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2015: THE YEAR IN PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION |
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Trend Spotting: APTA's Committees Address Industry Issues, Opportunities
What were the public transportation industry’s hottest trends, major accomplishments and biggest opportunities in 2015?
For answers, APTA turns to its nearly 150 committees, technical forums and task forces. Passenger Transport asked the chairs of a few APTA committees to report on their initiatives.
Legislative Committee
J. Barry Barker
Executive Director, Transit Authority of River City
Louisville, KY
 A year ago, it wasn’t a safe bet that 2015 would end with a long-term, fully funded federal transportation bill—let alone one that includes a 10 percent funding increase for public transportation in the next year alone.
Congress hadn’t passed a long-term bill since 2005. Partisan gridlock and other competing interests for limited funding also stood in the way. Despite those challenges, the FAST (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation) Act made it through Congress with strong bipartisan support.
While not providing everything public transportation wants, the legislation goes a long way to meet our needs now and in the future. This success required a consistent, cohesive, comprehensive and collaborative focus in articulating the diverse needs of the public transit industry. Our big-tent approach dates several years to an APTA task force focused on long-term, fully funded transportation legislation. We persevered, welcoming all voices.
Now we can plan with some level of certainty; the FAST Act includes five years of available funding, though September 2020.
Over the life of the bill, the total authorized for FTA programs is $61.1 billion, representing a nearly 18 percent increase. The bill provides both stable formula funding and a competitive grant program to address bus and bus facility needs. Bus and Bus Facilities Program funding for the first year is $696 million, a 62.5 percent increase over current funding, but still less than the level of funding ($984 million) prior to MAP-21. Significant increases are also contained in the State of Good Repair Program—15.7 percent in the first year and 23.9 percent over the life of the bill. The New Starts Program increases 21 percent. Small Transit Intensive Cities (STIC) increases and the growing states/high density formula programs are preserved.
Please thank your representatives in Congress who supported this monumental effort. As congressional leaders on the legislation said in a statement, the FAST Act is “a vital investment in our country.” Thanks also to tireless efforts of so many at APTA and public transportation organizations everywhere.
The FAST Act puts us on track to building a brighter future for our organizations and the communities we serve. It’s a great way to celebrate a New Year!
Diversity Council
Doran Barnes
Executive Director, Foothill Transit
West Covina, CA
APTA Vice Chair
 Over the past year, the Diversity Council has focused on promoting and valuing diversity as a strength of the industry and APTA. The council serves to encourage, promote and celebrate diversity—in all its variations—throughout all levels of the association during the normal course of its business and programs.
There is a great deal of positive news to report. To ensure that APTA career development programs are available to persons with diverse backgrounds and capabilities, APTA has expanded its range of opportunities into multiple levels of positions, from the frontline to the “C” Suite, with broad-based recruitment to diverse populations. For our premier leadership training program, the recently selected Leadership APTA class includes 17 men and 9 women, with 50 percent representing minorities. Looking to our future, through the APTF scholarship program, young professionals of diverse backgrounds were encouraged to choose careers in public transportation. The 2015 APTF scholarship recipients include 18 men and 14 women, and 50 percent of the recipients are minorities.
To communicate diversity as an industry value, Passenger Transport published more than 200 articles featuring the achievements of minority and women leaders. Further, to enhance opportunities for substantive contributions and participation in APTA leadership roles, APTA has established a goal of a minimum of 30 percent participation of women and minority speakers at our major conferences, including a minimum of 10 percent women and 10 percent minority participation within the 30 percent goal. During FY 2015, the number of women and minority speakers well exceeded these minimum goals: (Annual Meeting/EXPO, 52 percent; Bus & Paratransit Conference, 58 percent; and Rail Conference, 56 percent).
APTA has established a goal of 30 percent participation by minorities and women in its committees. Of the 50 committees surveyed, 88 percent met or exceeded the goal, 12 percent had participation between 20 percent and 29 percent, and for the first time no committees had fewer than 20 percent participation.
APTA strives to ensure that its workforce reflects that of the Washington, DC, region. For FY 2015, the staff was composed of 46 percent women and 47 percent minorities, compared to regional data of 53 percent and 67 percent respectively.
To advance APTA’s goal of providing opportunities for minority- and women-owned businesses, the Business Member Board of Governors’ Small Business Committee held networking breakfasts at the bus and rail conferences, and we partnered with COMTO for a “Small Business to Small Business” reception at the Rail Conference.
The Diversity Council has also placed an emphasis on developing activities and resources that member organizations can use to enhance inclusiveness of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in the APTA organization and throughout our industry. Consequently, the council created an LGBT Task Force, led by co-chairs Paul Larrousse, Celia Kupersmith and J. Barry Barker.
As one of its first activities, the task force held a listening session at the Annual Meeting. Attendance was strong and the conversation was robust and insightful. Feedback focused on three areas: legal and regulatory guidance, creating a welcoming work environment and providing excellent customer service. Based on this first listening session, the task force has developed an ambitious work plan for 2016, which will feature a webinar, video testimonials and additional interactive sessions at APTA conferences and seminars.
The Diversity Council meets during the APTA Annual Meeting and the Bus & Paratransit Conference. While members of the Diversity Council are appointed or designated, all members are invited and encouraged to attend meetings. We need your energy and insights!
Mobility Management Committee
Marlene Connor
Principal/Manager
Marlene Connor Associates, LLC
 Historically, the Mobility Management Committee has been working to expand the frame of reference of mobility management to include the complete family of services in a community, with a focus on the customer.
During the past year, the evolving concept of integrated mobility, coupled with the emergence of transportation network companies, microtransit and technology, has been a prominent trend for the industry. In addition, we have noted that our market growth potential for public transit is in sync with the desires of millennials who are choosing with higher frequency to live in areas with greater choices for mobility than driving a car as their primary mode, and who are making more active choices for mobility that include walking, biking and transit—and not necessarily even owning a car.
Similarly, many baby boomers are moving to locales with greater mobility options. These trends are consistent with the shift to a sharing economy. At the Annual Meeting, for example, we were pleased to be a part of the number of sessions that included input from our more “nontraditional” mobility services and technology providers.
Recognizing the emergence of these trends, we reframed the committee structure to incorporate the APTA strategic plan, particularly to pay attention to changing demographics and evolving technologies. In addition, we have worked within APTA to establish a collaborative multi-committee working group that has reached out to stakeholders, gathering their input and engagement, including the Transportation Research Board, National League of Cities, ITS America and AARP, among others, to create a dialogue with APTA as a thought leader in this arena.
Also, in an effort to sustain and increase the level of engagement in these emerging trends, we have connected with agencies such as DART and MARTA, which are active in these new mobility concepts, so we can share and learn best practices, and we are working with the Member Services Committee to understand how these new mobility entities might become APTA members and assist in improving input and ideas to the industry.
Business Member Board of Governors
Patrick Scully
Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing
Motor Coach Industries
 2015 was an awesome year for transit in the U.S. With the new transportation bill, our advocacy efforts have paid off big time. APTA’s business members continue to be a strong partner for the industry and the association.
The BMBG is organized to be in alignment with the APTA strategic plan, and all of our work is closely tied to that plan and has been for a number of years.
Further, we also work closely with and implement the initiatives of the APTA chairs—this year with Phil Washington’s Stand Up for Transportation Day, which was hugely supported by business members, and now Valarie J. McCall’s initiative on collaboration and task force led by three co-chairs—myself, Ann August and David Stackrow. The task force also includes five business members so our efforts in 2016 will be to implement the task force’s action items, with the view of improving the industry and APTA.
The BMBG also provides support for APTF. In 2015, we took an active role in supporting a new event at the Annual Meeting to celebrate Valarie J. McCall’s new term, which raised significant funds for APTF.
The BMBG’s prime focus in 2015 was to actively advocate for reauthorization of the surface transportation bill, including organizing and participating in efforts for SU4T; participating in a fly-in in June during which a number of business members met with members of Congress; and supporting the grassroots effort “Voices for Public Transit” by placing op-ed pieces in local newspapers. For example, Genfare’s Kim Green and I recently wrote a column for a Chicago newspaper calling for greater investment in Illinois infrastructure.
Business members hosted many visits by elected officials in offices and facilities during SU4T and throughout the year, demonstrating the positive impact the transit supply chain has on local economies. Many of these visits also included discussions regarding Buy America provisions for rolling stock procurements.
We also focused on workforce development as an initiative and as part of our support for APTA’s strategic plan. To advance this goal, we formed a new subcommittee, and we conducted the first Passenger Rail Engineering Education Symposium (p-REES) encouraging colleges to include rail transit education in their academic programs.
We look forward to an equally productive 2016, working closely with Valarie J. McCall and the APTA staff.
Research & Technology
Jonathan McDonald
Vice President, Americas Rail & Transit Practice Leader-Systems
CH2M
 Since 2007, the committee has been tracking changes in urbanization, demographics, aging, congestion and household income to better understand how they affect public transportation and how we can take advantage of these trends.
This year the committee started to see a tipping point with the rise in private mobility providers such as Uber, Lyft, Bridj and Google; increased use and acceptability of P3s; and the unfortunate increase in safety issues.
What changed so much that companies like Uber could be worth $50 billion? Public transit, after all, doesn’t make money. The tipping point is the change in demographics of urban dwellers (millennials and immigrants) who spend $6,600 a year or more owning a car they use less than 5 percent of the time and causes them to sit in hours of traffic. For the 250 million urban dwellers, this is a $1.7 trillion market (or more) a year, which has recently been made available through new technology.
The new private providers are betting that they can leverage technology to provide better, cheaper and more valued transportation experiences to their customers for a reasonable percentage of their trips by aggregating users via social media or optimizing a car that goes mostly unused.
If this seems like a lot of money for what amounts to public transit, it is. The difference? The new providers are trying to build a system that allows customers to dump their car and spend that money on different services. How does public transit take advantage of this?
One way is through the use of P3s. To build and operate a network capable of serving more than 2 percent of all trips, as public transit now does, we will need a lot more money than either the federal government or local taxpayers will support. Private money can play this role. If there is profit in increasing ridership and getting people out of cars—as the new providers believe—the P3 model can work if we provide the flexibility to make money proportional to investors’ risk while minimizing risk to agencies and the public. This is one of our challenges.
But first we need to address the rise in safety issues, due in part to aging infrastructure and a workforce that is retiring at record rates. This must be addressed both quickly and thoroughly. If we fall short, the private operators could go from partner to competitor quickly.
The committee has been active in these areas, chiefly by exploring integrated mobility/transformative technology with APTA’s new task force and exploring emerging and innovative technologies with our subcommittee. We have also advanced the development of standards in technology and performance delivery and promoting refocusing the TransITech conference as the training and technology innovation conference.
Marketing & Communications
Morgan Lyons
Assistant Vice President, External Relations
Dallas Area Rapid Transit
 Supporting APTA’s efforts to secure a new federal transportation funding bill was the primary challenge for our committee in 2015. One of the highlights was bringing Chair Phillip Washington’s vision for Stand Up for Transportation to life.
More than 360 organizations collaborated to host more than 150 events in nearly every state to engage our customers and stakeholders in making the case for a new bill. The wide variety of events reflected the diversity of our committee and our association. The events were festive, fun and effectively communicated our message.
We remain actively involved in recruiting new members for Voices for Public Transit (VPT), APTA’s digital grassroots advocacy group. We’ve added more than 80,000 new advocates in the past year, bringing the advocate community to more than 180,000 committed members working to support our industry. The VPT social media footprint was expanded through content re-shared by committee members on their social media channels throughout the year, but especially during key points on the legislative calendar. These actions helped present a unified voice to Congress and created opportunities for members from throughout the association to play a critical role in passing a bill.
The APTA brand message, “Where Public Transportation Goes, Community Grows,” is a strong call to action for members and advocates. It’s been tested and proven to change opinions about the broad economic benefits of public transportation. Talking about public transportation in terms of how it builds communities—increasing property values, creating desirable places to live and locating businesses—in turn changes the perception of those who otherwise would be less inclined to support increasing investment in our systems.
Our customers and those who make decisions important to our systems and to strengthening our communities saw this message presented in key markets through the year as part of our ongoing advertising and advocacy campaign. But our work is not over with passage of a long-term bill. Committee members remain creative and will continue presenting that message in their own markets. Continuing to use these messages and getting more of our systems to embrace and elevate this brand message to benefit their systems and their communities will remain the top priority of the committee in the year ahead.
Sustainability Committee
Susannah Kerr Adler
General Manager-Regional Operations
SYSTRA Consulting Inc.
 This past year, the Sustainability Committee held its 11th workshop to resounding success in Portland, OR, with the theme, “Growing Places.” We also celebrated eight new signatories to APTA’s Sustainability Commitment, bringing the number of signatories to 132, and welcomed three agencies who rose to Platinum-Level recognition: San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, Sound Transit and TransLink, the first Canadian agency to achieve platinum status.
Over the past year we have noted several trends that seem to be picking up momentum and will continue to influence and inform the discussion around sustainability.
First is mobility, which is getting defined as multimodal. No more can we look at public transit as a stand-alone mobility provider with independent connections.
Instead we are looking at transit and its role as part of a network with other mobility providers (Uber, Lyft, and so on, in addition to traditional elements like bike and pedestrian forms of transportation).
We are actively collaborating with APTA’s Mobility Management Committee to engage and address the challenges and solutions around a redefined mobility framework.
Enabling the mobility discussion, and defining the second trend, is technology. With the advent of alternative mobility providers, the continued growth in web-based applications and the impending driverless vehicles, our challenge is to explore how transit can become a leader in the area and help shape the broader discussion.
Focusing on technology, or “disruptive technology,” as part of our Sustainability Workshop and at the APTA Annual Meeting this year has help to bring this topic into focus for us as an industry.
Resiliency continues to be a major focus area—both at the policy level as well as tactical level of how one “hardens” or plans for events. We are updating our standards and measurement practices on climate change and measuring greenhouse gases to help agencies address the continuing challenges.
Understanding how social sustainability can be defined and incorporated into the program also continues to be a priority. The Sustainability Committee will take on this particular topic in the year to come.
High-Speed & Intercity Passenger Rail Committee
Peter Gertler
Vice President, Global Strategic Consulting
HDR
 From 2008-2010, the industry was in a period where there was funding, attention, excitement and opportunities for high-speed rail (HSR). There was widespread support, starting with the administration. The president mentioned HSR in his State of the Union speech, a real first. But the world has moved on.
We’re at a different place now, with changes in Congress, the economy, the conversation and focus. HSR has become a toxic and polarizing issue in some quarters. Today, there is limited potential for long-term, sustainable sources of funding and no real progress on a national plan or program for the development of HSR.
That said, there are reasons to be positive and much to be proud about regarding progress. In California, construction has begun on the first sections of the state’s HSR program, and there are significant developments in the Northeast Corridor, Texas, Florida, Texas and the Midwest.
And we reached a major milestone with the FAST Act, which includes a five-year rail title with some discretionary grants for intercity rail. It’s far short of what we need, but an important first step from which to build future progress, and we’re excited about that.
Almost exactly one year ago, the committee met for a strategic planning session to identify goals and objectives to adjust to our new reality.
We came up with three key areas: thought leadership, membership and strategic alliances, and stronger communications and public relations. We also updated our vision and mission statements. We’ve made progress in all three areas.
For thought leadership, we developed a plan for a return on investment study for HSR. We’ve selected a consultant and signed a contract so we’re underway. In addition, the recent high-speed rail policy forum was very well attended and well received with a strong lineup of speakers and a substantive agenda.
We also made solid progress on developing membership and strategic alliances with AASHTO and its Standing Committee on Rail Transportation, AREMA and the U.S. High Speed Rail Association, and we have aligned ourselves with Leadership APTA to build in a succession plan for future leadership.
As for communications and public relations, we’re working to improve the distribution of our newsletter, Speedlines, and to include more electronic options and links.
We’ve made progress and seen some solid accomplishments. While there are many challenges ahead, we are like the little high-speed train that can, and remain positive that there will be HSR in the U.S.
Rail Transit
Keith Parker
General Manager/CEO
Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority
The committee has been addressing three trends and challenges.
First is state of good repair (SOGR) for legacy systems like New York’s MTA, SEPTA in Philadelphia and CTA in Chicago, and for newer systems like BART, WMATA and MARTA here in Atlanta. Second is safety in terms of infrastructure investment in components like tunnel ventilation, tracks and signal systems. We’ve all seen public transit systems go from being well-regarded to facing significant issues, and the committee has been placing a very high emphasis on infrastructure safety. Our third area of focus is security as it relates to potential terrorist attacks and people putting themselves in harm’s way.
As for SOGR, we have been making our case to Congress and state legislatures to secure the funding we need to keep our systems in good working order. The FAST Act will help and we’ve seen some major successes, like the state of Pennsylvania, which is making an unprecedented commitment to this investment. Also, the MTA and WMATA are making massive railcar purchases and BART has made a railcar purchase amounting to hundreds of vehicles.
In terms of strengthening the safety of infrastructure, the committee is looking for ways to help members and the industry upgrade aging fleets not only by finding new funds, but also by making our systems more efficient, using existing funds more effectively and undertaking significant rehabilitation efforts. We’ve been working with FTA and state DOTs and sharing best practices and information.
Finally, we’ve put a lot of attention on security issues. Most subway systems represented on the committee are Tier 1 systems, which means they are potential targets of terrorist activity. Systems are stepping up their efforts—making canine units more visible on platforms, for example—to deter threats. Committee members have also been looking at cyber security threats, discussing ways to strengthen those areas and sharing ideas and improvements.
Bus & Paratransit CEOs
Carl Sedoryk
General Manager/CEO
Monterey-Salinas Transit
 The Bus and CEOs Committee has been working on several initiatives, which will continue in the coming year.
The committee is focused on improving transparency and consistency in the area of new regulations that impact our operations and how FTA and its contractors enforce those regulations through the triennial review process.
Related to this issue, committee members continue to be very interested in revisiting the spare vehicle ratio guidelines in order to update them. Our goal is to provide a reasonable spare ratio that recognizes the challenges of implementing the new low/no emission technologies supported by the administration while also maintaining a predictable level of service to our communities.
Finally, as for the coming year, the committee will develop a new work plan that aligns itself with the goals and objectives identified in the most recently adopted APTA strategic plan and its five key goals: safety and security, resource advocacy, workforce development, demographic shifts and technological innovation.
Public-Private Partnerships Committee
Jeffrey Ensor
Director, Project Delivery and Finance
Maryland Transit Administration
 APTA’s Committee on Public-Private Partnerships has worked closely with the Build America Transportation Investment Center (BATIC) as it evolved over the second half of 2015.
BATIC Executive Director Andrew Right, appointed by President Obama as part of DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx’s team and a former vice president in the infrastructure investment group at Goldman Sachs, made one of his first public appearances as BATIC head at the 2015 Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
BATIC, established by Obama to encourage awareness and understanding of federal infrastructure financing programs, is facilitating greater public and private cooperation in financing infrastructure and offering various forms of technical assistance in its push to move projects forward in the coming year.
In partnership with AASHTO and the National Conference of State Legislatures, APTA is part of the BATIC Institute, launched in the fall to work closely with BATIC and help increase the capacity of policymakers and project sponsors, including state DOTs and public transit agencies.
BATIC and the BATIC Institute are looking to provide information, technical assistance and expertise to help worthy transportation projects advance. APTA and the committee are proud to be a partner. Our 2016 work program will further the awareness of funding, finance and project delivery best-practices.
Join an APTA Committee
APTA committees are active in all areas of the industry and are structured to strengthen interaction among members in a wide range of transit disciplines. Membership is open to all employees of APTA members in good standing, except for committees with membership by appointment only. Submit the online Committee Interest Form or contact the advisor listed beside each committee description at the APTA website in the About APTA section.
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