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Passenger Transport asked public transit agency general managers and business executives to share their top priorities for their organizations in 2014. Their thoughts follow.
Launching State’s First BRT
 Peter Varga
Chief Executive Officer, The Rapid, Grand Rapids, MI
APTA Chair
The most significant priority for The Rapid is the successful implementation of our new BRT service, the Silver Line. More than 10 years in the making, it will be the first BRT line not only for the Grand Rapids region, but in the state of Michigan. We have already built 30 of the 33 stations and are tracking on schedule and under budget, but there is still much work to be done between now and Aug. 25, opening day.
Internally, we will be hiring additional staff, training bus operators, and exploring the development of park-and-ride lots at key locations. Externally, we have to develop tools to explain operational aspects of the project that are new for our community, like the ticket vending machines and how traffic will interact with the dedicated lanes. We will also be developing promotional outreach to create excitement and get existing and potential riders looking forward to this new line. We’ve already had some interest from developers looking at opportunities around stations, and we will include this in our messaging to show the economic development value of such projects to the community.
We also have a study underway on the potential for a second line. Much of the future growth of BRT in the region—and potentially in the state—hinges on how well the Silver Line measures up to expectations. Our board and staff are committed to the success of this project for many reasons, especially as this is the last piece of a plan that was approved by area voters in 2011. Our practice since our first local tax initiative was on the ballot in 2000 is to lay out a clear plan for voters and once it is approved, follow through and deliver services as promised. We successfully passed four local funding increases in 11 years, and we believe keeping our promises to the community is a critical factor in the amazing growth we have seen over the past several years and to our continued success.
Enhancing Worker Mobility
 Tina Quigley
General Manager, Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, Las Vegas
As the Las Vegas valley continues to grow and diversify economically, the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC) is focused on providing a public transit system that enhances mobility for its growing workforce. In 2014, we will continue improving the RTC transit system so it connects people from their neighborhoods across the expansive Las Vegas valley to their workplaces in the most efficient and convenient manner possible.
In pursuit of this goal, we will launch a new route in the southwest portion of the valley in spring 2014. Over the past several years, the southwest valley has seen tremendous growth, and the new Route 120 (Fort Apache/Buffalo) will serve numerous residential communities as well as major employers such as hospitals, office parks, and shopping centers. The new route will further enhance workforce mobility by offering more transit choices to this growing area and decreasing transit travel times by reducing transfers.
Similarly, we will be increasing our service to McCarran International Airport. As Las Vegas looks forward to welcoming even more visitors in 2014, the demand for transit from tourists and our residents using or working at the airport increases, too. As a result, we will extend two express routes to serve the airport’s Terminal 3 in 2014.
Making transit reliable and convenient for our workforce will remain my top priority. We work hard to provide one of the most efficient and on-time systems in the nation. We recently unveiled the RTC’s Frequent Service routes: eight routes that operate every 15 minutes or better on weekday afternoons and every 20 minutes or better during daytime hours on the weekend.
We are pleased to begin 2014 with continued economic growth in Southern Nevada and a decline in unemployment, which is now at 9.6 percent, down from 12.8 percent just two years ago. At the same time, we are witnessing a consistent increase in ridership showing that transit service is necessary as the economy recovers. To support our continued economic recovery in 2014, we will work to provide a transit system that enhances the mobility of our growing and diverse workforce.
Adapting to Markets
 C. David Dickey
Vice President-National Director, Transit & Railroads, URS Corp., NY
URS is one of a few firms within the industry capable of leveraging cradle-to-grave expertise—the ability to plan, design, construct, as well as operate and maintain transit systems. The most significant priority we face in 2014 is proactively positioning and adapting to the ever-changing market to best serve our clients in these challenging economic times. To accomplish this, we must efficiently leverage our collective resources to tackle new challenges, bring innovation to our clients, and advance cost-effective solutions.
URS strives to bring nationally recognized experts to our clients through our well-established regional leadership network and existing relationships throughout the industry.
We have demonstrated this on several recent projects: Our planners bringing innovative ways to reduce the project development timeline like the All Aboard Florida program, where we developed an aggressive stakeholder response plan that allowed us to complete an Environmental Analysis in 111 days; our engineer’s latest design for the city of Seattle’s First Hill Streetcar that incorporates streetcar, auto, and bus operations, along with a European-style, “cycle-track” for bicycles; our Transbay Transit Center program managers controlling cost, schedule, and scope, overseeing design including safety and security design guidance for California’s first multimodal high-speed rail hub; or our public-private partnership (PPP) and engineering teams that saw Ottawa’s Confederation Line PPP procurement—the largest in Canadian history—achieve commercial and financial close this past February.
To achieve our priorities in 2014, we will focus on the following areas:
* supporting streetcar and BRT systems across America, as we believe that these are integral to a healthier urban lifestyle as well as a more sustainable model for land use and growth;
* bringing innovative cost-effective solutions to the design-build and PPP market;
* applying sustainable principles of design to conserve energy and protect the environment;
* assisting our partners in optimizing their infrastructure assets and achieving the greatest return on investment through State of Good Repair initiatives; and
* leveraging our active participation in APTA committees.
We look forward to another challenging year, confident that our collective resources can continue bringing innovation and success to our partners in 2014.
Investing in State of Good Repair
 Beverly A. Scott
General Manager/CEO, MassDOT Rail & Transit Division, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Boston
Like its peer sister legacy systems, the MBTA has years of under-funded maintenance to catch up on, and also the need to invest in basic infrastructure to ensure that buses, trains, ferries, and paratransit vehicles are available to serve our customers. State of Good Repair (SGR) investments in infrastructure, systems, facilities, and employees are and will continue to be at the top of my priority list. To not invest in ourselves is to break the covenant that we as stewards of this—the oldest system in the nation—have not just with our current customers and stakeholders but also with generations past who gifted this system to us as well as future generations who will thrive, or fail, based on what we leave behind.
In 2014 one of our most important priorities will be ensuring that our procurement for Red and Orange Line cars proceeds smoothly and quickly. We are seeking bids to replace 66 Red Line cars that were entered into service during 1969-1970 with 74 new vehicles. We are also seeking bids to replace the entire 120-car Orange Line fleet with 152 new vehicles. This fleet of cars entered service between 1979 and 1981 and has never undergone a mid-life overhaul.
These new fleet vehicles will be featuring wider doors, modern more fuel efficient propulsion systems, and reconfigured ADA-complaint seating and standing areas. These new cars, together with planned investments in signal, power, dispatch, and employee training, will remake our busiest heavy rail lines and bring about improved reliability and more frequent service for our customers.
As we invest in SGR and procure new vehicles for our existing customer base, it is important that we not lose sight of the promise of strategic expansion. Our current plan for expanding the Green Line north will unlock millions of dollars of economic opportunity for citizens living just north of Boston, and expand the potential for hundreds of thousands of citizens to connect to jobs, education, and opportunity throughout the region. Our priority in 2014 will continue to be moving this project toward completion.
Developing People
 George Furnanz
President, Stacy and Witbeck, Inc., CA
A significant priority for Stacy and Witbeck (SWI) in 2014 is the continued development of people and relationships. Our leadership group understands the value of good people who possess the necessary technical skills to perform in this industry, but also the “soft” people attributes, such as good communication—both honest and truthful—which help get the job done. Our history has shown that the construction industry is more than just building railroads, bridges, and streets; it is also about building strong relationships where, when we work together as a “true” team, anything can be accomplished. One of our goals as a company for 2014 is to mentor, train, and challenge our current employees to further develop these relationship skills as we mobilize into new areas of the United States. We will also look to hire more young talent that possess these traits so we can continue this commitment to our company and the industry as we move further into the future.
At Stacy and Witbeck, we have always known that a project is not just about how the contractor‘s bottom line is affected, but how the owner’s and outside stakeholders’ success can be measured in the end. We believe all owners who have worked with us understand that this is a real priority to us and our past successful projects have shown that success for all involved. At Stacy and Witbeck we make an internal commitment to all our employee owners that we will keep our family approach to business, treat all owners and stakeholders fairly and honestly, and strive to be the number one choice for general contractor of all transit owners in the United States.
As we move into 2014, we realize each project will bring different challenges and risks to the table, but as we bring these experienced and talented people to each project, we, SWI owners and stakeholders, will all benefit with the continued workload and success we have all benefited from over the past 15 years.
Improving Rider Experience
 Michael Allegra
General Manager, Utah Transit Authority, Salt Lake City
The Utah Transit Authority (UTA) recently completed the FrontLines 2015 program of projects, which included four new light rail lines and a commuter rail line totaling 70 miles. The expansion program came about from the support of UTA riders, the local business community, elected officials, and the voters; UTA was able to complete the program two years ahead of schedule and under budget. UTA’s rail network has created a backbone for the larger transit network that spans over 120 miles north to south and is fed by many bus routes, flex routes, and vanpools.
Now that UTA has completed that program, we have refocused our efforts on improving the customer experience. This means UTA will increase frequency of service on bus and rail lines, making transit even more convenient. Transit riders in Utah have already shown that they are willing to leave their cars at home and ride transit. In fact, nearly 80 percent of UTA riders have access to a vehicle but instead choose to ride transit.
UTA is also looking to improve the customer experience by implementing new and innovative technologies. These include electronic fare collection systems based on open payment programs that allow customers to easily pay fares using smart phones, electronic farecards, and credit cards. UTA is also implementing advanced uses of real-time fleet information, which allows customers to know exactly where their bus or train is, will accurately predict departure and arrival times, and help the agency improve service planning. UTA’s real-time data are also made available to private developers to create innovative mapping and route finding apps.
In addition to UTA’s customer focus, the agency is embarking on a new program to implement alternative energy. This includes the development of a fleet of compressed natural gas-powered buses, which will reduce overall emissions as the agency retires older vehicles. UTA is able to find significant fuel savings using CNG through partnerships with local providers that extract and process CNG in Utah. UTA is also partnering with local developers of electric buses. These buses are able to recharge along their route at wireless transfer charging stations.
Reorganizing for Growth
 Marvin L. Thomas
President, Triunity Engineering & Management Inc., CO
As a fast growing engineering services company, the most significant priority for our business in 2014 is reorganizing to maintain momentum and overcome growth pains. In looking at our organizational structure, the leadership team considered a few key questions:
* How do we better serve our existing customers?
* How do we acquire new customers?
* What services do we want to provide to our customers?
* How do we grow our existing team members?
* How do we attract talented, new team members?
* What support structure do we need to do the above?
The resultant organizational structures emphasizes a focus on treating our highest growth accounts as if they are a vertical on their own, providing regional managers to service them.
The regional managers maintain strong, positive relationships with our team members and existing key clients. They look to leverage existing client relationships in order to provide new and/or increased services. Our future business depends on our strategic focus on the three business verticals of engineering, project controls, and construction management. For these three verticals, we have assigned SMEs who have a long history with the company and understand the culture we have built and want to foster. Their primary role is capability development of the team, client feedback on our services, and a keen focus on developing the necessary resources and materials to market the vertical. And lastly we balanced roles between the centralized functions of human resources, accounting, information technology, and quality with needed regionalized functions of project coordinators to support our project managers.
A company’s organizational structure will and should change as it grows and as its corporate focus realigns with the size and life cycle of the company. We believe for Triunity that our current alignment adequately positions us for the growth that we desire.
Delivering Proven Products
 Laura Chasse
General Manager, North American Bus Business, Cummins Inc., IN
Cummins will strive to continue providing customers with reliable, fuel-efficient, and industry-leading high-performance engine systems backed by North America’s largest and most capable service and support network. As we continue to invest in research and development, our focus will center on meeting our customers’ needs by delivering products built upon proven technology with a reliability that has been tested over millions of miles in bus applications.
Cummins is the only engine manufacturer to design and develop our engine components in-house from air handling to exhaust aftertreatment, and it is our commitment to implement continuous improvements to these subsystems in 2014 and beyond. These continuous improvements will ultimately lead to products that are more fuel-efficient for customers while also maintaining near-zero emissions and a reduction in overall greenhouse gases. Continuing to deliver products with proven reliability will help deliver increased fleet uptime while helping to reduce the overall operating costs of bus authorities.
Customer support will remain a top priority in 2014 as well. Our industry-leading support network will remain focused on delivering excellent customer service for our bus customers across North America. Our commitment to customer care means providing support throughout the life cycle of the engine system and focusing that support across the entire channel from OEM to dealer and on to the end customer. We are continuing to concentrate our efforts to improve the capability of our service and support channel. This includes implementing improvements to our parts and service network, maintenance information accessibility, and engine diagnostic tool capability. Cummins is also working to continue providing the necessary training and tools for maintenance professionals across all of our channels within the bus industry.
Cummins is excited to work diligently in delivering an excellent lineup of diesel and natural gas products for our customers and maintain our market leadership in 2014 and beyond. We are fully committed to continuing to provide fuel-efficient, high-performance, and reliable products that not only meet but exceed the expectations of our customers, all backed by industry leading service and support.
Advancing First BRT Line
 Jeff Hamm
Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer, Clark County Public Transportation Benefit Area Authority (C-TRAN), Vancouver, WA
It’s dangerous to speak of a transit agency’s “most significant priority.” Twists of fate routinely blow them to dust or shuffle them deep into the deck of cards we play.
Don’t get me wrong. Goals and priority setting are necessary endeavors that help organize our future and focus our energies. But “free will” is in pretty short supply for us bureaucrats who run transit agencies. To make matters worse, I’m superstitious. If I call out my most significant priority for 2014, do I jinx it?
One must have faith to work in this wonderful business, however, so just this once for Passenger Transport . . .
C-TRAN, as a mid-size bus operator in southwest Washington state, has been teetering for years over the question of what it wants to be when it grows up. Most of that teetering has been over the role that high-capacity transit should play in this growing but mostly suburban community. The agency finally crossed a threshold in 2013 when the board narrowly approved participating in the extension of Portland, OR, TriMet’s light rail line into Vancouver, and then giving the green light to proceed with project development of the agency’s first bus rapid transit line. Much of Vancouver is tailor made for BRT, and the successful launch of the first corridor will absolutely redefine public transit in this community. Advancement of that BRT line through design and environmental to a funding agreement with FTA has to be this agency’s most significant 2014 priority.
While all is under control at the local level for now, progress on C-TRAN’s most significant 2014 priority requires federal funding. All the more reason for C-TRAN to be a member of and to participate in APTA, lest we surrender to one more twist of fate. |
