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COUNTDOWN TO 2018 ANNUAL MEETING

WeGo Public Transit: Connecting People, Enhancing Lives

As APTA and its members prepare for the association’s 2018 Annual Meeting, Sept. 23-26 in Nashville, Passenger Transport asked Stephen Bland, chief executive officer of WeGo Public Transit, host system for the meeting, to describe the evolving public transportation landscape in the region and how the agency is meeting the changing needs of its riders. How is WeGo Public Transit adapting to and shaping the new mobility landscape in the Nashville area? Going on my fifth year at WeGo Public Transit (formerly Nashville MTA), the landscape of the industry and our city has changed considerably. As one of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S., we face many of the same challenges and opportunities as much larger cities—particularly with respect to mobility.

When I arrived in Nashville, the idea of transportation network companies was just starting to gain steam, carsharing was finding its way out and bikesharing was becoming a fully formed mobility solution for cities other than New York and Los Angeles. In those few short years, we now refer to Uber as a verb; you’re as likely to hear two Nashville baristas talking about first-mile, last-mile solutions as you are transit planners; and the prospect for autonomous vehicles looms large, with all the potentially positive and negative consequences they will bring.

So, I find myself asking where public transportation fits in this new world of mobility solutions. And I believe the answer still lies at the heart of our industry, which is to connect people to the places and activities that enhance their lives.

To this end, in the fall of 2016, the boards of directors of the Metropolitan Transit Authority and the Regional Transportation Authority (including 28 of our regional mayors) jointly and unanimously adopted the nMotion Strategic Transit Plan. This plan established a 20-year timeline for improved public transit options in the region to meet its growing and changing mobility needs.

nMotion is the study that heavily influenced “Let’s Move Nashville,” the Davidson County component of this regional vision, which was brought to voters in May of this year as a means of starting the work necessary to create a regional transportation system by building a solid hub to which surrounding counties could connect.

However, Nashville voters elected to not support the historic, $5.9 billion transit funding referendum, which would have made “Let’s Move Nashville” possible. While it was a disappointing day for the city, we continue in our dedication to do our part to offer an increasingly dependable public transportation system for all those in Nashville.

On the heels of this setback, we have dug in and adopted the philosophy of “just because we’re not getting bigger immediately doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive to get better,” and we continue to use nMotion as the framework for these improvements. Though major capital investments like light rail and Gold Standard BRT will not be possible in the short run, we continue to advance the dozens of other enhancements incorporated in the nMotion plan.

Among the many efforts we are making in this regard are a large-scale renovation of our primary downtown Transit Center, the replacement of almost 20 percent of our fleet, the addition of a new station on our Music City Star commuter rail line, a partnership with the city of Nashville to enhance one of our busiest transit corridors with queue jump and transit signal priority technology, an account-based smart payment system incorporating other regional mobility providers and a collaboration with Tennessee DOT on their “I24 Smart Corridor Initiative.”

Most noticeably to APTA members attending the Annual Meeting, we just kicked off a rebranding initiative for public transit in Nashville to start to change the way that Nashvillians perceive their transit system.

Shaping a new mobility landscape starts with strategic and creative innovation. We’re lucky to have an abundance of that here in Nashville and we look forward to growing with the region to move people, connecting them to their lives and their communities in new and exciting ways.

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