Fellow Vermonter and former President Calvin Coolidge said: “The most common commodity in this country is unrealized potential.” When it comes to public transit, he could not have been more right.

But while many believe the key to unleashing unrealized potential in public transit is greater funding or advanced technology, I believe that an equally huge challenge the industry faces has little to do with either of those concerns. The one element the transit industry needs most is already in plentiful supply in our nation: people.

Public transportation is booming. Ridership in the United States is back up above 10 billion trips per year on public transit, the largest number in 50 years.

In addition to posting ridership gains in traditional transit-oriented cities like New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Philadelphia, public transit now also features prominently in cities like Charlotte, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Phoenix, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Diego, and St. Louis, to name a few. But perhaps the most striking transformation has taken place in Los Angeles, where a still-evolving multimodal transit network now efficiently moves hundreds of thousands of people—in what is arguably the world’s car-culture epicenter.

From subways to rail to commuter rail to light rail to bus to Bus Rapid Transit, U.S. public transportation has seen a remarkable resurgence over the past quarter century or so. But the change is not just in scope.

Today’s public transit industry is definitely not yesterday’s industry. Systems around the country and around the world are gaining in sophistication by leaps and bounds. New technologies and methods are supplanting dearly held ideas, systems, and practices.

In Vancouver, BC, for example, driverless SkyTrain transit vehicles now ply the city’s transit rails; SkyTrain is among the largest automated operating systems in the world. And one might think that promoting driverless systems would help alleviate the shortage of skilled personnel (the oft-cited human-capital challenge). But that’s not always the case. Because of their sophistication, advanced systems can actually exacerbate the problem of acquiring and retaining the skilled staff needed to operate and maintain those systems.

More sophisticated systems require even better-trained professionals to run them. From engineers and planners to operations and maintenance people, public transit professionals need the training and experience to innovate, operate, and maintain today’s—and tomorrow’s—highly advanced transit systems. And. at a time when our systems demand more from public transit professionals than ever before, transit systems around the country are facing workforce shortfalls that are worse than ever before.

With many long-standing transit professionals retiring, the loss of veteran transit personnel and the intellectual capital that goes with them is palpable. In addition, we haven’t really figured out how to captivate the best and the brightest and draw them into the public transit field. Fortunately, that is changing.

Several progressive organizations have taken the lead in attracting and developing transit talent. APTA serves as a prime example: each year, its Leadership APTA program works to “develop and support the next generation of leaders” for the public transportation industry.

After selecting 25 individuals from among member applicants, APTA immerses them in a year-long program that includes intensive workshops, conferences, class leadership projects, teleconferences, online meetings, and web-based events. The goal: to create a “diverse, broad-based group of industry professionals.”

To date, Leadership APTA has graduated 14 classes with more than 350 graduates. Its mission could not be more vital, especially when you consider a stunning observation made by one of its members.

“Back in 2007, I was part of the Leadership APTA team that proposed strategies for reaching out to the next generation,” explained my AECOM associate Jason Schiedel, who currently serves on APTA’s Human Resources Committee. “Through our research, we discovered that a lot of people in public transportation ended up here by accident.

“When people think of transportation jobs, they think bus drivers and subway conductors,” he continued. “But they don’t really understand the depth and breadth of occupations and opportunities in public transportation. We’re trying to raise awareness about careers in public transportation. We want to generate word of mouth among young people by showing them that public transportation offers many opportunities for a fulfilling career. We want to eliminate the ‘happy accident’ that is the most common route for people to enter public transportation careers. We want young people to choose public transportation.”

Schiedel believes strongly in this issue. In addition to his work with Leadership APTA, he was instrumental in helping lead another initiative called the EXPO High School Program, where APTA partnered with AECOM, Junior Achievement, Veolia Transportation, and the ACE Mentor Program of America to teach 75 New Orleans-area students how to make constructive career and life decisions. This important work was part of APTA’s successful 2011 Annual Meeting and EXPO in New Orleans—and is at the very heart of what needs to be done to enhance the talent pool for public transportation careers.

Another organization making very significant inroads in this regard is the Eno Transportation Foundation, a policy and people development group based in Washington, DC. I’m fortunate to be on the Eno board, so I know firsthand that the organization has been at the forefront of staff development for many years.

Eno has a remarkable leadership training program designed to advance professionals to the upper echelons. And it works: several Eno graduates have gone on to become general managers and deputy general managers at public transit systems across the country. Eno also boasts a new program for mid-level professionals that promises to be a game-changer for that critical stratum.

So strongly do we at AECOM believe in Eno’s work, in fact, that more than a dozen of our transportation professionals have graduated from Eno programs to date.

In addition, the National Transit Institute at Rutgers University conducts specialized classes in a wide variety of activities, ranging from environmental analysis and procurement to financing and project management for engineering projects. The Conference of Minority Transportation Officials also has a superb development program. As previously mentioned, the ACE Mentor Program does a stellar job of providing an introduction and guidance for young people entering the architecture, construction, and engineering fields. The American Public Transportation Foundation has granted a large number of scholarships to advance 21st-century transportation through human development.

Recently, Peter M. Rogoff, administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, announced 11 grants totaling more than $3 million for people development and training. So, many determined individuals are working to improve the situation, to fight the human-capital predicament. Is it enough? Not by a long shot.

Though public transit is improving throughout the nation, demand is increasing as well. While many systems have new components, other elements are aging rapidly. And not only do system elements need replacement, they need to be transformed to handle this century’s ever-increasing transit challenges.

In addition, all of these systems need live transformation; they need to be upgraded while they continue to serve their ridership. That is going to take a unique combination of executive and technical development, as well as innovative operations and maintenance training—across every aspect of the profession. The challenges are substantial.

Many organizations and individuals are fighting to put public transit on the educational and developmental agenda, but it is still not enough. As transit professionals, we all must do more. Without question, we need to support these current initiatives.

But we also need to create new programs. Empower young people to join with us veterans to speak out. Young people harbor a wealth of ideas and enthusiasm. We need to respect that energy and guide it properly. Working as one, academia, the private sector, and federal, state, and local governments must all step up and create new and exciting programs to develop our young people, who in turn will make the U.S. the world leader in public transit.

Nearly 90 years ago, Coolidge said, “The most common commodity in this country is unrealized potential.” When it comes to the public transit industry, he could not have been more right. But it is up to us to make sure we harness this remarkable human resource and use it properly. We must spread the gospel of human-capital development.

As transit and transportation professionals, we are in the best position to recognize and express the urgent need to have tomorrow’s best and brightest choose our profession. We must develop and train the young people of this nation so that we can realize the transit and transportation potential that exists within our shores.

Premo just completed a term on APTA’s Executive Committee, is a designated business member director on the APTA Board of Directors, and is an emeritus member of the Leadership APTA Committee. He also serves on the Eno Transportation Foundation Board of Directors.