 15 years ago when I was a

Paul Comfort: 00:19:37

county administrator, I did a trip to China and I got to ride on the real high

Paul Comfort: 00:19:41

speed rail, Maglev, outside of Shanghai.

Paul Comfort: 00:19:44

And I was just so impressed with that.

Paul Comfort: 00:19:46

And then when I was in Baltimore at the MTA, my boss, the Secretary of

Paul Comfort: 00:19:49

Transportation and the governor went to Japan to ride their high speed railway.

Paul Comfort: 00:19:53

And we had a study going on that was federally funded to

Paul Comfort: 00:19:56

potentially build in the future.

Paul Comfort: 00:19:58

A high speed rail line between Washington, D.

Paul Comfort: 00:20:00

C.

Paul Comfort: 00:20:01

and Baltimore, which would be like a 15 minute ride, and there's still

Paul Comfort: 00:20:03

a group that's doing the study.

Paul Comfort: 00:20:04

but you've been all over the world.

Paul Comfort: 00:20:06

Tell us what's happening with high speed rail around the world, and then we'll

Paul Comfort: 00:20:09

segue to the United States, and you can tell us, why is it taking us so long?

Paige Malott: 00:20:14

Sure, so I've had the opportunity to ride and

Paige Malott: 00:20:18

witness 10 of the 21 high speed rail systems around the world.

Paige Malott: 00:20:22

That's in Africa, in Asia, and in Europe.

Paige Malott: 00:20:25

And most recently, just in this past October, Indonesia opened their 1st

Paige Malott: 00:20:30

high speed rail system, connecting Jakarta to Bandung, and that operates

Paige Malott: 00:20:36

at, it was 320 kilometers per hour, so roughly 200 miles per hour.

Paige Malott: 00:20:40

miles per hour and true high speed.

Paige Malott: 00:20:43

So, this line has been wildly popular, similar to what we saw in Morocco,

Paige Malott: 00:20:48

with the results there, operating at 200 miles per hour and greater.

Paige Malott: 00:20:52

That reduced travel times between Jakarta and Bandung in your from roughly 6 hours

Paige Malott: 00:20:58

by driving down to 40 minutes by train.

Paige Malott: 00:21:00

So it was, it was a huge success and they're already looking at expansions.

Paige Malott: 00:21:04

also looking at Morocco, the line from Tangier to Casablanca, that takes

Paige Malott: 00:21:08

roughly 90 minutes and it was a similar journey time on conventional rail and

Paige Malott: 00:21:13

on a car about 5 to 6 hours there.

Paige Malott: 00:21:16

So it was really game changing transportation for citizens that has

Paige Malott: 00:21:19

reduced the need to drive or take an airplane between these destinations.

Paul Comfort: 00:21:24

is 200 miles per hour considered the cutoff if you're above

Paul Comfort: 00:21:27

that, your high speed, I mean, what tradition, you know, real high speed?

Paige Malott: 00:21:31

So, 186 miles per hour is what the high speed classification is.

Paige Malott: 00:21:36

And it's also the speed that trains can compete with air travel.

Paige Malott: 00:21:40

So what we're looking at is anything greater than 106 miles, 186 miles

Paige Malott: 00:21:45

per hour is high speed rail.

Paige Malott: 00:21:47

The next step down is 125 to 186 is inner city rail, or what we call

Paige Malott: 00:21:54

in the states higher speed rail,

Paul Comfort: 00:21:55

and then

Paige Malott: 00:21:56

anything below 125 is conventional rail.

Paul Comfort: 00:21:59

Okay, so the Brightline train in Florida is the higher

Paul Comfort: 00:22:02

speed, but the one they're proposing out west is going to be 200 miles

Paul Comfort: 00:22:06

per hour, so that one would be classified as a true high speed rail.

Paul Comfort: 00:22:10

So, what are some of the fastest trains in the world?

Paul Comfort: 00:22:12

Do you know?

Paul Comfort: 00:22:13

I mean, how fast are they going?

Paul Comfort: 00:22:14

It seems like the one in Shanghai I was in was really fast.

Paige Malott: 00:22:17

Yeah, so China has the fastest high speed trains in the world.

Paige Malott: 00:22:21

They also have the most high speed lines in the world as well.

Paige Malott: 00:22:25

And these have really changed where people can go in the country.

Paige Malott: 00:22:29

It's serving rural areas, as well as connecting the bigger cities.

Paige Malott: 00:22:33

And what we've heard is, uh, the essentially the mayors and the towns are

Paige Malott: 00:22:38

getting demand from the folks in town saying, when is the station coming here?

Paige Malott: 00:22:42

It doesn't matter what the size of the town is.

Paige Malott: 00:22:44

People are excited for it, so it's really seeing those game changing

Paige Malott: 00:22:47

outcomes and connecting places that are looking for more opportunities.

Paul Comfort: 00:22:51

Yeah, I like the phrase here that I've heard used, which is,

Paul Comfort: 00:22:56

high speed rail is great for places where it is too long to drive, but too

Paul Comfort: 00:23:01

close to fly, really, to get out to go, yeah, take any, you know, spend an

Paul Comfort: 00:23:05

hour and a half to get on your airplane to park, but do your bags and fly.

Paul Comfort: 00:23:09

So, uh, if it's a niche.

Paul Comfort: 00:23:11

Uh, evidently right in that spot.

Paul Comfort: 00:23:12

Why is it, why is it so hard here in America?

Paul Comfort: 00:23:15

I mean, we've got, like I mentioned, in Baltimore, they were studying

Paul Comfort: 00:23:18

this before I got there, which was like eight, nine years ago, and

Paul Comfort: 00:23:21

they're still studying it today.

Paul Comfort: 00:23:23

Then you've got the California High Speed Rail Project, which everyone

Paul Comfort: 00:23:26

still has very high hopes for, but it just seems to be taking a long time.

Paul Comfort: 00:23:30

In your opinion, Paige, what's going on?

Paige Malott: 00:23:32

All right, so, you know, we have the the too short to

Paige Malott: 00:23:34

fly too long to drive radius, which is about 500 miles from a city center.

Paige Malott: 00:23:38

So we're looking at city pairs within those those radiuses that

Paige Malott: 00:23:41

could be served by high speed rail.

Paige Malott: 00:23:43

And we currently have a gap of that in America where there may be

Paige Malott: 00:23:47

existing inner city trains, but.

Paige Malott: 00:23:48

But they have been underserved and under invested in.

Paige Malott: 00:23:52

So they're not being utilized by people.

Paige Malott: 00:23:54

I think a great example of this is from Chicago to Cincinnati.

Paige Malott: 00:23:58

We've got a corridor that takes roughly 90 minutes to fly, five hours to drive.

Paige Malott: 00:24:03

And there is an intercity train between these cities, except it takes

Paige Malott: 00:24:07

nine and a half hours to get there.

Paige Malott: 00:24:09

The train comes three times.

Paige Malott: 00:24:10

Wait, wait, it gets better.

Paige Malott: 00:24:12

Nine and a half hours to get there.

Paige Malott: 00:24:14

The train comes three times a week.

Paige Malott: 00:24:16

And it leaves Cincinnati at 1 in the morning.

Paige Malott: 00:24:18

Now, these are cities, you know, that have a population area of, close to

Paige Malott: 00:24:22

like 1 to 2 million people, right?

Paige Malott: 00:24:23

And so they're sizable cities, goes through Indianapolis as well.

Paige Malott: 00:24:26

So, these folks have been historically underserved by inner city rail.

Paige Malott: 00:24:30

And I think we are looking at how we can have these game changing

Paige Malott: 00:24:33

solutions from under investment in existing passenger rail.

Paige Malott: 00:24:37

The Brightline West is going to be a great leading project for that because,

Paige Malott: 00:24:41

well, everyone, everyone in the States.

Paige Malott: 00:24:43

It ends up in Las Vegas at some time.

Paige Malott: 00:24:45

It's a city that attracts people from everywhere.

Paige Malott: 00:24:47

You know, it's not necessarily, being somewhere on the coast.

Paige Malott: 00:24:49

Everyone comes there to have fun.

Paige Malott: 00:24:51

And I think having a rail line there connecting into LA, particularly with the

Paige Malott: 00:24:55

Olympics coming up, is going to be a great opportunity for people to see firsthand

Paige Malott: 00:25:00

what actual high speed rail is in this country and how that can deliver results.

Paul Comfort: 00:25:04

I know there's a lot of environmental regulations.

Paul Comfort: 00:25:06

There's people that sue to stop things from coming through their neighborhood.

Paul Comfort: 00:25:09

These are some of the issues that I've experienced

Paul Comfort: 00:25:11

personally in my previous jobs.

Paul Comfort: 00:25:13

Oh, and, and of course, nowadays everything is going up in costs and, but

Paul Comfort: 00:25:16

what is taking so long here in the U.

Paul Comfort: 00:25:18

S.?

Paul Comfort: 00:25:18

Why can't we get, you know, a real high speed above 180 mile per hour train?

Paige Malott: 00:25:23

I think part of the, the issue is kind of looking at what we

Paige Malott: 00:25:28

need to do to implement fast trains.

Paige Malott: 00:25:32

1 of the rules that we have is that if we have a grade level crossing, so where cars

Paige Malott: 00:25:38

intersect with intersect with trains that we can't have speeds that that go over.

Paige Malott: 00:25:43

125 miles an hour.

Paige Malott: 00:25:44

That's basically the regulation there.

Paige Malott: 00:25:47

So, so when we're looking to have trains that are competing

Paige Malott: 00:25:50

with speeds airplanes, right?

Paige Malott: 00:25:51

Like, 186 miles an hour trains and having those competitive travel times.

Paige Malott: 00:25:56

We're needing to build grade separation for that, and that's

Paige Malott: 00:25:59

going to cost more money.

Paige Malott: 00:26:00

So it's going to take a little bit longer to do, it's going to have

Paige Malott: 00:26:03

higher infrastructure costs, and that all takes political will and

Paige Malott: 00:26:08

business partners and money to do.

Paige Malott: 00:26:10

And getting all of that lined up takes time, particularly when we haven't had

Paige Malott: 00:26:15

the generational investments in rail like other countries in Europe have.

Paige Malott: 00:26:20

But I think we're getting to a point now where we're seeing other countries,

Paige Malott: 00:26:22

such as Morocco, such as Indonesia, That have had these projects that were able

Paige Malott: 00:26:26

to get them off the ground quickly and have seen the results and it's showing

Paige Malott: 00:26:30

that as a well resourced country, we should be able to do the same.

Paul Comfort: 00:26:35

Yeah, I think it requires sustained political support and that

Paul Comfort: 00:26:39

sometimes is hard to get because we're turning people over in office every two

Paul Comfort: 00:26:42

to four years sometimes and, the pendulum, political pendulum sometimes swings.

Paul Comfort: 00:26:46

So, what do you see as the future?

Paul Comfort: 00:26:48

of high speed rail.

Paul Comfort: 00:26:49

I mean, that is the subject of your chapter and people

Paul Comfort: 00:26:51

can read about it in the book.

Paul Comfort: 00:26:52

It's available now.

Paul Comfort: 00:26:53

But, uh, what do you think the future is in just a few sentences?

Paige Malott: 00:26:57

The future of high speed rail, I see, is being incorporated into

Paige Malott: 00:27:00

other mega projects that we have in the United States, incorporating high speed

Paige Malott: 00:27:04

rail stations at airports, planning high speed rail alongside interstate

Paige Malott: 00:27:08

expansions, and being able to see all of these projects and transportation systems

Paige Malott: 00:27:13

working together instead of in silos.

Paige Malott: 00:27:15

I believe we're going to have game changing opportunities for cities that

Paige Malott: 00:27:19

have been historically underserved by rail, and it's really going to

Paige Malott: 00:27:22

bring about a good opportunity for Growth and traffic congestion and

Paige Malott: 00:27:27

sustainability in the United States.

Paul Comfort: 00:27:30

That's great.

Paul Comfort: 00:27:30

I hope your prediction and your future comes true.

Paul Comfort: 00:27:33

That's great.

Paul Comfort: 00:27:34

Paige Malott thank you so much for being not only a part of our podcast today,

Paul Comfort: 00:27:38

but also a contributor to our book, The New Future of Public Transportation.

Paul Comfort: 00:27:42

The title of your chapter, which is Chapter 8, is The

Paul Comfort: 00:27:46

Future of High Speed Rail.

Paul Comfort: 00:27:47

Thanks again.

Paul Comfort: 00:27:48

Thanks so much, Paul.

Paul Comfort: 00:27:53

What great interviews today with, , two of the contributors to the book.

Paul Comfort: 00:27:56

Now I'd like to take a few minutes and share with you the rest of the

Paul Comfort: 00:28:00

contributors to the book and all the topics that are included in it.

Paul Comfort: 00:28:03

As you know, I've written about a book a year since I left the MTA as

Paul Comfort: 00:28:08

CEO in Baltimore six years ago, and they've covered all kinds of topics.

Paul Comfort: 00:28:11

My first book was Full Throttle.

Paul Comfort: 00:28:13

Lessons On Leadership.

Paul Comfort: 00:28:15

The next was The Future of Public Transportation, which was

Paul Comfort: 00:28:18

the predecessor to this book.

Paul Comfort: 00:28:20

Then it was a children's book and then a book on Conversations on Equity and

Paul Comfort: 00:28:24

Inclusion in Public Transportation which was number one on Amazon for

Paul Comfort: 00:28:28

six weeks and then, I did a cookbook last year featuring recipes and

Paul Comfort: 00:28:32

stories from public transit executives around the world called ComfortFood.

Paul Comfort: 00:28:37

In this post COVID world, there's enough changes happening in the transit

Paul Comfort: 00:28:41

industry that it merits and warrants a new book with new subject matter.

Paul Comfort: 00:28:46

I was able to get 30 top transit and technology leaders from

Paul Comfort: 00:28:49

around the world to write chapters on their areas of expertise.

Paul Comfort: 00:28:53

And man, they're very well written chapters from these leading figures from

Paul Comfort: 00:28:57

topics such as hydrogen fueled buses to AI driven advancements to cyber security.

Paul Comfort: 00:29:02

So much has changed in the last four or five years.

Paul Comfort: 00:29:05

and so it's exciting to have all of this information compiled into a book.

Paul Comfort: 00:29:10

It's great for people who are interested in public transportation, the future of

Paul Comfort: 00:29:13

cities, sustainability, it's focused on those topics and I want to share with you

Paul Comfort: 00:29:18

some of the people who are in the book.

Paul Comfort: 00:29:19

Actually, I'm going to take a few minutes and actually walk you through

Paul Comfort: 00:29:22

everyone who wrote in the book because I think each of them deserves some

Paul Comfort: 00:29:25

recognition for what they've done.

Paul Comfort: 00:29:27

First off, I was very honored that Mark Miller, wrote the forward to the book.

Paul Comfort: 00:29:31

Mark was one of the people who brought me to Trapeze at the time, and now

Paul Comfort: 00:29:34

Modaxo, and, he, was the founder of Trapeze, and now is the head of,

Paul Comfort: 00:29:38

Volaris and, still very involved with Modaxo and all the work we're doing.

Paul Comfort: 00:29:42

He wrote the forward, and it was a very nice, kind forward.

Paul Comfort: 00:29:44

He's one of the smartest guys I know, and it was an honor to have him in the book.

Paul Comfort: 00:29:48

And then, Mohammad Mezghani writes the first chapter.

Paul Comfort: 00:29:51

He kinda kicks off the book.

Paul Comfort: 00:29:52

Mohammad, as you know, is a CEO.

Paul Comfort: 00:29:54

of the International Transportation Union, known as UITP, and he writes about the

Paul Comfort: 00:29:59

future of public transportation globally.

Paul Comfort: 00:30:01

It's a fantastically written chapter that, you need to read.

Paul Comfort: 00:30:04

Then we break the book into sections.

Paul Comfort: 00:30:06

There's a section on people, a section on modal futures,

Paul Comfort: 00:30:09

the modes of transportation.

Paul Comfort: 00:30:11

Then a whole section on zero emission vehicles.

Paul Comfort: 00:30:14

There's so much talk about that.

Paul Comfort: 00:30:15

I wanted to have it come from multiple perspectives.

Paul Comfort: 00:30:18

Then we go into data and big data and how it's being used in public transportation

Paul Comfort: 00:30:22

with several chapters there.

Paul Comfort: 00:30:24

And then of course funding and faring with all the transit agencies ready to

Paul Comfort: 00:30:27

hit the fiscal cliff this year in the U.

Paul Comfort: 00:30:29

S.

Paul Comfort: 00:30:29

and Canada and around the world as the COVID money runs out.

Paul Comfort: 00:30:32

We talk to people about what are you doing about that and also faring.

Paul Comfort: 00:30:35

Are we going to do this zero fare thing or not?

Paul Comfort: 00:30:37

We talk both sides of that.

Paul Comfort: 00:30:39

And then we look at some special cases, geographic

Paul Comfort: 00:30:41

futures, for what it looks like.

Paul Comfort: 00:30:43

And so, those, each of those areas has multiple authors who wrote it.

Paul Comfort: 00:30:47

This book is hefty.

Paul Comfort: 00:30:49

Not as hefty as my first one, Future of Public Transportation,

Paul Comfort: 00:30:51

which was about 450 pages.

Paul Comfort: 00:30:54

This one is 350 pages.

Paul Comfort: 00:30:55

We kept it 100 pages lighter for you, but it's still rich

Paul Comfort: 00:30:58

and dense of great information.

Paul Comfort: 00:31:00

The chapters on people are written by Aaron Weinstein.

Paul Comfort: 00:31:03

Customer Experience Extraordinaire writes a chapter on the future of

Paul Comfort: 00:31:07

customer experience, and you know me, I'm a people person, so my chapter

Paul Comfort: 00:31:11

is on the future of transportation leadership, and I'm speaking on that,

Paul Comfort: 00:31:15

by the way, all over the country and the world at various conferences,

Paul Comfort: 00:31:19

and have a new conference coming up.

Paul Comfort: 00:31:20

I'm going to be the keynote speaker.

Paul Comfort: 00:31:22

I'm announcing here today, coming up at a state conference in In the middle

Paul Comfort: 00:31:27

of the United States, we'll tell you more about that coming soon, where

Paul Comfort: 00:31:29

I'll be sharing there in September.

Paul Comfort: 00:31:31

I spoke at CUTA and the Southwest Transit Association, on that topic

Paul Comfort: 00:31:35

along with Frank White from Kansas City.

Paul Comfort: 00:31:38

The third chapter, in this area of people is written by my good friend, Dr.

Paul Comfort: 00:31:41

Karen Philbrick you may have heard of her before.

Paul Comfort: 00:31:44

She's very famous in the industry.

Paul Comfort: 00:31:45

She is the Executive Director of the Minetta Transportation

Paul Comfort: 00:31:49

Institute in California.

Paul Comfort: 00:31:50

And she writes an all encompassing chapter on the future of workforce

Paul Comfort: 00:31:53

shortages, mental health, assault, and rebuilding ridership.

Paul Comfort: 00:31:56

Then we hear from Daphne LeBlanc, who wrote a chapter on the future of labor

Paul Comfort: 00:32:00

shortages and succession planning.

Paul Comfort: 00:32:02

She's one of the most successful transit industry recruiters in America.

Paul Comfort: 00:32:07

Then we switch into modal futures, and I asked Harold Humphrey, who was in charge

Paul Comfort: 00:32:11

of bus transportation in the cities of Dallas and Atlanta, to write a chapter

Paul Comfort: 00:32:15

on the future of bus transportation.

Paul Comfort: 00:32:17

Nat Ford, former chair of APTA, industry leader, and now head of

Paul Comfort: 00:32:21

Jacksonville Transit, writes on the future of autonomous vehicles.

Paul Comfort: 00:32:25

He's been working in that area for years.

Paul Comfort: 00:32:26

Paige Malott who is a high speed rail researcher with the International Union

Paul Comfort: 00:32:31

of Railways, and the second guest on today's podcast, Then, Laura Hendricks,

Paul Comfort: 00:32:36

who is the chairman of the North American Transit Alliance and the CEO of

Paul Comfort: 00:32:40

Transdev the largest contractor in the country, writes a chapter on the future

Paul Comfort: 00:32:44

of public transportation contracting.

Paul Comfort: 00:32:47

My friend Roger Helmy with Modaxo writes about the future of integrated

Paul Comfort: 00:32:51

mobility, as does my pal, Ron Brooks, write about the future of paratransit.

Paul Comfort: 00:32:55

He's very active in that field.

Paul Comfort: 00:32:56

Jody Godfrey writes on the future of transit safety.

Paul Comfort: 00:32:59

Brett Koenig writes on the future of smart infrastructure asset management.

Paul Comfort: 00:33:04

Carl Atencio, who is in charge of maintenance for here in the U S for

Paul Comfort: 00:33:09

one of the best train companies I know of, Rocky Mountaineer, writes on

Paul Comfort: 00:33:14

the future of rail fleet maintenance.

Paul Comfort: 00:33:16

And then my pal Magda Robertson from Australia writes on the

Paul Comfort: 00:33:20

future of automation and heavy rail from Australia and New Zealand.

Paul Comfort: 00:33:24

And then Juan Carbonell writes on the future of mobility as a service.

Paul Comfort: 00:33:27

Who better than him to handle that topic?

Paul Comfort: 00:33:29

Then we move into zero emission vehicles.

Paul Comfort: 00:33:31

There's been so much talk this year about how battery electric buses didn't make

Paul Comfort: 00:33:36

the grade in the cold weather states as and in Canada, and many of them are moving

Paul Comfort: 00:33:40

to hydrogen, but we cover all the topics.

Paul Comfort: 00:33:43

We talk to Craig Cipriano, who talks about the future of

Paul Comfort: 00:33:46

zero emission transformation.

Paul Comfort: 00:33:48

He heads up that topic for one of the nation's largest,

Paul Comfort: 00:33:50

engineering consulting firms.

Paul Comfort: 00:33:51

Then Doran Barnes, former chair of APTA and.

Paul Comfort: 00:33:54

the CEO, longtime CEO of Foothills Transit, writes on the future of

Paul Comfort: 00:33:58

ZEB and hydrogen fueled buses.

Paul Comfort: 00:34:00

His chapter tells a story about how he ended up with the largest

Paul Comfort: 00:34:04

hydrogen fleet in America right now.

Paul Comfort: 00:34:06

Kurt Conrad, from the home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, heads up

Paul Comfort: 00:34:11

the transit system there in Ohio, writes on the future of how hydrogen

Paul Comfort: 00:34:14

fueled buses work, and he's one of the smartest guys I know on the

Paul Comfort: 00:34:18

topic, and also a great humorist.

Paul Comfort: 00:34:20

Gary Waitz writes on the future of EVs and Monica Backman from Northern

Paul Comfort: 00:34:23

Virginia writes on the future of equity, climate change, and EVs.

Paul Comfort: 00:34:27

What's it sound like to you?

Paul Comfort: 00:34:28

I mean, aren't these some of the biggest names in transit writing on,

Paul Comfort: 00:34:31

really, their areas of expertise?

Paul Comfort: 00:34:33

Let's plow through the last 10 chapters.

Paul Comfort: 00:34:35

Simon Reid, who worked at Transport for London for such a long time and helped

Paul Comfort: 00:34:40

them in this area, writes on the future of contactless payments and big data.

Paul Comfort: 00:34:44

Dave Jackson writes on the future of data and AI.

Paul Comfort: 00:34:47

And Jean Pierre Barakat from Canada writes on the future of cyber security

Paul Comfort: 00:34:52

of vehicles and infrastructure.

Paul Comfort: 00:34:53

Very hot topic since so many transit agencies are being hit by it.

Paul Comfort: 00:34:57

with ransomware and cyberattacks.

Paul Comfort: 00:34:59

Then we move into funding and faring.

Paul Comfort: 00:35:00

What's happening with the fiscal cliff?

Paul Comfort: 00:35:02

And are we going to do zero fares or not?

Paul Comfort: 00:35:04

Well, we talk about it.

Paul Comfort: 00:35:06

Davey Kim, who is the former Secretary of Transportation in California, writes

Paul Comfort: 00:35:10

on what's going on with road charging and the future of transit funding.

Paul Comfort: 00:35:14

Noah Berger, a big advocate of zero fares, writes on what's from outside of

Paul Comfort: 00:35:18

Boston, and Miva writes about the future of zero fares, and Rich Sampson, who

Paul Comfort: 00:35:22

debated him for me at an event we held last year at the ThinkTransit Conference,

Paul Comfort: 00:35:27

writes about the future of faring.

Paul Comfort: 00:35:29

Rich is the Executive Director of the Southwest Transit Association,

Paul Comfort: 00:35:32

representing eight states.

Paul Comfort: 00:35:33

And then we move into geographic futures.

Paul Comfort: 00:35:35

Scott Bogren, the Executive Director of the Community Transportation Association

Paul Comfort: 00:35:40

of America, my good friend for the last 30 years, writes on the future

Paul Comfort: 00:35:44

of rural and tribal transportation.

Paul Comfort: 00:35:46

Here in the U.

Paul Comfort: 00:35:47

S.

Paul Comfort: 00:35:47

And then we jump overseas, to Australia, and Samantha Abidero, who is head of

Paul Comfort: 00:35:52

transport in Brisbane, Australia, writes on what they're doing to get ready for the

Paul Comfort: 00:35:56

Olympics and zero emission and the future of transportation in that city and region.

Paul Comfort: 00:36:00

And then my good friend, Peter Varga, anchors the book in Chapter

Paul Comfort: 00:36:04

30, former chair of APTA and head of the Rapid, writes on the

Paul Comfort: 00:36:08

past, present, and future of U.

Paul Comfort: 00:36:09

S.

Paul Comfort: 00:36:10

federal transportation funding.

Tris Hussey: 00:36:17

Thanks Paul, for that great introduction to your book.

Tris Hussey: 00:36:19

I know we're all anxious to start reading it.

Tris Hussey: 00:36:22

This is Tris Hussey, editor of Transit Unplugged.

Tris Hussey: 00:36:25

And thank you for listening to this week's special episode,

Tris Hussey: 00:36:28

celebrating Paul's newest book.

Tris Hussey: 00:36:30

The New Future of Public Transportation.

Tris Hussey: 00:36:33

And thanks to our guests, Dr.

Tris Hussey: 00:36:34

Karen Philbrick and Paige Milan talking about their contributions to Paul's book.

Tris Hussey: 00:36:40

Coming up next week on the show, we have something very special for you.

Tris Hussey: 00:36:43

We have Andy Lord head of transport for London, the world's largest

Tris Hussey: 00:36:49

public transportation network.

Tris Hussey: 00:36:51

In this great conversation with Paul Andy talks about what it's

Tris Hussey: 00:36:55

like managing the world's largest public transportation network.

Tris Hussey: 00:36:59

And his career that started off in aviation.

Tris Hussey: 00:37:02

And how that applies to public transport..

Tris Hussey: 00:37:06

Did you know that you could email Paul a question about public transit

Tris Hussey: 00:37:09

or leadership or anything like that?

Tris Hussey: 00:37:11

Just drop him a line at Paul Comfort at transit unplugged.com.

Tris Hussey: 00:37:15

He'll read your question and Hey, he might even answer it on the podcast.

Tris Hussey: 00:37:19

Transit Unplugged is brought to you by Modaxo.

Tris Hussey: 00:37:22

At Modaxo we're passionate about moving the world's people and at

Tris Hussey: 00:37:26

Transit Unplugged, we're passionate about telling those stories.

Tris Hussey: 00:37:30

So until next week, ride safe and ride happy.