Welcome to episode 300 of Transit Unplugged! When Paul started the podcast in November 2017, I don't think anyone would have thought that seven seasons later we'd be at our 300th episode.

Paul started this podcast to shine a light on the impact of transit on society and give transit leaders a chance to talk about their agencies and their careers, unfiltered and unplugged. Throughout the pandemic Paul interviewed leaders about what it all meant to transit. How were agencies dealing with health restrictions. How agencies were keeping front line workers safe.

Since the pandemic, the issues have changed. Now it's getting enough drivers, changing ridership patterns, the bus manufacturing crisis, and the looming fiscal cliff.

Paul continues to meet these issues head on with frank discussion about how agencies are addressing the challenges and how it's shaping them as leaders.

We're celebrating this milestone with a CEO Roundtable with four leading transit CEOs talking about their agencies, what it's like to be a CEO, and the challenges they face today.

Recorded live on stage with Paul are:

• Frank White, III (Kansas City Area Transportation Authority)
• Tiffani Scott (Paratransit, Inc.)
• David Scorey (Keolis North America)
• Jameson Auten (Lane Transit District)

Next week on the show, we have the Chief Innovation Officer from SEPTA (South East Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) Emily Yates talking about not just the innovations she's leading, but the entire process of innovating in public transit overall.

0:00 Transit Unplugged Episode 300!

00:05 Introduction by host and producer, Paul Comfort

01:35 Welcome to Transit Unplugged Live: CEO Roundtable

02:04 The State of Public Transit: Challenges and Changes

03:42 Innovative Solutions in Transit: Sacramento's Story

06:19 Addressing Transit's Relevance and Financial Sustainability

06:45 Operational Efficiency and Service Adaptation in Boston

09:47 Redefining Transit's Role in the Community

13:52 The CEO Experience: Leading in Transit

23:39 Lightning Round: Future Directions and Innovations

29:14 Coming up next week on Transit Unplugged

Welcome to Episode 300 of Transit Unplugged.

I'm host and producer Paul Comfort.

When we started the podcast in November of 2017, my goal was to shine a light

on the positive impact of public transportation on communities and

give transit leaders a chance to share the good news about their agencies,

services, innovations, and their careers.

Unfiltered and unplugged.

Now, seven years later, while the hot topics have changed, we continue to

meet these issues head on with frank discussions about how agencies are

addressing their challenges and solutions.

and how it's shaping them as leaders.

We're celebrating this milestone with a CEO Roundtable featuring four leading

transit CEOs talking about their agencies, what it's like to be a CEO,

and the challenges they face today.

Recorded live on stage with me at the ThinkTransit Conference are

Frank White III of Kansas City Area Transportation Authority, Tiffani

Scott from Paratransit, Inc., David Scorey of Keolis, North America, and

Jameson Auten of Lane Transit District.

If you like what you hear on the podcast, help spread the news by being a transit

evangelist yourself and share the program with your work colleagues and friends.

The more we all understand industry best practices and career advice for

transit leaders, the more all of us can help improve public transportation

to provide better service and become even more integral to our communities.

Now come with me on stage at the Transit Unplugged Live CEO Roundtable.

Great to have you with us today for Transit Unplugged

Live and our CEO Roundtable.

I'm Paul Comfort, your host, and excited to bring to you today these

great leaders in our industry.

You know, it's important for us to hear from leaders in the

public transportation industry.

There's so many challenges we're facing right now.

It's an important time to kind of get a, a glide on the trends that are happening.

Today we're CEOs about their lives, their careers.

What it's like to be a CEO every day and the things they have to deal with.

So our public transit industry right now, I believe, is in

a very precarious situation.

as you know, the pandemic really was a gut punch to transit agencies across

the country and across the world with ridership and all the changes we had to

do, all the, new hygiene, things we had to do on the buses to clean them more often.

And now coming out of that, though, we're in an interesting place.

Right?

I mean, I'm sure you're aware you've heard this term called a fiscal cliff.

So what that is, is because the pandemic took out so many riders,

that also affected passenger revenue for most transit agencies.

And, The federal governments in the U.

S.

and Canada subsidized those for the last, like, two and a half years.

But those funds are ending.

For most transit agencies, this year is when they'll spend them down.

And many transit agencies haven't been able to recover their

ridership enough and their revenue enough to make up the difference.

Those federal funds have actually subsidized the operations, and so

now they're coming to a fiscal cliff.

We also have had a collapse of the OEM industry here in the United States.

I'm sure you've heard about it, but a year ago, we had five bus manufacturers.

Today, we effectively only have two in the United States, and so that is

a dramatic impact on transit agencies.

And then, like I mentioned, the ridership levels have basically

leveled off now, post pandemic, at about 80 percent in most cities.

Some are more.

But on average, it's about 80%.

So we have a 20 percent gap and ridership patterns have changed

with hybrid work schedules.

So transit agencies are having to adjust to that as well.

So how are we as an industry addressing those challenges that we're facing?

Well, that's what we're going to find out today by talking to our four CEOs.

We're going to ask them to tell you, how are they addressing these challenges?

Tiffani, tell us about, some of the big challenges you're facing now.

So I think as an industry, identity is really an issue.

Like what is transit?

Before COVID, we all kind of knew it was chasing the choice rider.

There's a lot of talk about commuter transit.

Everyone went to a certain place at a certain time.

Peak hour service was always a big challenge, whether it was on the

fixed route or on paratransit service.

And then COVID happened and it really forced us to think outside of that.

And you mentioned the fiscal cliff, but with us, we had made the brave

decision to change our service model three months before COVID.

And so we really had to lean into it.

And so I think as much as there's challenges, I think one of the

biggest challenges in transit is that it's easy to say we're doing things

differently, but all we do is do the same thing and call it something else.

And so really at our agency, we've leaned into what is the community now.

We took our software, which has actually PASS and said, if I can

schedule trips for people, why can't I schedule trips for things?

And it ended up being a really great challenge for staff.

Because it made you think, what can we do?

And I think one of the best things that we've done, and even as a CEO,

I went and spent like two months in my free time, which is very limited

learning how to schedule and I can schedule an entire paratransit day.

But that I needed to know where is the naturally occurring slack?

Where do we have the most elasticity to deploy new projects?

and it was the idea of leaning into, we know where people are going, but why do,

what if we start asking why they're going?

And so, we followed that up with some routes that are now funded

through the Areas of Persistent Poverty grant, we were one of four

in California awarded, where we're going to look at access to healthcare.

It's been a big issue in most communities, and we're starting routes to take

underserved communities to healthcare, but we're going to take it a step further

and actually reach out to healthcare systems and try and figure out how

do you get to the social workers, so they can actually schedule a doctor's

appointment on a day there's a route that serves that location, how do we change

the conversation, and for me, I think that's where the challenge comes in, is

pushing ourselves as agencies to realize

We are not a transit agency.

We are a mobility agency.

We provide mobility, and I believe that's financial mobility, it's educational

mobility, it's social mobility, and it's transportation, and we facilitate

that because the number one challenge in these communities is access, and

I think the hope I have is any of the challenges we're facing we're chasing

problem solutions that are bringing in that and really focusing a new look on

what is transit in a community because transit the way it was is not the way

transit will be and I think until agencies really take a hold of that, that's why

we're not getting solutions that grab.

Kudos to a fellow PASS super user.

Alright, David, tell us about some challenges you're facing.

Well, I think you prefaced it really well in the introduction,

Paul, you know, I think the challenges that we're all facing as an industry

is, you know, what's the relevance of public transportation now?

How do we get back to the utilization levels, the funding, that, that we had

pre COVID with the fiscal cliff, with the challenges over, having trained operators,

mechanics, you know, the availability of workforce and all of those things.

I'll just highlight one element, you know, for us as a contractor.

The financial well being of our clients, our PTAs, is absolutely fundamental,

you know, to us, and so we are very aligned with our clients in order to

address the challenges that they're facinghead on, the challenges of

future funding and the fiscal cliff

I'll just focus on Boston for a moment there.

Relatively early on during COVID, actually, you know, during 2020,

the agency were very concerned about the future financing.

This was before some of the stimulus funding had actually been made

available, which has certainly helped.

But they were already thinking about the longer term and operational funding.

And so we worked very closely with MBTA to operate the network more efficiently

to reduce some costs, but also to change the service that was being

offered to become more contemporary.

to anticipate what we thought the future demand might be, which was around, greater

flexibility in, in, travel options.

You know, the commuter rail network there was designed and has operated

for generations to bring lots of people into Boston in the morning.

and take them home in the evening.

Well, that's not the way that people were traveling then.

It's certainly not the way that they're traveling now.

So we completely revamped the schedule.

It made it more cost efficient to operate, because costs are

often driven by peak demand.

so we flattened the peaks, but we spread the resources, more

evenly throughout the day.

And our aspiration, which we've largely achieved, was to develop something that

we call a clock face schedule, so that when you're traveling on the network,

you don't need a schedule in your pocket.

You don't need to look up online.

What time the train is going to be.

You know that at 15 minutes past the hour or at 30 minutes past the

hour, there will be a train on the hour every hour throughout the day.

So that's greater predictability for passengers and greater flexibility

because we were able to offer a lot more frequent service.

We've supplemented that with a range of other things that

we've done around marketing.

We're offering fares and fare product development, so we're offering very

attractive weekend fares for example, linking up with major events, and

introducing some digital tools to better understand the journeys that passengers

are making, the potential journeys that people want to make, whatever

mode they're making that journey on, and figuring out whether the service

we're offering is really complementing those journey choices, and we've also

digitized our onboard ticket sales as well, which was something we didn't have.

several years ago, you could only buy a ticket on board with cash, now you can

use your credit and debit card, so a whole range of things, and we've wrapped all

of that in what we call a, a ridership and revenue recovery program, because

the two things are not marching together hand in hand at the moment, we're seeing

ridership coming back, and actually using that slightly tired metric of How

does it compare to pre COVID levels?

You know, we've got 97 percent of pre COVID ridership now on the commuter rail

in Boston, which is, leading the way in commuter rails in, in the United States,

but revenue is still falling behind.

And so now it's about understanding that relationship and doing what we

can to address that challenge as well.

but those are some of the things that we're working on right now.

Frank, how about you?

Frank White III: you know, probably the biggest challenge is just right

now, the fiscal cliff to some degree.

one of our biggest clients, obviously the kids in Missouri, they have a gap.

And so the question becomes, do they want to close it or not close it?

And so So, traditionally in Speak for Kansas City, we've got, like I

said, we've got these compacts with all these cool powers and tools, but

historically we really didn't use them like we probably should have, and we've

been leaning towards really becoming that authority around the region.

And so, probably the biggest challenge that I've seen in my year and a half as

CEO is getting to understand, you're not here to kick us around anymore , and we're

going to basically demand where we go.

We're going to look at how do we provide value by growing, I've

said many times publicly that the KCATA is an economic development

agency that happens to run transit.

And so, our message for the last two years has been workforce, growth, jobs,

housing, all these things, going to the state level, to the federal level, and

we've seen that in returns and funding, because that's the things, to Tiffani's

point, people care about these things because you're providing value to that.

But the challenge is there's some people that want to keep us in that bus corner.

And I'm like, we're not, we can't stay in that bus corner because what we, what

we do is too important for the region.

We've got seven counties, we've probably only been activated in one, so there's

six more counties that we can grow.

we're working on a whole revenue strategy, a whole business development

strategy, to go tell that story to why you should invest in transit, people

invest in what they value, but we gotta tell a better story and back it up

with the data to show why it matters.

You know there's people buy by emotion, but they justify it by fact.

And so, we're trying to marry a better way of approaching transit

and what we do and how we do it.

I was joking with Tiffani before I gave a speech seven years ago that transit

would be saved by non transit people.

It did not go over very well.

But I don't come from transit, so I don't have those preconceived

notions of what I can and can't do.

So, I've found this last year, I have fun irritating people,

because we have to be different.

I can tell.

Oh, okay, I lean into conflict, that's my superpower, but I'm an advocate

for our industry and what we do, and if we can't love ourselves, who's

gonna love our industry, right?

And we should let others define us.

everybody in this room knows everyone outside of interesting

things to transit planners, right?

They know how to why didn't this bus to a left so right do it tomorrow and we know

why there's rules there's different things but people like to tell us what to do.

So from a challenge.

I mean ridership were up pre pandemic operators we've hired Our biggest

thing is trying to redefine who we are within the region And make

sure we're at the table when those decision the discussion being had

Thank you.

It's great.

How about you Jameson?

Yeah, many of the same things that, we've heard.

But I think for us, our biggest challenge is, is our people.

It's, it's literally our people.

We have wonderful people that work for the organization.

We have wonderful people that we serve in the community.

We have a very engaged community, but our community is different

than it was a few years ago.

You know, so in Oregon, there was a, a measure that decriminalized,

drugs to a certain extent.

And I'm going to speak for TriMet as well because they deal with the same

things, but on a very big higher level.

there's, you're able to, to, do drugs.

We have a, Eugene is the number one per capita, community,

houselessness in the nation.

Little Eugene.

so we have houseless issues that we deal with.

We have, mental health challenges that we deal with on the street.

We have a dilapidated police force.

We have a reduced number of, public defenders and prosecutors.

And no jail.

No, yeah, a very small jail.

So there, there are unique challenges that our frontline folks face on the street.

That, to me, is, we'll always have, we'll always want more money, Paul,

and we'll always want more vehicles, we'll always need inanimate objects,

but the number one challenge, in my view, is the safety of the people that

deliver the service each and every day.

It's a big, hot topic, no doubt about it.

So now, for you all, I want to kind of pull the curtain back, we're

going to shift and pivot, and I want to ask you a personal question.

Tell us about what it's like being a CEO.

I think, not often does everybody get a chance to see, you know, what it's like.

What time do you wake up?

What do you do?

I know on average day, there is no average day.

But give us a, an approximation of that.

David, we'll start with you.

Well, there is no average day.

so, couple of things I'd say.

I'm a, I'm very operational.

I'm a very operational CEO.

So I'm close to our operations.

I've been in operations most of my career.

And so I wake up early.

I do my best work early, actually, I think.

typically wake up at 5 a.

m.

I love working for an international company, but that does mean that

time zones don't mean very much.

So quite often there'll be very early meetings with Paris or late meetings with

Australia, you know, sharing experiences.

That's, you know, one of the facets of working for an international

organization, but it's one of the ways that we share best practice.

Which is really important to us so that we can bring that to all of our clients.

and then throughout the day, you know, I'd characterize it as, in fact, we were

joking a little bit about this with Julie.

You know, maybe you don't think this, but my perception is a lot of people,

when they see a CEO job title, think you're all seeing and all knowing.

Well, I can tell you, you're not.

Absolutely not.

You don't know the answers to everything.

You depend on the people, that work with you to bring their experience,

their capabilities, their knowledge, to challenge you, to stretch you, you know,

there's an old adage, surround yourselves with people who are brighter than you

are, and I've certainly done that, and so throughout the day, I'll be dipping into

various topics, some of it will be quite technical around the operations, some of

it will be corporate governance stuff, you know, I've learned more about insurance,

risk, and claims than I ever thought I would, and probably more than I want to.

But you guys, as a CEO, you have to touch on all of these things throughout the day.

But just to pick up on something that Jameson had said, one of the things

that has really been driven home to me since I became a CEO, is that

the organization looks to you for guidance and moral leadership as well.

And that's something that's really important.

And I think as a CEO, you've always got to have.

I'm a very strong believer in servant leadership, particularly over the last

five years, I would say, in the US, people who work within your organizations look to

the leadership of the organization to say, what's your commentary on social issues?

You know, what's your view on the political climate right now?

How are you going to help us overcome the challenges that we

faced with COVID, with the post COVID issues, with mental health issues?

And so that's a big, big part of being a CEO.

There's all the technical stuff and the operational stuff, but then there's that

ethical and moral element to it too.

And I think that's, that's something that, you know,

increasingly is important right now.

How about you, Frank?

What's a day like for you?

Frank White III: Well, first of all, being a CEO is very lonely.

and I don't say that in jest, I mean, because you make all the

decisions, they fall back on you.

I think we have talked about this in the past, Paul.

I'm responsible for 650 people and their families with every decision

I make, every day, good or bad.

And that's a weight that you take very seriously because these people.

So, they're going to work every day, they're planning for the futures, and they

don't know what we know as CEOs, and nor do they need to know what we know, but

when you look at all the information that you get, it's a lot, and so, if you're

doing it right, you take that seriously, to your point of the leadership piece, but

every day is different, you know, what's, 8 o'clock, It's solved by 10 o'clock.

Then there's another crisis at 11 o'clock.

the biggest thing in my role, I am not an operational person.

I just got a good line of BS.

That's, that's why I'm here.

my job is to lead and make decisions.

And I've got the operational speed to go do that.

My job is to go out there and go tell our story.

Go deal with the, what we call the political sticky stuff.

all the things, you know, the trips and all these things.

And really go say, I'm advocating for our organization in a way

to go tell that great story.

But, you get drug into things that, like, I've learned more about finance

in the last four months than I ever thought I'd know in my life.

Because you're trying to solve problems.

Or is it operations?

Now we're talking about maintenance and all these things and jacks and

lifts that I would normally not even care about, but I have to know about

it because I've got to answer for it.

I don't get to say I don't know.

I don't get to say, well, it's not my fault.

No, I'm the guy.

And so you have to own that.

And so it can be very heavy.

But at the same time, you get to see the impact of the decision

that you make on the good side.

when you talk to people and get to know the folks that you're

responsible for, it's crazy.

I love it.

I love being in charge.

I love being able to say I have a hand in this thing.

I love seeing people grow in an organization and move on.

I try to find people better than me and I hope they leave for something better.

If I've done that, I've done it right.

cause then you elevate and people feel that space, you

elevate, they feel that space.

And you're a people developer as well.

And then also people look to you, to your point, to the tone and the environment.

And if, and if, and I will say I don't know.

Let me be very clear, I'll say I don't know, let me find out.

But what people do know about me at the ATA is, is I'll never lie to you.

I'll defend us to the hill.

In, in spite of whatever.

And, and that I, I am there for the agency to all the people.

So, if you get the chance to become a CO, I would say run to it.

'cause you'll learn a lot about yourself.

you thought you knew stuff that you don't know, but, but I'm better

now than I was two years ago.

but no, it, it's, I, it's, it's crazy.

There's always something going on, but I mean, it, it's just fun.

I like solving problems and I get to solve problems here.

Two things that, I took out of that, and, that I want to share

about CEOs, and then we'll ask you, Jameson, I'm going to follow that up with

a question, which is, one is, what you said, as a CEO, as the chief executive

officer, the leader of any organization, you have the power of a spotlight,

and you can spotlight issues, and your staff runs to them and works on them,

but normally it's one issue at a time.

The problem is, at a CEO, you're faced with easily, 100 decisions a

day, I think, that you have to make.

And, you have to figure out where to put that spotlight, where the focus will be.

The other thing I found was interesting, as a CEO, and I want to ask you about

this, Jameson, is that, it seems like all the easy decisions have already been made.

By the time it gets to your desk.

And the only ones that you have to make are the toughest ones,

and the ones without a template.

You know, it's like a judgment call.

That's why I wrote a chapter in my first book called, you know, Being a CEO is

about your job, it's your judgment.

Do you agree?

Oh, I absolutely agree.

That said I'm having a blast.

There you go.

You know, and I have a great board that can help.

I can bounce ideas off of.

I've got a great team that I can bounce ideas off of.

But at the end of the day, Frank's right.

The decision happens here and you have to live by that decision.

Now, the great thing is that most decisions are reversible.

Right?

You decide you're going to have an amputation, you better think real

hard and make the right decision.

It's not growing back.

but most decisions, we'll go back, we'll assess, and we'll, we'll course correct.

So it's an iterative process.

But, you know, the, the, the buck does stop here, and you make the

best decision that you can with the resources and information that you have.

Tiffani, what's your day like?

So, I guess the best way to put it is, I'm a firm believer that

a CEO means, before I ask anyone to do anything, I have to be willing to, like,

work harder, so before I ask them to do overtime, so I wake up, and I immediately,

like, I get my cup of coffee, and I check to see what it is, and I'm kind of

somewhere probably between both of you, where I'm not in the weeds of, like, each

day, but I log in each morning, and I look to see how many drivers called off.

Just because I want to know when I walk in, what am I walking into, and what

can I start helping with direction and empowering my staff before I even step in.

Because those calls and those messages don't wait for me to be

in the building, because a lot of times, I'm not in the building.

My job isn't to be at my desk all day, just there waiting for a problem.

And so, a big part of that is opening.

That ability for people to tell me there's a problem.

Because a lot of people don't wanna tell the CEO, it's a

problem unless it's really bad.

But I also think that as CEO, my job is to be chief cheerleader.

And I say that in the best way because my job is to cheerlead

for our agency outside.

Who are we?

And you know, there's a lot of thoughts that, oh, you go to dinner,

okay, inside, they're not all fun.

They're work.

And when you're there, you're on.

And people think that, you know, you go and it's it.

The second you get there, you start smiling.

And the way you're, when you go to bed.

If you're not in your hotel room, you're working, and, but that's all for this

idea of you have to be the greatest storyteller for your agency, because

that's how we drive ridership, that's how we drive revenue, but I also feel like

we have to be the big cheerleader inside.

You know, we had to make a big decision, and I made a very tough decision in

2021 that we didn't do remote work.

I brought everyone back, because it was creating this culture where people felt

expendable, like who could stay home and who was, had to be on the front line.

But with that came things like vaccine mandates.

it's about creating the culture and the tone.

We have a lot of fun at work.

We work really hard, but I think it's creating that idea that

I dress up on spirit days and I bring things to the potluck.

Because the idea is, you don't have to just be a fun agency, or a hardworking

agency, or a analytical agency, you can be all of them, but it's our job to set

that culture on, when is it fun, and when is it serious, and what's important,

but ultimately, the CO's responsible for setting all of that, and that creates

people wanting to come to work, the idea of being an employer of choice, because

people want to be where they want to be, and since COVID, that's the number

one thing, If you're going to leave your house, you want what you do to matter,

you want to feel valued, and you want to enjoy it, because you have options

to not have to leave that at home, and so, I think more than ever, the job of

a CEO is creating a culture where people feel like what they're doing matters,

and that they're appreciated, and that it matters they show up to work every day,

and ultimately, that's my number one job.

All right.

Our lightning round question.

We have one time for one question left.

I'm gonna ask each of you to try to keep it under a minute.

We'll start with you, Frank.

What's one of the best things happening in your agency right now?

Frank White III: The biggest thing is that the TOD work.

You saw some of what we did come to Kansas City.

We've got over 70 different projects.

It's gonna do about 60 million dollars to the organization and we're trying

to make a lot of traction with it.

Not just within the Missouri, but in Kansas, but also nationally.

so it's work I started four years ago, now Michael Riley is taking what I've done

to the next level, but it's, it's really allowing us to reframe that, what we are

from a bus company to a transit authority.

That's great.

Jameson?

We're, we're going through a process right now.

We're asking, the communities, what do you need us to be for the next 50 years?

We know what we were founded to do, but what do we need to morph into?

And that conversation has been dynamic and engaging.

We have elected officials weighing in, we have community college presidents weighing

in, we have internal teams weighing in, we're doing a workshop, next week, on this

topic with, with city planners and others.

So it's really about what do we need to be and how do we connect the entire county.

Which means that we have to be superb at our base level of

service, at our transit service.

So right now, the entire organization is focused on a singular goal.

What is the role of recruitment and retention?

Making sure that we're recruiting bus operators, we're reimagining how we handle

training without sacrificing training.

We're reimagining where we source our people.

We're looking at second chance programs.

We're looking at putting people to work who need a second chance.

And we're looking at working with other organizations that focus

in on indigenous businesses.

And these are the ones we wanted to make sure we were inclusive So, we

came up with the board of directors, veterans, making sure that we're really

being inclusive in that approach.

So, that's been exciting to see the whole organization galvanize around that,

including our board, who started the ad hoc committee on this one subject.

Tiffani?

So, for us, it's really that work that we're doing

related to food and health care.

We don't do anything little, so we started 14 routes that are A and B pair,

so 28 routes going from no fixed route.

But it's really interesting because it's got us seats at tables we didn't have.

We're involved in the housing discussion, we're involved in the food access, we're

involved in the healthcare discussion, and we actually spun off and created

a second non profit that's building attainable housing for a third of the

cost of what the public sector was doing.

But the key was transportation.

It's a little different take on TOD.

The operating system is so important.

We're bringing transportation as a key operating element on how they

should look at developing that.

And the goal is to create a model for how the region builds housing that has transit

at the table service provided day one.

That's not only creating a future for our agency and others, but it's actually

watching other existing entities come back to us and ask how to incorporate that.

And so, it's exciting to see where we can blend meeting the region's

goals into creating a sustainable future for ourselves by meeting demand

that gets us out of the hunting.

And I think that's and really gets us into the, let us show you

what we can do because transit can do so much that the community

didn't realize until we're there.

And I think it continues to be our job to tell the story of how, if you

want to accomplish all these issues, access is the number one problem

and you can't do it without transit.

And my going piece is, look at your data sets, especially

from things like paratransit.

I always tell Public Works, if you're looking at where to put in

improvements, where is the most valuable sidewalk infrastructure?

Where should you do crossings?

Get your data set, because only paratransit knows exactly what

time of day people are going, where they're going, to their door.

We're not assuming they're going there.

We know door to door, time of day, frequency, age, all of it.

We have more data than almost any other planning set, but

nobody thinks to access it.

David, bring us home.

I've been sitting here with my brain a bit of a scramble because I

thought we'd have more time, so trying to pick the one thing, so if I could

just pick just one, I can talk about this because it's in the public domain

now, it's in the media, we've just made an unsolicited proposal to MBTA, so back

to Boston, I'm afraid, to introduce a brand new train onto the network for

the first time in, probably 50 years and it'll be a modern battery electric

multiple unit which can run under the pantograph and run under battery

power where there is no pantograph.

It'll be truly transformational if this option is taken up by MBTA.

I would be introducing that train into service in 2027 on

selected parts of the network.

So from a customer experience, it'll be like nothing MBTA

riders have ever experienced.

from a quality of service, journey time.

Reducing the carbon footprint of the operation, it really

checks all of those boxes.

And really I wanted to mention that because this is a good example of where

we've been able to bring our global experience in introducing these sorts of

trains elsewhere in the world to MBTA.

Almost as a free consultancy, we've found the solution, we proposed it, we would

project management the procurement, the facilities, the introduction to service,

and then of course continuing to operate.

But it's a great example I think of.

As a global transportation contractor, where we can bring

added value to our clients.

and in fact, I need to give a quick shout out to the ENO Centre for

Transportation, because they've just done, a study on contracting, and they've

just published that study, and it really emphasizes one of these features that,

a contractor can bring added value.

So, I'm really pleased, proud that we've made that proposal, and I'm

very, very hopeful that it does get taken up by the T, and we're able to

introduce that to the riding public.

That's great.

Thank you all.

If you enjoyed today, how about giving a round of applause to our guests?

This is Tris Hussey editor of the transit unplugged podcast.

Thank you for listening to this special 300.

Episode of transit unplugged.

Special, thanks to all of you listeners who have made this possible.

And of course, to our guests, Frank White, III.

Jameson Auten David Scorey and Tiffani Scott.

Now coming up next week on the show, we have Emily Yates CIO

for SEPTA, the South Eastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority.

Paul and Emily are going to talk about how innovation works in public transit.

Do you know that transitunplugged.com is the place to catch up on

old episodes of the show.

Why don't you give it a look, there's some great episodes from the past seven

seasons that you might really enjoy.

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