Episode 52
Tracking KPI's in a Visualization Room
This week on Transit Unplugged, we’re bringing you an international perspective. Paul Comfort sits down with Laurence Broseta, International CEO of Keolis Group, for a front-row look at how one of the world’s largest operators is reimagining public transit.
With operations in 13 countries, Keolis is doing more than running trains and buses—they’re building tools like visualization rooms to improve ops in real-time, championing revolutionary technology, and leading major projects like Grand Paris Express and Canada’s high-speed ALTO corridor.
Laurence shares what it’s like adapting the European subcontractor model to North America. She also gives us a glimpse into Keolis’ recruitment strategy, their evolving leadership culture, and how they’re pushing beyond sustainability goals to future-proof ridership.
If you want to know what transit looks like when it’s run like a global system—this is the episode.
00:00 Introduction and Conference Overview
01:27 Interview with Laurence Broseta Begins
02:43 Keolis Group and Global Operations
06:44 Visualization Rooms and Operational Excellence
10:34 Keolis in North America: Challenges and Successes
13:52 Leadership and Recruitment at Keolis
16:51 High-Speed Rail in Canada: The ALTO Project
18:24 Global High-Speed Rail Developments
23:56 North American Transit Operations
26:02 Future of Public Transportation
28:14 Conclusion and Farewell
Creator, Host & Producer — Paul Comfort
Executive Producer — Julie Gates
Producer — Chris O'Keeffe
Editor — Patrick Emile
Associate Producer — Cyndi Raskin
Special thanks to:
Brand Design — Tina Olagundoye
Social Media — Tatyana Mechkarova
📩 Got a question or comment? Email us at info@transitunplugged.com
⚠️ 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. This production belongs to Modaxo and may contain information 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
Hey, did you get a chance to go to the APTA TRANSform
Speaker:conference in Boston this year?
Speaker:I was there and had a great interview with our guest today, Laurence Broseta.
Speaker:She is the Keolis Group International CEO.
Speaker:She happened to be in Boston.
Speaker:She gave an address that morning, spoke to the whole audience
Speaker:of thousands of people there.
Speaker:And Brad Thomas, a friend of mine who was CEO of Keolis in North America,
Speaker:I was scheduled to interview him.
Speaker:For this podcast and he said, Paul, "I'll do one better.
Speaker:My boss is in town.
Speaker:Why don't you interview her?
Speaker:She's amazing." And you know what?
Speaker:She is.
Speaker:She's had great experience across multiple of the world's largest
Speaker:public transportation companies, and she brings to us today a
Speaker:perspective that we don't often get.
Speaker:This international perspective, a European perspective on contracting
Speaker:and public transportation.
Speaker:What they bring to the table for transit agencies there in Europe and across
Speaker:the world and here in North America.
Speaker:I love their visualization rooms that Keolis has.
Speaker:You'll find out all about that on this interview.
Speaker:APTA this year was an amazing conference, like it always is with
Speaker:3000 registrants, lots of learning, and lots of connecting that takes place.
Speaker:And we're happy to bring you this podcast, which was recorded live in
Speaker:Keolis' offices there in downtown Boston.
Speaker:Enjoy this interview with Laurence Broseta, Keolis International CEO.
Speaker:So Laurence, great to meet you.
Speaker:You're the CEO, Laurence Broseta of Keolis International.
Speaker:And we're meeting in your headquarters here in Boston during
Speaker:the American Public Transportation Association's TRANSform Conference.
Speaker:Great to meet you.
Speaker:We had a little conversation last night, so thanks for letting us chat
Speaker:with you for a few minutes today.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Nice to meet you as well.
Speaker:I'm happy to have this interview.
Speaker:Yeah, I kind of lost my voice last night at all the parties, at the receptions.
Speaker:But we'll do our best to get through this.
Speaker:I did my best not to lose it because I had to talk two
Speaker:minutes this morning, so I saved
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:I saved my voice for the conference.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:You were a keynote this morning.
Speaker:One of the keynotes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's great, acutally-
Speaker:I introduced a panel about mega project-
Speaker:Oh!
Speaker:-that's very interesting.
Speaker:And as Keolis we are part of a few mega projects around the world.
Speaker:In particular, we mentioned this morning in the panel, the Hil de France Mobility
Speaker:Grand Paris Express project, which is a loop of met, automated metro around Paris.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And, it's still under construction, but Keolis will be
Speaker:the operator of the new lines.
Speaker:Ah, very good.
Speaker:And the Grand Paris Express was part of the panel invitees.
Speaker:Well, tell us some about your company, Keolis and your place in the world.
Speaker:I mean, you're one of the largest operators of public
Speaker:transportation around the world.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:We're amongst the largest.
Speaker:We as Keolis, we operate in 13 countries.
Speaker:Our main country is France because historically we came from France,
Speaker:but we operate in 12 others.
Speaker:Our second big country, or platform, let's say is North America with U.S. and Canada.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:The third one is Australia and we also operate in the
Speaker:Middle East, Asia, and Africa.
Speaker:Oh, very good.
Speaker:And so you're CEO of the international, right?
Speaker:Yes, exactly.
Speaker:I don't look after the France business.
Speaker:I have colleagues doing that.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:My part of the world is the rest of the world.
Speaker:The rest of the world.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I understand.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:So, how did France become like the center of all these big companies?
Speaker:'cause it's you, Transdev, and RATP Dev, and by the way, you've worked
Speaker:for them, let's talk about that later.
Speaker:But how is that, I mean, you guys have like dominate now, the world market.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:That's amazing.
Speaker:Three of the main, largest operators are from France.
Speaker:You mentioned them.
Speaker:I believe there are reason for that, because of the maturity
Speaker:of the transportation sector in France and for operation.
Speaker:The public transport authority in France have long gone to a private
Speaker:operation, not in every city, but maybe more than half of the cities.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And they have a model of subcontracting the operation to private operators, which
Speaker:is very interesting and a bit different
Speaker:from what you find in
Speaker:other countries because they subcontract the all transport operation, not only
Speaker:metro on one side, bus on another side, They subcontract all network for a city
Speaker:and that include marketing, for example, we are in charge of growing the ridership,
Speaker:so doing whatever is needed with passenger to make them come to our network.
Speaker:So, based on this, we the French operators have build a strong expertise
Speaker:that we use elsewhere in the world.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I believe it's one of the reason why we are so strong.
Speaker:Although the model is usually different in other countries with
Speaker:subcontracting of specific operations.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Separate.
Speaker:Is it common in your operations in France for you all, since you're responsible for
Speaker:marketing, are you keeping the farebox.
Speaker:Is that, do you the fare revenues or do you give that to the agency?
Speaker:Or how does that work over there?
Speaker:There are different model, and I know you told me you visited the Dijon
Speaker:Network, which is a great example of integrating network because in
Speaker:Dijon Keolis operates the buses, the tram, the parking, the bikes.
Speaker:Oh, wow.
Speaker:So it includes also first mile, last mile, and slow mobility, we can say.
Speaker:And usually we are in charge of mile, increasing ridership
Speaker:and collecting the revenue.
Speaker:The revenue goes to the PTA, but depending of the contract, we have certain
Speaker:incentives on the growth of the ridership.
Speaker:It's not that we keep the revenue, the revenues are back to the PTA and they
Speaker:pay for our services, but we manage to grow year by year, the ridership,
Speaker:and we are incentivized on that.
Speaker:That's wonderful.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:When we talked last night at your reception, I mentioned, I just want
Speaker:to mention it because I have such respect for him that your predecessor
Speaker:Bernard, was a great man and he's the one that invited me to come over there.
Speaker:That's how I got to visit there.
Speaker:And, you've got big shoes and I understand you're filling them very
Speaker:well, as we say here in the U.S.
Speaker:I am proud to be in Bernard Tabary's shoes.
Speaker:He was very well recognized in the industry and he did great in Keolis' team.
Speaker:Very much appreciated by our employees and partners.
Speaker:Justin Thompson, the chief of staff here in the U.S. just walked us around
Speaker:the building and he took me to the room where you call it a visualization room.
Speaker:Tell us about that.
Speaker:I love that concept, what you all do.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Visualization room are very important because it's a place where we have on the
Speaker:walls all the main KPIs of our operation.
Speaker:Usually you have a section for operation.
Speaker:What were the on time performance results for the last days, the last
Speaker:week, the last month, what are the targets where we are, and you have a
Speaker:section for the rolling stock or buses.
Speaker:And, how do they perform?
Speaker:What is our meantime between failure, all the main KPIs and
Speaker:the financial KPIs as well?
Speaker:The ridership.
Speaker:And when you enter the room, you can enter with the management team and
Speaker:have your management meetings there and look at the KPI and discuss the
Speaker:results and the targets and action plan.
Speaker:But you can do that also with any type of employee.
Speaker:People from the maintenance, the workshops, they can come here and
Speaker:also share where we are, both in their area for maintenance, but
Speaker:also have an understanding of what else is happening in the company.
Speaker:So it's a very powerful tool to share with all our employees, management level
Speaker:and all employees, the situation of the company, the target, and when we have
Speaker:the whole team understanding well the targets and, what are the goals we want
Speaker:to achieve, we get also better engagement and accountability for all the teams.
Speaker:And these tools are part of, as a bigger framework of a Keolis program,
Speaker:we have Keolis ways of doing things.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And that's the value we add to our public transport authorities.
Speaker:When we take over a contract, we came with our programs.
Speaker:So for example, this visualization room, it's part of the
Speaker:program we call KIO and KIM.
Speaker:KIO is the Keolis way of doing operation, and KIM is the
Speaker:Keolis way of doing maintenance.
Speaker:And it includes the best practice that we have learned in all our network and
Speaker:that we transfer to a specific operation.
Speaker:And, it include standard operating procedures and how to engage staff with
Speaker:visualization room and best processes and best practices for operation on one
Speaker:side and maintenance on the other side.
Speaker:So the idea is to, for our partners to get the best value of working with
Speaker:a global international partner who gather best practice and implement
Speaker:them in their local operations.
Speaker:You know, those type of things in an organization to me make all the
Speaker:difference, the focus on the numbers, the focus on individual accountability.
Speaker:Justin was telling me, again, I've heard this before, that you bring everybody
Speaker:in and it's a standup one hour meeting.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You stand up, right?
Speaker:Walk me through how that would work.
Speaker:That's very interesting.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And they point to numbers and like everybody has to kind of talk about it.
Speaker:Is that what happens?
Speaker:It happens.
Speaker:So depending of the type of meeting, it can be one hour if it's
Speaker:a management meeting, but it can also be a five minutes meeting.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Typically in the KIM program, the Keolis way of doing maintenance, the
Speaker:best practice is five minutes every morning with the workers in the depot.
Speaker:So you have the-
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:You have the visualization in the depot and everybody look
Speaker:at the panel, what happened the last day, who is working today?
Speaker:What is the task of everybody?
Speaker:What are the main action of the day?
Speaker:And it's only five minutes standing in front of the panel and the
Speaker:staff can ask question, come with initiative and ideas also.
Speaker:It's things we can have on the panel and we, note the initiative and we
Speaker:see how we can progress with them.
Speaker:So-
Speaker:Let's talk about what you're doing here in America, because you do
Speaker:bring those international kind of procedures that you use all over
Speaker:the world to American contracts.
Speaker:But here in Boston, you all operate the largest, I think, privately
Speaker:operated commuter rail service in the country for the MBTA for the team.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Ryan Coholan, the Chief Operating Officer, is a good friend of mine.
Speaker:He's been on the podcast and he's told me before how you all were great partners.
Speaker:Getting outta the snow storm, you know, that happened a couple
Speaker:years ago and all like that.
Speaker:And, so talk to me about this operation here, the MBTA and
Speaker:the role it plays at Keolis.
Speaker:Yeah, yes, it's a very important contract for Keolis.
Speaker:We are operating for a decade now.
Speaker:It was quite difficult at the start.
Speaker:When we started the operations here we had to make a lot of efforts to
Speaker:improve the operational performance.
Speaker:The KPIs that you were just mentioning initially were not so good, so it took
Speaker:a few year, honestly, to make it better and to have now one of the best operating
Speaker:performance of the commuter rail.
Speaker:And, you can see that in the ridership because, you know that after COVID
Speaker:most of the commuter networks, and it's true as well for bus operation,
Speaker:had difficulty to go back to ridership prior to COVID and with the commuter
Speaker:rate here in Boston, we are back to pre COVID ridership, and it's the best
Speaker:recovery of all the commuter rail.
Speaker:That's amazing.
Speaker:It's, yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker:And actually it's thanks to the quality of the partnership we have with MBTA because
Speaker:it's not only by putting the service back to what they were, that it was
Speaker:achieved, but it was looking at the new trend of passenger journey after COVID.
Speaker:We all know that not everybody has come back full time to their offices.
Speaker:People have, are doing, home-working now, at least partially.
Speaker:So there are less commuter journeys, but there are more leisurer journey
Speaker:or journey at anytime during the day or weekend journeys.
Speaker:We have seen this trend not only here in Boston and North America,
Speaker:but everywhere in the world.
Speaker:So very quickly, Keolis came with proposal to our public transport
Speaker:authorities everywhere in the world to adapt the timetables to the new trend.
Speaker:And, MBTA took it very quickly.
Speaker:They were, we shared our best practice around the world, but they were also at
Speaker:the initiative and pushing for it so we could implement new timetables with this
Speaker:off peak journeys and weekend journeys.
Speaker:And it worked very well.
Speaker:So that's how we recovered less commuter journeys.
Speaker:More leisure journeys.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And that's, you're right, that's what's happening around the world.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Callback to a great leader you had here recently, David Scorey, who was a good
Speaker:friend of mine and recently retired.
Speaker:Did a great job.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know what you had here and now you've brought in a wonderful guy,
Speaker:Brad, who is a good friend of mine.
Speaker:Was at First Transit and had long history here in the U.S. Good hire, by the way.
Speaker:Smart.
Speaker:Having Brad Taus here.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So talk to me about the process you all go through in selecting
Speaker:your top leaders around the world?
Speaker:What are you looking for?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:That's a great question because obviously we are a people business.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it's managing people, drivers and, passenger attendants, et cetera.
Speaker:So we work with our staff, and we need to have great leaders to engage our
Speaker:employees and deliver the results.
Speaker:So, about the selection process.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, so you mentioned Brad, Brad Thomas, who is now the in charge
Speaker:of all our North America operation.
Speaker:So not only in the U.S. but also in Canada.
Speaker:And, we have grown significantly in the U.S. in the, and Canada in the last
Speaker:years.. So I will come back to that.
Speaker:So Canada, so Brad is overseeing this whole operation and in Boston for the
Speaker:commuter rail we now have John Killeen managing the Boston commuter rail.
Speaker:He was part of the team in the last years.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:That's how David Scorey started also in North America.
Speaker:He started by being the head of the commuter rail, and then he was a chief
Speaker:executive officer for the U.S. So we have both Brad for U.S. and John Killeen for
Speaker:the commuter rail and to come back to the leaders so there is a recruitment.
Speaker:So we obviously, we have taken people who have a great reputation on the market,
Speaker:like Brad and he had a long experience in other companies and delivered a lot.
Speaker:So it was definitely a great recruitment.
Speaker:And then another, I want to mention another of the Keolis program
Speaker:because it's about having the right people and making them work well
Speaker:together and work the Keolis way.
Speaker:So we also have a Keolis way of a leadership, let's say.
Speaker:So we have a leadership management program that we have
Speaker:deployed in all our countries.
Speaker:Partly, it was partly born in Australia and here in North America.
Speaker:First piloted here and now it's in all our operation.
Speaker:So we work with our leaders.
Speaker:So first, the executive teamon what are the good practice in leadership Keolis
Speaker:want to implement, to make sure we work collaboratively and we engage our staff.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Have you on kind of academy to grow.
Speaker:Grow, yeah.
Speaker:That's wonderful.
Speaker:Thanks for listening to the Transit Unplugged Podcast.
Speaker:We are so glad you're here.
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Speaker:On Transit Unplugged TV, Paul Comfort explores the food culture
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Speaker:Now back to Paul Comfort for this edition of the award-winning
Speaker:Transit Unplugged podcast.
Speaker:You mentioned that Brad oversees operations in the U.S. and Canada.
Speaker:I wanted to ask you about the high speed rail ALTO you've got going in Canada.
Speaker:Can you tell me something about that?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So ALTO was announced by the Canadian Prime Minister just at the beginning of
Speaker:this year, and he launched the project.
Speaker:We went through a competition where many companies were
Speaker:involved to get this contract.
Speaker:So it's a very special scheme that we have not seen elsewhere, since now because
Speaker:it's a high speed project, but they have tendered out at the time where design
Speaker:is not yet done, but we will partner with the government to prepare the design.
Speaker:So it starts with a co-development phase, where the contractor and
Speaker:the government will work hand in hand to develop the scheme.
Speaker:Like the alignment, exact alignment, exact speed, a characteristic of the railway.
Speaker:So we start with a four year period of development with a-
Speaker:Four year plan.
Speaker:Four year plan.
Speaker:So just recently this week, the government announced that they
Speaker:want to speed up the process.
Speaker:Speed up the high speed rail.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:They had initially planned for eight years of co-development plus
Speaker:design before start of construction.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And now they said we will start construction in four years time.
Speaker:So they cut it in half.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Where's it gonna from?
Speaker:What are the cities it's going to do, you know?
Speaker:So, yes.
Speaker:It's, Toronto to Quebec,
Speaker:We haven't been able to figure out high speeded rail in America yet.
Speaker:It's pretty odd.
Speaker:It's everywhere else in the world.
Speaker:Asia, Europe.
Speaker:I mean, I just wrote SNCF from Milan up to Turrin.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You guys have a good relationship with SNCF, right?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:SNCF is our main shareholder.
Speaker:They are-
Speaker:Oh, I didn't know that.
Speaker:They are 70% shareholder of for Keolis, and our other 30% is CDPQ Quebec, CDPQ.
Speaker:Oh, wow.
Speaker:And we work together for this ALTO project because it's not only
Speaker:the contract with the operator.
Speaker:We have the financing institution, which would be CDPQ, plus future
Speaker:operator Keolis, and the design JV.
Speaker:So the contract has been awarded to this group a consortium, including
Speaker:financing, future operation, and design.
Speaker:And it's very interesting to have the operator from the beginning because
Speaker:we are here to make sure we think like a passenger from the beginning.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And we think about the services at the same time that we designed the network.
Speaker:So SNCF?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So it's, they are our main shareholder.
Speaker:As you mentioned, they operate high speed all over Europe, not only in France.
Speaker:They are the historical rail operator in France.
Speaker:But now they have expanded their services all over Europe, thanks
Speaker:to the opening to private operation of all the rail network in Europe.
Speaker:So now they have high speed rail in France.
Speaker:And, Eurostar, as you know, is also owned partially by SNCF tie this
Speaker:to Belgium and Netherland, high speed to Italy and in Spain as well.
Speaker:And what is interesting is they have developed that in Europe in open access.
Speaker:And now we are working together with our shareholder SNCF to address
Speaker:the international rail market, which is developing very fast.
Speaker:So ALTO is an example.
Speaker:In this alto contract, the operator will be Keolis plus SNCF.
Speaker:We have formed the JV.
Speaker:So it's like design, build, operate?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It'll be design, build, operate, and funding.
Speaker:But, SNCF and Keolis will be the operate and maintenance part of the contract.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And with SNCF we now look at worldwide market because as for
Speaker:Canada and ALTO, there are several other projects in the world.
Speaker:So a pity we don't yet have many opportunity for high speed in the
Speaker:North America U.S. but it might-
Speaker:Do something about that, will you?
Speaker:It might come, it might come.
Speaker:Come on.
Speaker:Bring it here for us.
Speaker:Help us.
Speaker:out.
Speaker:So we'll come with a good example of what we do elsewhere.
Speaker:So there is ALTO and there are other high speed project.
Speaker:For example, Australia is working on developing a high speed railway
Speaker:between Melbourne and Sydney.
Speaker:So it's still in the design development phase.
Speaker:Not yet fully funded, but good work is done on that.
Speaker:And, that's for very high speed, but for high speed on normal speed, let's say,
Speaker:there are lots of other project around the world that we are working on and we
Speaker:will address with our shareholder, SNCF.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The train we were on, I think was going 300 kilometers per hour.
Speaker:Mm.
Speaker:Very smooth.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We met with a lady who's the president of their operations in Italy.
Speaker:So she showed us everything for an upcoming episode we've got.
Speaker:Very impressed.
Speaker:We rode a couple other operators too.
Speaker:I rode three in total.
Speaker:And you know, here in America we've got Brightline trains,
Speaker:which is a private operator.
Speaker:And they're building something between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, basically.
Speaker:That would be the first, I think, happening.
Speaker:But, you know.
Speaker:First steps.
Speaker:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker:Well, kind of first steps.
Speaker:I mean, when I was CEO of the MTA in Baltimore, we were, when I got there 10
Speaker:years ago, we were studying high speed rail between Washington and Baltimore.
Speaker:We had a 20 some million dollars federal grant.
Speaker:Now it's 10 years later.
Speaker:Guess what they're still doing: studying.
Speaker:Ah, yeah, that's a pity.
Speaker:So I like the fact that the Canadian government said, let's get this
Speaker:done and half time and quicker.
Speaker:And quicker.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Come on man.
Speaker:What the heck?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:And in France, when I was a kid I was living in Marseille and to go from
Speaker:Marseille to Paris, I did it a few time.
Speaker:It was a seven hour train.
Speaker:So it was feasible by train, but all day.
Speaker:And now it's three hours and 30 minutes, which is very quick.
Speaker:Quick.
Speaker:So I can go for the weekend.
Speaker:I leave on Friday evening, and I arrive on Friday evening.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And you don't have to get there two hours ahead of time to the
Speaker:airport like you do everywhere else.
Speaker:And this line was first one Paris to Leon and then to Marseille.
Speaker:And in my first years of career, I has also worked for a high speed
Speaker:one in Great Britain, which was a high speed between London and the
Speaker:Channel Tunnel and then to Paris.
Speaker:So in UK as well with Eurostar you go very fast from Paris to London.
Speaker:Yes, I've done that.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And these were the first lines, but now it's all over Europe and changed
Speaker:the European way of life because now you go to any city very quickly with
Speaker:trains and high speed trains, so short flight is no longer necessary.
Speaker:You use massively trains in Europe.
Speaker:And they're cleaner for the environment.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:In particular because in France we have clean energy, you know, we use
Speaker:nuclear power plants for our energy.
Speaker:So it's carbon zero electricity.
Speaker:So let's switch back here to North America, where we're at today in Boston.
Speaker:What do you all do here in North America?
Speaker:We've talked about the, you know, commuter rail, but what else are you doing?
Speaker:So yes, in the North America we are in rail and we are in bus transit as well.
Speaker:And we have enjoyed a nice growth in the recent years in North America.
Speaker:You know, we, beginning of January 2024, so last year we started two new
Speaker:big contracts in Phoenix and Austin.
Speaker:So we doubled the size of our transit activity in America at this stage.
Speaker:Those are two great operations too, led by two great women.
Speaker:Absolutely right.
Speaker:Jessica Medford Miller in Phoenix, ight.
Speaker:And Dottie at Metro.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We have good clients and partners in these two cities.
Speaker:So we are working on improving performance of operation as well in these cities.
Speaker:It's going on well.
Speaker:And, so that was the beginning of 24 and this year we also
Speaker:won a nice contract close to here , Metro West transit operation.
Speaker:So we, so it's close to our commuter rail operation.
Speaker:So we started this year.
Speaker:So another nice contract.
Speaker:So good growth in transit in the U.S. And in Canada, we did, we used to be
Speaker:present mostly in the east part of the country around Montreal and Quebec.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And we did an acquisition last year of a company operating in
Speaker:the other part in the west part.
Speaker:So we also doubled our size in Canada, thanks to acquisition to grow in the
Speaker:part of the country, we were not present.
Speaker:So now we are working on the integration of these two entities.
Speaker:And, we have great leader there, Greg Nichols, who has joined Keolis with this
Speaker:acquisition and now manage all Canada.
Speaker:So we are targeting also good growth in Canada.
Speaker:In addition to the ALTO Project, which will take some time to be built.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Alright, so last question is, let's talk about the future.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, public transportation had a real inflection point, right?
Speaker:During the pandemic.
Speaker:It really hurt us everywhere, ridership, et cetera.
Speaker:I think we're back.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We're back pretty strong.
Speaker:I think we've got a lot of new lessons we learned.
Speaker:Things are a lot cleaner now than they used to be.
Speaker:I remember back in the day, the buses were lucky to get a deep clean once a week.
Speaker:Now it's happening every night, you know?
Speaker:So what do you see for the future from your perspective, leading one of
Speaker:the biggest companies in the world?
Speaker:Yeah, I agree with what you say.
Speaker:We are now post COVID and the ridership is more or less back,
Speaker:depending of where, but it's back.
Speaker:And the demand is there from our passengers, but also from the
Speaker:community because we have to go to cleaner transportation, cleaner
Speaker:way of life, and decarbonization.
Speaker:So public transport is getting ready for that with more and
Speaker:more clean vehicles, for example.
Speaker:So we have many PTAs here in North America who are going to new energies,
Speaker:electrical vehicle or hydrogen vehicles, and as a group, we already operate 1,500
Speaker:electrical vehicle around the world.
Speaker:So we have experience of all type of bus manufacturer and all the, we have gone
Speaker:through the launch and pilot everywhere.
Speaker:So we know the best practice to operate them and we can share that with a PTA
Speaker:who want to launch their green energy.
Speaker:So electric is a one way.
Speaker:Hydrogen is also-
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I love hydrogen
Speaker:-developing well here.
Speaker:We operate hydrogen vehicle in Foothill, for example, and we know-
Speaker:Oh, for Doran Barnes.
Speaker:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We have a great operation of hydrogen vehicles there.
Speaker:So I think it's, that's part of the future.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So to keep developing our bus transit operation and having it greener and
Speaker:greener and keep developing rail as well.
Speaker:I told you around the world there are lots of project or mega project
Speaker:of new metro lines and train lines.
Speaker:And I wish we will have some also here in North America.
Speaker:Please, I beg you.
Speaker:Bring us high speed rail.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:Well, Laurence Broseta Keolis Internatinal CEO, it's been a joy to meet you and
Speaker:to hear your perspective on what's happening around the world and how
Speaker:you're bringing some of those best practices right here to North America.
Speaker:Thank you so much.
Speaker:Thank you.
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: host and producer Paul
Speaker:Comfort, producer Chris O'Keeffe, editor Patrick Emile, associate producer Cyndi
Speaker:Raskin, and consultants Dan Meisner and Jonas Woos at Bumper Transit.
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Speaker:Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you on the next episode of Transit Unplugged.
