Episode 50
Transit Unplugged Insider: Exclusive Intel on Shutdowns, Safety, and AI
In this exclusive edition of Transit Unplugged Insider, host Paul Comfort sits down with executive producer Julie Gates to unpack the biggest developments across the public transportation world—things you won’t hear anywhere else.
Inside this episode:
- What the federal shutdown really means for transit funding—and which programs are frozen
- Why some agencies are pulling back from electric buses
- How safety is taking a front seat and what the current Administration is using to measure it
- The rise of AI, cybersecurity, and automation inside transit ops
- What we’re hearing about operator shortages, microtransit expansion, and system redesigns
- And what’s next for Transit Unplugged TV, Parking Live, and the brand-new Aviation Report
Creator, Host & Producer — Paul Comfort
Executive Producer — Julie Gates
Producer — Chris O'Keeffe
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
This is Transit Unplugged's Insider episode, or once every quarter,
Speaker:Julie Gates and I come to you and talk to you about what's happening
Speaker:inside the transit industry.
Speaker:Julie, great to have you again with us on this second episode
Speaker:of this type of show Insider.
Speaker:Yeah, it's fun to do Paul.
Speaker:I love it because we get to cover what's really going on in Washington DC because
Speaker:you are in a lot of closed door meetings, but you can't out who's saying what.
Speaker:But we think by you sharing a lot of this information with transit
Speaker:executives through the show, they'll get some good insider scoops so
Speaker:they can make some good decisions running their operations every day.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Our normal guests, as you know, are CEOs of transit systems, and there's some
Speaker:things they can or don't want to say.
Speaker:And so this is our attempt, once in a while to bring you what I'm
Speaker:hearing, what some of the rumors are, what some of the truth is that I'm
Speaker:hearing and what's going on, not just in Washington, but in our industry.
Speaker:So I'm ready to go if you are.
Speaker:Let's do it.
Speaker:So let's start with, well first of all, how are you?
Speaker:You've been crazy on the road.
Speaker:You've been doing a lot lately.
Speaker:What have you been doing lately?
Speaker:What's your latest journey?
Speaker:Six weeks on the road was great, but it, it wore me out, I think the combination-
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:-of a week in Italy and then coming right back one day home and then going to Boston
Speaker:for APTA, where we were out till one, two in the morning, three in the morning, some
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:at receptions and stuff.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:I think I counted 16 days with five hours or less sleep, and
Speaker:it tired me out to the boon.
Speaker:And, uh, but you know, after four or five days of a good night's
Speaker:sleep, I feel like I'm back.
Speaker:Good.
Speaker:Welcome back.
Speaker:lot of stuff happening and, uh, been a lot of conversations
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:the last week or two about the budget, what's going on in Washington.
Speaker:Just this morning, the former FTA administrator called me
Speaker:to fill me in on the latest.
Speaker:And so, I think it's good information for our industry.
Speaker:This is live active the week of October 13th, 2025, this information.
Speaker:All right, well, let's just dive in.
Speaker:We've got the top four things that every transit executive needs to know right now.
Speaker:So let's start with the government shutdown.
Speaker:It started October 1st.
Speaker:We're really not seeing much progress right now.
Speaker:Kind of give us some insight.
Speaker:What does this actually mean for public transit?
Speaker:Yeah, good question.
Speaker:So the federal fiscal year, as everybody knows ends on September
Speaker:30th, and there needs to be a budget in order to spend money.
Speaker:So Congress has not agreed to a budget.
Speaker:The House has passed a continuing resolution, which keeps the budget
Speaker:basically where it was last year.
Speaker:The Senate has not been able to do that.
Speaker:And, according to DOT, U.S. DOT, though during the government shutdowns, FTA,
Speaker:Federal Transit Administration operations will continue because the personnel are
Speaker:financed largely by the Highway Trust Fund or advanced appropriations under
Speaker:the Infrastructure Investment Act.
Speaker:And therefore, as of today, none of FTAs 517 employees have been furloughed.
Speaker:that is as of this morning, they issued a list last week of people that have
Speaker:been furloughed at the end of the week, but that's not happening to the FTA.
Speaker:So, the impact on their activities though, they have sufficient you know,
Speaker:cash available to fund projects that are already approved, but there really
Speaker:aren't gonna be any more grants approved right now, is what I'm being told.
Speaker:Many folks know or may know that the FTA deputy administrator no
Speaker:longer works there, the fellow that was from Charlotte, North Carolina.
Speaker:So that position is open right now.
Speaker:I did get to talk to the FTA Administrator a few weeks ago in Boston at the APTA
Speaker:Conference, and he is in the seat fully confirmed and is, you know, running the
Speaker:organization and has a, already has hit the ground running really well from all
Speaker:indications.
Speaker:So remember that most transit agencies.
Speaker:The large ones especially only are getting capital dollars
Speaker:from the federal government.
Speaker:The operating dollars, through some formula funds help midsize and smaller
Speaker:agencies, but the large ones operate largely on their own with local government
Speaker:funding, fares, those kind of things.
Speaker:The federal government comes in for capital dollars.
Speaker:Okay, so hopefully transit's going to maintain and people
Speaker:don't have to worry about that.
Speaker:Let's shift gears on this current administration.
Speaker:They're really focused on safety.
Speaker:We're hearing some systems, we're getting notices, but we wanna know
Speaker:what do they mean with safety?
Speaker:'cause it can mean a lot of different things in transit.
Speaker:It can be safety measures with vehicles, it can be safety for our operators.
Speaker:Safety for riders.
Speaker:What specifically is this administration looking for?
Speaker:Yeah, that's a great question, Julie.
Speaker:I mean, I think all of us in the industry, our definition of safety expanded
Speaker:during the COVID pandemic, right?
Speaker:Where suddenly it
Speaker:Right,
Speaker:became cleanliness, which, you know, hygiene, which wasn't always considered
Speaker:safety, but now it's a key part of it.
Speaker:I was telling somebody last week, at some other panel I was doing, I
Speaker:remember back in the day when the buses, you know, wouldn't get a
Speaker:deep clean, but maybe once a week.
Speaker:And
Speaker:right.
Speaker:now of course they get, you know, they get, you get swept out.
Speaker:If you were lucky once a night, the buses would, but safety has always been
Speaker:number one, but the definition of it is changing and DOT and the FTA are
Speaker:emphasizing measurable reductions in crashes, assaults, and worker injuries,
Speaker:not just the procedural safety plans.
Speaker:Every agency has had to put together what they call the P-T-A-S-P plan,
Speaker:the Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan, and that's the roadmap
Speaker:for managing safety and risk.
Speaker:It's how the agency identifies and manages collisions, assaults,
Speaker:maintenance failures, how it measures safety performance like injuries,
Speaker:incidents, and operator assault and what safety target that sets each year.
Speaker:But now, the FTA's really focused on transit worker safety.
Speaker:They've issued FTA's 2025 General Directive 24-1, which requires every
Speaker:agency to assess and mitigate operator assault risks, such as putting up
Speaker:barriers, de-escalation, data reporting.
Speaker:They're also really focused on passenger security.
Speaker:There's been a couple of high profile incidents recently in the last six months
Speaker:that have caught the nation's attention.
Speaker:And so, FTA's focused on passenger safety.
Speaker:This could be things like incident tracking, lighting, surveillance
Speaker:on vehicles and platforms.
Speaker:I just saw our friend MJ Maynard, who runs the transit system in Las
Speaker:Vegas just came out with, you know, when I was there a couple months
Speaker:ago, we got to see it in action.
Speaker:At the, at their stations, they've got cameras that are, you know,
Speaker:empowered by AI and they can detect, you know, potential problems and
Speaker:even see if there's a potential gun or something like that there.
Speaker:And so a lot of agencies now are doing more there and they're also
Speaker:looking for data driven oversight.
Speaker:I think agencies can expect closer scrutiny of safety performance metrics.
Speaker:And so
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:need to make sure their data is accurate.
Speaker:And, so those are some of the things that the FTA a has
Speaker:announced that they're looking for.
Speaker:And, they've taken some tough actions recently with some agencies,
Speaker:Yeah, we've been seeing those notices.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:We have a couple of examples of TV shows we've shot where there's some
Speaker:really cool safety things covered.
Speaker:So if you've not checked out Transit Unplugged tv, check it out.
Speaker:The Las Vegas episode will include it.
Speaker:I think when we did the Sacramento episode with Henry Lee, didn't you go
Speaker:out on a platform and you're clowning around and the cameras were like
Speaker:talking to you and all that stuff?
Speaker:We went into SAC-RT's Operation Center and got to see, you
Speaker:know, their big wall of cameras.
Speaker:They've got
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:you know, secured through cameras and they have people there that'll talk
Speaker:to you if you're on the platform.
Speaker:Let's say like what I did, I threw a piece of trash on the ground to see.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:That's what you did.
Speaker:To see if it would catch me.
Speaker:It was so funny.
Speaker:And so it is something that's being more and more prevalent now.
Speaker:Yeah, so check it out.
Speaker:If you're curious what your other brothers and sister agencies are doing throughout
Speaker:north America, go to Transit Unplugged TV.
Speaker:Okay, let's talk rail.
Speaker:We're seeing some interesting moves by this administration with Rail.
Speaker:They've stopped funding some programs they've taken over others.
Speaker:What is the vibe with rail?
Speaker:Yeah, so, you know, rail is infrastructure, a big
Speaker:infrastructure in the country.
Speaker:And of course Amtrak is our national railroad.
Speaker:It's a quasi-governmental agency, and they have a new CEO now, the previous
Speaker:CEO who we interviewed on the podcast is no longer there, and they've recently
Speaker:done some really big things, right?
Speaker:They've opened up a new route from Mobile, Alabama to New Orleans, and
Speaker:they've started up new Acela vehicles, brand new high speed vehicles.
Speaker:Matter of fact, folks that got to go to the APTA conference, some of them came on
Speaker:those new Acela vehicles from New York,
Speaker:Penn Station is being redeveloped.
Speaker:And, Andy Byford who works now for Amtrak is leading the effort for the
Speaker:federal government to make that happen.
Speaker:So
Speaker:They don't call him train daddy for nothing.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:You got it.
Speaker:Yeah, I got to talk to him in Boston a little bit.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:So Amtrak is, support continues for core inner city routes and state
Speaker:partnerships, but with high accountability for schedules and maintenance.
Speaker:You mentioned a couple agencies have had some money frozen recently, the
Speaker:administration froze around $20 billion in federal transit and infrastructure funds,
Speaker:about $2.1 billion for Chicago's red line extension, and $18 billion for New York's
Speaker:Hudson Tunnel and Second Avenue Subway.
Speaker:The official reason that the FTA gave was a review of
Speaker:race-based contracting practices
Speaker:Oh, okay.
Speaker:to ensure compliance with new federal rules.
Speaker:And, the bottom line is that the money is not canceled, but the projects are
Speaker:on hold until final reviews finish.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And they also were doing something with California high speed rail too, right?
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:That project.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, high speed rail, we've talked a lot about that lately.
Speaker:I got to ride high speed rail really cool in Italy when we were there month ago
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:and we're gonna show it to you on our December episode of Transit Unplugged TV.
Speaker:We rode three different high speed rail projects, and it's a question I've
Speaker:asked a lot of people in the country.
Speaker:Why can't we get high speed rail?
Speaker:I mean, Julie, when I was CEO of the MTA in Baltimore, when I
Speaker:got there in 2015, which was 10 years ago, we were studying it.
Speaker:We had a grant, 20 some million dollars grant from the federal government.
Speaker:We were looking at Japanese maglev technology.
Speaker:The governor and
Speaker:Cool.
Speaker:secretary went over there to see it.
Speaker:It's great high speed technology.
Speaker:You know what they're doing now, 10 years later, they're studying it.
Speaker:Oh, studying it?
Speaker:It's difficult to get going here.
Speaker:And so the Federal Railroad Administration on the California side has canceled about
Speaker:$4 billion in unspent federal funds, citing missed deadlines and cost overruns.
Speaker:The state is suing, of California, to restore the money, and California is
Speaker:continuing construction using state funds, but federal withdrawal puts
Speaker:the project's long-term viability and doubt many people are saying.
Speaker:So this is kind of a litmus test for how strictly Washington's
Speaker:gonna enforce accountability on future big infrastructure projects.
Speaker:As many people saw, you know, the end of the lines kept
Speaker:shrinking and shrinking down.
Speaker:I think the best case scenario for high-speed rail to occur
Speaker:in America anytime soon is what Brightline Trains are doing.
Speaker:Brightline's a private company that currently operate in Florida, and
Speaker:we've ridden the train and covered it multiple times on Transit Unplugged.
Speaker:Talked to their CEO, they currently run from Miami up to Orlando, and they're
Speaker:shooting across the state and Tampa.
Speaker:And they've broken ground on a new high speed rail, the first in
Speaker:America, real high speed rail between Las Vegas and a city outside of Los
Speaker:Angeles, an area outside of the city.
Speaker:So that is moving forward and they got some big help from the
Speaker:federal government early on.
Speaker:And so I think that project is moving forward and probably is our
Speaker:best case scenario to get high speed rail, you know, maybe this decade.
Speaker:Hopefully it'd be great.
Speaker:That's so exciting.
Speaker:I can't wait for that to start.
Speaker:We, I think we need it here in the States 'cause we want additional options to air.
Speaker:'cause sometimes, as we've read in a lot of research, it takes you longer to take a
Speaker:flight sometimes than just to be able to, it is too far to drive, too short to fly.
Speaker:And we, a high speed rail would be perfect for that.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Another topic we were gonna discuss is the reauthorization of the transportation
Speaker:code to fund transportation, part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act.
Speaker:What is that?
Speaker:Explain this process, why it takes long and why we should
Speaker:be paying attention to this.
Speaker:Excellent.
Speaker:Uh, yeah, is a hot topic, right?
Speaker:So, if you go back to the history of public transportation in America, the
Speaker:1950s were the heyday of public transit.
Speaker:People were coming back from the war.
Speaker:The guys were coming back from war
Speaker:mm-hmm.
Speaker:The women had gone into the workforce for the first time in a
Speaker:massive way, I mean, my grandmom was working in a bomb factory in York
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:During, during the war.
Speaker:And then, um, you know, my granddad came back and they both got jobs.
Speaker:And so most houses did not have two cars, much less one car and
Speaker:um, or one car, much less two cars.
Speaker:And so, people were riding transit, man and transit had a heyday.
Speaker:Everybody was riding.
Speaker:It was run by the private sector.
Speaker:Utility companies, largely power companies would, you know, put in these street cars
Speaker:and they would sell the power vertically, integrate to their own subsidiary.
Speaker:They would run that streetcar and they were called, you know, I remember
Speaker:when I got to Baltimore, some of the old timers, some of the old guys
Speaker:said, you know, the bus company, they still refer to it as the company.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And then in the 1970s, 60s-70s, people started getting that second car or
Speaker:their first car, and they started not riding transit as much and ridership
Speaker:started an eventual 50 year decline, the federal government got involved in 1964
Speaker:with the Urban Mass Transportation Act.
Speaker:Peter Varga wrote a great chapter in my recent book, the New
Speaker:Future of Public Transportation.
Speaker:He's the former chair of APTA and the head of the Rapid Bus System where
Speaker:he goes through and describes for people what exactly the history of
Speaker:this urban Mass Transportation Act is basically what it means, Julie, is
Speaker:that every five years or so, congress has to pass a new authorization, which
Speaker:authorizes them to spend money on it.
Speaker:In each of the succeeding years budgets, it also sets in place the rules and
Speaker:some of the regulations of how transit will be regulated here in America.
Speaker:So, our current law, it was inside the, what was called the
Speaker:Bipartisan Infrastructure Act.
Speaker:The IIJA, um, the law that was inside of that was the reauthorization.
Speaker:And that expires one year from now almost exactly right.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:September 30th, the end of next fiscal year.
Speaker:So the House and the Senate are busy working on a new version of it.
Speaker:The House is actively working on it.
Speaker:They, it comes through the House Transportation Infrastructure Committee.
Speaker:They held listening sessions.
Speaker:I went to one of them and listened myself to what people were saying in Washington
Speaker:DC in their conference room there.
Speaker:And, it is now moving forward, the Senate Environment and Public Works
Speaker:Committee held hearings this summer titled Constructing the Surface
Speaker:Transportation Reauthorization Bill.
Speaker:Members of Congress and interest groups have submitted priority proposals and
Speaker:draft language for inclusion in the bill.
Speaker:Staff is now compiling all that in a working draft.
Speaker:And what's happening right now is the House of Representatives, committee,
Speaker:staff, and both of them, and the House has said they hope to have their bill.
Speaker:We kind of wrapped up and put together an on the floor by
Speaker:the end of this calendar year.
Speaker:Now, not sure if that's really gonna happen because of the shutdown of the
Speaker:government that we mentioned earlier.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So we'll see what happens, but that's their goal.
Speaker:And then the Senate would take it up and then they would probably pass
Speaker:different versions of it and have to reconcile it in a conference committee.
Speaker:And the goal would be to make it all happen before.
Speaker:You know, September 30th, 2026, but we've gotta have it.
Speaker:It's what authorizes the government to even be involved in funding and
Speaker:regulating public transportation here in the United States.
Speaker:Okay, well thank you for informing all of us for those of us who didn't
Speaker:know all the details about that.
Speaker:So I would say those are the top things that transit executives
Speaker:need to know about right now.
Speaker:Let's move into kind of the word on the street.
Speaker:You have been on the road, as you mentioned, at the top of the show,
Speaker:attending a lot of conferences.
Speaker:So you're getting the buzz on what people are talking about.
Speaker:What were the themes from the conferences?
Speaker:Yeah, that's right Julie.
Speaker:There's, there is, you know, there's always kind of a buzz in the industry
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:about what's going on.
Speaker:Obviously right now, the buzz is funding stability, right?
Speaker:Amid the shutdown and reauthorization.
Speaker:A little bit of uncertainty there, so people are a little concerned about that.
Speaker:They're also looking to expand their funding sources.
Speaker:And some agencies are still experiencing operator shortages, but most of them
Speaker:have implemented, big pay raises.
Speaker:And that has helped with getting drivers what they call operators in
Speaker:the industry for fixed route buses.
Speaker:Rising costs and inflation, I'd say is a number one concern that I'm
Speaker:hearing from folks in the industry.
Speaker:There were projects that were bid out a year, two, three years ago
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Based on what things cost then.
Speaker:They even had inflation factors built in, but the costs have skyrocketed.
Speaker:So there's big concern about how are we going to, you know,
Speaker:make up the money we need.
Speaker:Sometimes it may be a third more expensive than it was when they budgeted.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:And lastly, I would say ridership recovery.
Speaker:That's still a concern.
Speaker:Agencies have plateaued.
Speaker:They've gotten up to 80%, some of them
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:90% of what they call pre pandemic ridership.
Speaker:Nobody wants to talk about it anymore.
Speaker:We're resetting kind of the, the bar.
Speaker:Uh, but one
Speaker:thing that's happened clearly is the way people ride has changed.
Speaker:So
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:talk about that, which we can go into.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, I think it's been fascinating to watch how we're seeing a lot more
Speaker:weakened use of transit evening use.
Speaker:It's been interesting.
Speaker:I'm glad that we're all adapting to what the people want now.
Speaker:Yes, that's right.
Speaker:So commuter rail especially, right?
Speaker:There's 35 or so commuter rail systems.
Speaker:They're the heavy rail that bring people in from the suburbs into the city.
Speaker:So they've changed their whole dynamic.
Speaker:People like Dave Dech at Tri Rail and, and others kind of help lead this
Speaker:way, but they decided that, you know what, people are not coming back into
Speaker:the cities like they were for Monday through Friday, nine to five jobs.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:What we're seeing, which what you said, Julie, is more ridership on nights and
Speaker:weekends as people come into the city for ball games, concerts, nightlife, and
Speaker:so most transit agencies have adapted their schedules to work that way.
Speaker:So they've added in weekends and nights.
Speaker:The issue is most of them don't own the track on which they're operating,
Speaker:so they have to negotiate with freight rail, you know, CSX or others,
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:To, you know, lease that time on the tracks.
Speaker:But most agencies have figured out a way to do that.
Speaker:So that's probably been the number one big change when it comes to ridership
Speaker:patterns when it comes to rail.
Speaker:Now on the bus side, most transit agencies are now going through a second phase.
Speaker:Of rebooting their bus networks.
Speaker:We look back into, 2015, 16, 17, we saw Tom Lambert with Houston Metro kick it
Speaker:off with a brand new kind of rebooting bus routes to make them work for where people
Speaker:want to go today and to take them where the jobs are today, that most agencies
Speaker:now realize they've gotta do another round of that because ridership patterns,
Speaker:post pandemic are just very different.
Speaker:And so that's what's happening right now across the industry.
Speaker:When I interview these CEOs every week on this Transit Unplugged podcast,
Speaker:you'll hear me ask them about it.
Speaker:And I'm telling you, two outta three say, oh yeah, we're in middle of a new program.
Speaker:It's called, you know, Renewing Transit in Buffalo,
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, wherever they're at.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They're all doing it.
Speaker:They're going through lots of public meetings to hear what the
Speaker:public has to say, and when they're done, they're gonna have, change
Speaker:the network and the schedules.
Speaker:And I gotta tell you, it's a big job to do that for a bus company,
Speaker:back to the old terminology.
Speaker:Because as one of my, one of my bosses used to say re, changing bus routes
Speaker:is second only to changing where people go to elementary school for the
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:angst causes the community, right.
Speaker:little bit of public feedback.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They're getting lots of public feedback, exactly.
Speaker:So you may not end up with what you, what the planners thought would work.
Speaker:You have to take in consideration, you know, what everybody else is doing.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:The other big thing, Julie, is, that's happening in the industry, the second,
Speaker:like really hot topic as everybody's talking about is electrification of buses.
Speaker:You remember that was the big push for the Biden administration.
Speaker:Everybody was moving toward battery, electric buses and or hydrogen.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Well now that's pulled back as the new administration's not so big on that.
Speaker:And, they're not requiring any requirements now when it comes
Speaker:to battery electric buses.
Speaker:And so some agencies are changing their plans.
Speaker:They were planning to build big battery electric bus garages
Speaker:where the vehicles could
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:be stored and charged, and they don't have the money for it.
Speaker:So they've decided, you know what, it's not the, it's not, we're not gonna do it.
Speaker:I was at a conference last week here in Maryland, the Transportation
Speaker:Association in Maryland Conference, and I heard from several vendors
Speaker:and agencies saying, we've pivoted.
Speaker:We're going back to clean diesel, or we're gonna go all in on
Speaker:CNG compressed natural gas.
Speaker:People are still moving forward with battery electric, but there
Speaker:isn't the industry push to do it.
Speaker:There was concern even about, you know, the grid being able to control it.
Speaker:Like Dorn Barnes told us a story about a couple years ago in California.
Speaker:One of the reasons why he \went to hydrogen.
Speaker:I was in Canada two weeks ago and I heard several Canadian leaders
Speaker:say, no no, we're not doing battery.
Speaker:Doesn't work up here, it's too cold.
Speaker:That's what they told me.
Speaker:We're gonna go in on CNG or hydrogen or diesel.
Speaker:So there's been a big change in the emphasis of moving toward that.
Speaker:Matter of fact, one bus manufacturer representative told me that they had made
Speaker:a decision to change and go to all battery electric, but they're gonna be announcing
Speaker:soon that they're gonna go back to also offering you know, clean diesel buses.
Speaker:And so,
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:of the \big changes.
Speaker:And the last one I'd mention is microtransit.
Speaker:Flexible on demand services.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:To fill coverage gaps.
Speaker:So this is really still taking off as transit agencies reboot their bus
Speaker:networks, sometimes they have to abandon 40 foot bus coverage on certain routes
Speaker:where that just doesn't make sense.
Speaker:But they don't wanna leave people stranded and so they kind of grandfather those
Speaker:areas in and allow them to, let's say, use a taxi cab, use an Uber or Lyft,
Speaker:or they're sending, you know, companies like UZURV or Silver Ride out to be
Speaker:supplemental service either in paratransit or in regular microtransit services.
Speaker:And so, that's something that was experimented a lot during the
Speaker:pandemic and it still is a hot trend.
Speaker:I hear agency after agency tell me, you know, our ridership, like Detroit
Speaker:was telling me, our ridership on these services are through the roof on these,
Speaker:kind of, supplemental microtransit services that are subsidized.
Speaker:You know, hearing about a lot of these systems, figuring out which kind of fuel
Speaker:they're gonna be using for their vehicles, I bet we're gonna settle in on, I bet a
Speaker:lot of systems are gonna have a variety.
Speaker:They're going to diversify because we've heard from different people in parts
Speaker:of the country where there can be like hurricanes if you have an electric fleet.
Speaker:and then the vehicle gets washed with water, your battery's not gonna work.
Speaker:Or the examples you gave earlier, if you're really far north where
Speaker:it's super cold, it doesn't hold a very long charge if it's electric.
Speaker:So to have hybrid fleets of a little bit of everything, I
Speaker:think is, I have a feeling that's where we're going, don't you?
Speaker:Yeah, it's the, all of the above, right?
Speaker:A B C
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:and D. We will do D all of the above.
Speaker:Yeah
Speaker:Yeah, so I do wanna mention one more thing if we can, Julie, and that is AI.
Speaker:Oh, sure.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Let's talk about AI real quick 'cause that is another thing that people
Speaker:are talking about and cybersecurity.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Not a month goes by when a major transit agency isn't hacked.
Speaker:And has
Speaker:ransomware.
Speaker:ransom.
Speaker:Yeah, ransom requests and all that.
Speaker:And I know one agency close to home here that is still dealing
Speaker:with the, with one that they had.
Speaker:And so
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Agencies are hardening their infrastructure to make sure they can
Speaker:protect themselves against this, and the average listener may not realize
Speaker:this, but I'm not kidding you, the IT directors at some of these agencies
Speaker:have told me they're getting tens of thousands of pings or hits every day.
Speaker:Ooh.
Speaker:people testing the vulnerability of their system to see if they can break in.
Speaker:Ugh.
Speaker:So it's not good.
Speaker:And so they have to have super hard
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Infrastructure.
Speaker:And ththen AIhow are we using it?
Speaker:So a lot
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:of agencies are deploying artificial intelligence for scheduling, predicted
Speaker:maintenance, passenger flow analytics.
Speaker:Real, practical AI.
Speaker:It also is being used.
Speaker:We just had a podcast with a guy from Singapore, not only there but elsewhere
Speaker:too, AI is helping flag operator fatigue, monitor performance, reduce,
Speaker:assaults and paired with human oversight.
Speaker:They're not replacing workers, they're just using it to
Speaker:kind of add in extra help.
Speaker:So some agencies now have gone through these cameras inside the vehicle
Speaker:that are looking at the driver.
Speaker:If there's a problem in there, it can detect it if the driver's falling
Speaker:asleep or there's problem there.
Speaker:There's also chat bots, real time alerts, dynamic crowding to
Speaker:improve reliability perception.
Speaker:So, you know, at the U.S. DOT level, they're looking to things like guidance to
Speaker:ensure ethical AI use and transportation.
Speaker:Good.
Speaker:So it is, it's helping agencies plan their service routes as well that we
Speaker:talked about as they analyze where passengers are going, they're using AI.
Speaker:So AI is in use right now in the industry, and I just wanted to comment on that
Speaker:and talk about some of the practical applications, how it's being used
Speaker:They're in helpful ways.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We're not seeing it firing everybody.
Speaker:We're seeing it actually help with some tedious things that people have to do.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Let's now transition into Transit Unplugged TV.
Speaker:You've been on the road.
Speaker:Where are we gonna see you on TV?
Speaker:Yeah, so our current episode, that just launched last week here on
Speaker:Transit Unplugged is my home county, Queen Anne's County, Maryland.
Speaker:Yay.
Speaker:It's fun.
Speaker:I brought my grandkids with me for part of it.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:We looked at the transit system that I helped start 35 years ago here
Speaker:in the county called County Ride.
Speaker:We talk to its current leaders and then we have a lot of fun.
Speaker:We do some, you know, we show you how to eat a Maryland blue crab.
Speaker:We,
Speaker:The right way.
Speaker:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:That's fun.
Speaker:by the crab house owner there.
Speaker:And we have a lot of fun.
Speaker:You know, we go to some of the music venues here and
Speaker:some of the small town charm.
Speaker:So that's the current episode, kind of how public transit is
Speaker:working in small town America.
Speaker:We haven't really done that before in three years.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:It's our first one
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:to kind of rural America.
Speaker:But, of course then we're going right to Connecticut, a big
Speaker:one, with our friend Ben Limmer.
Speaker:That'll be the next episode for November and December is Italy.
Speaker:We did Milan, Florence, and Rome.
Speaker:And Turin, we show you how transit works there, plus the
Speaker:fabulous Italian food and some
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:of the great architecture and the great people that work in that country.
Speaker:And you learned about the rules about food in Italy, what did you learn?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Julie, it was the wildest thing.
Speaker:So I watched Stanley Tucci all of his shows, you know,
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:to get myself ready.
Speaker:Never was.
Speaker:I prepared for what I saw there.
Speaker:The food was fantastic.
Speaker:Oh, it is?
Speaker:you know, we went up into Tuscany and to see the grapes
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:and all that.
Speaker:We did.
Speaker:It was awesome.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:One thing that was interesting though was, each area of the country and each
Speaker:city, and that's why I guess Stanley goes to 20 regions and talks about that
Speaker:they all have what they specialize in.
Speaker:So they don't want you to eat
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:what's specialized, you know, don't eat Carbonara here, you wanna do that in Rome.
Speaker:Here we get, you know, like in Florence it was meat.
Speaker:So we had a beef brought out.
Speaker:Bistecca.
Speaker:Another place it might be a different kind of pasta and you know, you
Speaker:can't cut your noodles and you can't have cappuccino afternoon.
Speaker:And there's a lot of rules.
Speaker:It's a very rule-based food place.
Speaker:A religion.
Speaker:The food is a religion.
Speaker:Like a food hall.
Speaker:Yeah, where I could get, where we could get a lot of food
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:of different types that I wanted to try, but it was fantastic.
Speaker:And we show you all we're gonna be going-
Speaker:I was literally at a restaurant, Paul, with someone in Italy.
Speaker:We were in Rome, and they ordered a cappuccino after dinner and the
Speaker:waiter literally scoffed at him.
Speaker:It was so funny.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well I
Speaker:Wrong time to order a cappuccino, you have to have it before noon.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They wouldn't, they wouldn't even serve it to me.
Speaker:You know, and you're not gonna get iced coffee very, very often in
Speaker:Italy and not in a plastic cup.
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:They're gonna do it the right way.
Speaker:Give it to you.
Speaker:But the food is unbelievable, isn't it?
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:The dining is like nowhere else.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It was fantastic though.
Speaker:You know what just stuck out?
Speaker:To me, the biggest
Speaker:thing for the whole thing was the Vatican and the duomo in Milan
Speaker:mm
Speaker:Just fantastic.
Speaker:And the moon,
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:It was right above the middle steeple of that the duomo is like the big
Speaker:church, the Catholic church in the center of the square, the Piazza.
Speaker:And I'm telling you, we just stood there gawking at it.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:Yeah, it's fantastic.
Speaker:So we are going next to another fantastic city, which starts
Speaker:with an M and that's Montreal.
Speaker:We'll be there at the beginning of November, I'm gonna be hosting a CEO round
Speaker:table on the schedule with Kevin Quinn and some other CEOs from that region up there.
Speaker:And then we'll be filming with the STM and the other transit system
Speaker:in the city for a couple days.
Speaker:And then a week after that we're going to Utah, where we'll be filming
Speaker:in Salt Lake City and other cities around there with the transit system.
Speaker:And we're excited about showing you those two fantastic cities on our
Speaker:shows in January and February of 2026.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:I wanna talk about a podcast.
Speaker:We have launched a part of our Transit Unplugged extended family.
Speaker:The parking industry is a fascinating industry because when you think about
Speaker:it, we have over 250 million cars in the U.S. and 95% of the time they're parked.
Speaker:So there is an industry that supports that part of our lifestyle, and a
Speaker:lot of us don't know much about it.
Speaker:So we've started a podcast with two great hosts, Jade Neville and Matt Darst.
Speaker:Jade's in the UK.
Speaker:So we get that side of the pond's perspective.
Speaker:Matt Darst is based in Chicago.
Speaker:So we get the North American perspective, and they're talking about all the things
Speaker:that impact our lives regarding parking.
Speaker:Parking is not a way for cities to make revenue.
Speaker:It's a way to change behavior in our communities.
Speaker:To make sure we're not blocking roads.
Speaker:So trucks and buses can stay on time, and if you're in your passenger car going
Speaker:somewhere, you're not gonna get stuck 'cause of some yahoo parking strangely.
Speaker:So that's why there's enforcement.
Speaker:It's really not like, oh, this city's trying to hit their budget.
Speaker:That's what I thought.
Speaker:I was naive and ignorant.
Speaker:I don't even know where I thought, where I got that from till I started
Speaker:learning about this industry.
Speaker:So we're gonna learn about how we get people where they want to
Speaker:safely and securely while protecting those who work in this space.
Speaker:It's a really good podcast.
Speaker:We have three episodes so far, so if you wanna check it
Speaker:out, go to parking-live.com.
Speaker:Excellent.
Speaker:And how about Aviation.
Speaker:I was on the phone this morning with, uh, with our aviation
Speaker:lead.
Speaker:No, you've been helping us out, get this one launched too.
Speaker:We're gonna launch an aviation podcast at the end of this month.
Speaker:We're targeting, I think the 24th or the 25th.
Speaker:There's a big airport conference going on in Toronto at that time,
Speaker:and that's gonna be exciting too.
Speaker:There's so much going on with airports and aviation when you think about
Speaker:how many airports were built in the fifties, all those airports now are
Speaker:going through updates, especially as we have FIFA World Cup coming to a
Speaker:lot of our cities in North America.
Speaker:These airports are scrambling to be, you know, big and beautiful and wonderful
Speaker:and ready for all these visitors.
Speaker:So, there's a lot to talk about.
Speaker:And of course we've got air traffic controller issues and it's
Speaker:just, it's a fascinating industry with a lot of stuff going on.
Speaker:So we're gonna launch that one at the end of the month.
Speaker:That's called the Aviation Report.
Speaker:Yeah, I can't wait for that one too.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's gonna be exciting.
Speaker:Very good.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, thanks Julie, for being part of this today
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:as we do a wrap up of all things transit that are happening, kind of
Speaker:trends and industry, all these things are my opinions and my take on things.
Speaker:Buthink it's good to kind of pull back the curtain and see behind
Speaker:the curtain once in a while.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:I just came back from Seattle and I had a chance to see Sound Transit in action.
Speaker:They're doing something super cool.
Speaker:They are working on, high, light rail going across a floating bridge.
Speaker:That's the first in the world.
Speaker:So it's fun when you and I get a chance to travel and go see what's going on
Speaker:in the world and we'll keep you updated through this Transit Unplugged Insider.
Speaker:Paul, where do we wanna push people who want more information
Speaker:about you in Transit Unplugged.
Speaker:Yeah, well go to our website, transit unplugged.com.
Speaker:It's a great place to see all things and sign up for our weekly newsletter.
Speaker:It's free.
Speaker:It's once a week.
Speaker:It's fun, and it gives you an insight into what's happening in the industry and
Speaker:in all of our platforms as we continue to kind of report on the good side,
Speaker:the good news side of public transit.
