THE SOURCE FOR PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION NEWS AND ANALYSIS

TransportPASSENGER

MARTA Opens Two FacilitiesThe Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit

Authority (MARTA) recently commemorated the openings of the renovated Brady Mobil-

ity Facility and a MARTA Police Department (MPD) precinct in Clayton County in separate events.

Following a $51 million overhaul, the Brady facility—which originally opened in 1974 as MARTA’s base for bus and maintenance opera-tions—is a LEED Silver facility that houses more than 400 employees, 15 repair bays, five fuel-ing stations, three vehicle-washing bays and an employee wellness center, as well as parking for vehicles, employees and visitors. FTA contributed $32 million toward the renovation.

At the Jan. 25 ribbon-cutting ceremony, MARTA General Manager/Chief Executive Officer Keith T. Parker said, “We’re getting a firsthand look at a brand new Brady that will have a positive impact on Mobility [para-transit] employees and ultimately, mobility customers. With this facility, we want to help make sure that those customers who wouldn’t be able to run errands or get to their appointments can. This facility is an investment in our employees and our cus-tomers.” MARTA also honored the memory of Sharon Crenchaw, its longtime Mobility

manager, in remarks at the event. The new police precinct in Clayton County,

dedicated Jan. 22, occupies approximately 4,000 square feet in a building located next to a shopping mall, one of several business and resi-dential destinations along MARTA’s bus routes in the area.

“We appreciate the spirit of cooperation,” said MARTA Police Chief Wanda Y. Dunham at the opening. The formation of the precinct involved the cooperation of county law enforcement and the Clayton County Board of Commissioners along with MPD, in addition to support from the residents of the county.

“I said, ‘You know, we’re missing an opportunity here,’” recalled Thomas, a former APTA chair and currently vice chair of the Mobility Manage-ment Committee. “We talked afterward and I said that we really ought to get together and talk about synergies and opportunities that would ben-efit both of us.”

That led DART to join with the private e-hail taxi service on an arrangement in which the company offered

discounted rides on St. Patrick’s Day to help revelers get to and from rail stations or other loca-tions on what typically is the agency’s busiest day of the year. It marked one of the earliest partnerships between public transit and a private transporta-tion network company (TNC)—and has been followed by a growing assortment of other arrangements.

Connecting the Sectors

Houston Displays CNG Buses, Opens Fueling StationHOUSTON’S METROPOLITAN TRANSIT Authority of Harris County (METRO) unveiled 50 new CNG-powered buses at an event Jan. 26 that also marked the opening of one of the state’s largest CNG refueling stations.

The CNG-powered buses from North American Bus Industries join METRO’s fleet of 1,220 buses, which include clean diesel and hybrid vehicles. METRO partnered with Freedom CNG, a Texas-based alternative fuel provider, which built the fueling station.

METRO Board Member Jim Robinson stated that the agency is moving toward CNG to pro-

mote clean air initiatives. He cited EPA statistics showing that CNG-fueled vehicles produce about 20 percent less carbon dioxide and 70 percent less carbon monoxide than their diesel-fueled counterparts.

The low floor bus design incorporates large windows and a more spacious interior, allow-ing greater mobility for wheelchairs and other devices. An electrically operated flip-out ramp eases boarding. The buses also feature LEDs for the front and side destination signs and virtually all bus interior and exterior lighting.

PRTC Operates New State-Funded Bus RoutesTHE POTOMAC AND Rappahannock Transportation Commission (PRTC), Wood-bridge, VA, began operating two new OmniRide commuter bus routes to the Mark Center in Alexandria, located in suburban Washington, DC, on Feb. 1, fully funded by the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT).

The morning and afternoon

rush hour routes originate in the outer suburbs of the met-ropolitan area, approximately

20 miles south of the Mark Center, and operate on I-95 express lanes. The Mark Center currently houses the Depart-

ment of Defense’s Washing-ton Headquarters Services and other agencies in the

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8 , 2016 | VOLUME 74, NO. 3

Representatives of Houston METRO and Freedom CNG gather to welcome the agency’s 50 new CNG buses at one of the

largest refueling stations in Texas.

Phot

o b

y M

ike

Ort

ega

Weaving A New Transit Network

CONNECTING THE SECTORS CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

PRTC ROUTES CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

BY CHUCK McCUTCHEON

When Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) President/Executive Director Gary Thomas appeared on a local transpor tation panel

in 2014, he struck up a conversation with another panelist—a regional representative of Uber.

Clayton County officials join MARTA General Manager/Chief

Executive Officer Keith T. Parker and MARTA Police Chief Wanda Y.

Dunham to cut the ribbon at MTD’s new precinct in the county.

8 | Passenger Transport February 8, 2016 | 9

APTA’s Policy Framework on Integrated Mobility, Transformative TechnologiesTHE APTA BOARD OF DIRECTORS recently adopted a policy framework and statement of principles related to the increase of technology-driven mobility ser-vices, the growing array of mobility choices and the rapid advances in autonomous vehicles and other systems.

The framework addresses several core principles:

1. Ensure Accessibility: Providers in the transportation network must provide access for all and be driven by the need for social inclusion and environmental justice in our transportation system.

2. Encourage Innovation and Entrepreneurship: The public transportation community welcomes new tech-nologies, new ideas, new players, new business prac-tices and new business models. Public transportation systems will lead, adapt, collaborate and reposition as appropriate.

3. Promote Integration and Coordination: Mobility providers and services must all work together as com-ponents of an integrated transportation system. Tran-sit is positioned to serve as its backbone. Given their public orientation, transit agencies are positioned to serve as integrators of these new mobility services, and transit executives as leaders and champions of collaboration.

4. Establish One-Stop Shopping for the Complete Trip: The wide array of mobility strategies must be communicated clearly, understood easily and available through an accessible clearinghouse. Integrated pay-

ment systems should be pursued. Customers should be able to plan and pay for their full trip through a facile, transparent process and single platform. Con-venient, stress-free trip planning and payment should extend to the full range of trip purposes.

5. Encourage Sharing and Cooperation: Sharing anonymous data or providing open data should be an aspirational goal for all parties.

6. Identify Opportunities to Capitalize on Technol-ogy: New technologies may be applied by transit agencies to facilitate environmental, economic and social goals. Transit agencies should integrate new mobility providers into first-mile/last-mile strategies, new paratransit alternatives, etc., to help achieve new efficiencies where it makes economic, operational and customer service sense.

7. Provide Appropriate Public Oversight: Safety for customers and community and public responsibil-ity by transportation providers should be expected. However, public oversight should avoid being a regu-latory roadblock to innovative services and mobility solutions.

8. Invest in the Required Infrastructure: New mobil-ity technologies will require Intelligent Transportation Systems and other forms of infrastructure. Such needs must be quantified and appropriate investments made as additions to federal, state and local programs. Addi-tional policy and program adjustments may also be required.

9. Develop Understanding and Best Practices: The public transportation industry and its partners should conduct new research, ask questions, share best practices and lessons learned, understand disparate impacts by system size and income levels, establish cross-industry dialogue and develop a better understanding of big-picture impacts.

10. Identify New Business Markets, Partnerships and Membership: Businesses and mobility services emerging in the new mobility marketplace should look to APTA as a trade association worthy of their time, investment and membership. APTA members will benefit from working closely with technology companies, new startups and contractors.

11. Assure the Ongoing Availability of Public Trans-portation Services: It is in the public interest that transit services emerge stronger. Consider how new governance models, aimed at the broad, over-arching mission of mobility, might be an appropriate evolution for transit agencies.

12. Protect the Privacy of Passengers and Custom-ers: New technologies bring new considerations regarding how to collect and safeguard sensi-tive passenger data. Transit agencies must adopt appropriate technologies to keep personal data protected and review and revise open records statues and regulations to ensure that such data remain private.

Connecting the Sectors

IN-DEPTHcompany has seen its technology yield promising results with several college shuttle-bus services.

“What’s its weakness? Cost. It’s not going to take you 20 miles. But it’s perfect for a one-, two- or three-mile trip that might take 15 minutes. That’s where we’re excited about the poten-tial of this—the connection of taking what is harder for public transit and supplementing it with what’s easier for ride-hailing companies and vice versa,” he added.

In another pilot, the private shuttle-bus service Bridj (also an APTA member) will begin a first-of-a-kind partnership in the first quarter of this year with the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority.

The Boston-based company’s founder and CEO, Matthew George, said he sees plenty of other opportunities for co-existence with public transit. “The partnerships benefit municipalities just as much as they benefit us,” he said. “Utilizing a flexible transporta-tion model like Bridj, munici-palities can cut their per vehicle costs in half while providing a much wider mobility catchment area.”

Howard Jennings, manag-ing director of the Arlington, VA-based Mobility Lab, said he is especially interested to see if the Bridj-Kansas City partner-ship succeeds in serving hospital workers needing rides before and after their late-night shifts. Being able to serve such in-demand areas at off-peak hours “is one of the good potential promises of partnering,” he said.

Along with DART, the Metropoli-tan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) has emerged as a leader in col-laborating with TNCs. It joined its Dallas counterpart in enabling customers last year to link directly to Uber’s site from

its app while using the agency’s system, while Uber drivers received information about their future customers’ bus or train arrivals so they could be waiting for them.

Keith Parker, MARTA’s CEO and general manager, said working with Uber has succeeded in two respects: It generated “huge buzz” among customers and potential customers, especially tech-savvy millennials. And it helped spur competition: Local taxicab companies “made it known they wanted to be in the game,” and Lyft got in touch as well, he said.

“It’s created the competitive atmo-sphere,” he added. “Now we have to take advantage of it.”

As Passenger Transport was going to press, Los Angeles County Metro held a forum, “Transformation Through Trans-portation,” to discuss ways to work more closely with these companies. Why? Public transit agencies that don’t seek effective partnerships now risk losing

choice riders and ultimately becoming “a purely social-service agency and not a transportation agency,” said Joshua Schank, recently named LA Metro’s chief innovation officer.

What’s WorkingBecause many TNCs are so new, not much widespread data about their spe-cific impacts on public transit is avail-able beyond information the companies

themselves have provided. APTA is exploring this issue in a new study, expected to be released this spring, to determine the contributions of TNCs to fully integrate transportation networks.

Pruitt, the Lyft spokeswoman, said it started the Friends With Transit effort after learning last spring that 22 percent of rides in San Francisco’s South Bay Area started or ended at Caltrain commuter rail stations. Since then, she said, the company has deter-mined that public transit is its users’ sin-gle most popular cat-egory of destination.

Pruitt said the cam-paign’s visibility in large cities has spurred “new partnership dis-cussions” with many agencies. “We’ve got-ten great feedback from everyone from transit planners to Lindsay Lohan,” she said. The actress posted a Lyft “Any Which Way” photo from a transit station on her Instagram account that generated more than 19,000 “likes” within a week.

Uber also drew attention for an announcement it made last March showing that in the Portland area in the previous month, one in four trips taken with its cars either started or ended within one-quarter mile of a transit sta-tion. But The Atlantic CityLab’s Eric Jaffe said that only raises further questions.

“Without also saying how many cars cruised around empty or how far driv-ers traveled between fares, the company can’t support its claims that the program will ‘take cars off the road’ or ‘reduce congestion,’’’ Jaffe wrote, adding that significant impacts, such as freeing cit-ies from having to build massive park-ing lots near rail stations, will require

“a partnership that goes far beyond the smartphone screen.”

Transit agencies also “need to be careful about extrapolating” statistics from cities with a high percentage of choice riders, said Steven Polzin, direc-tor of mobility policy research, CUTR. “I have cautioned, in a lot of my com-ments about this, that it’s really early

in the game still,” Polzin said.

The TSRC is working on a study with Uber, Lyft and the Natural Resources Defense Council, with support from the Hewlett Foundation and San Francisco County Transpor-tation Authority. It will assess the impact of those companies on public

transit, automobile ownership and vehi-cle-occupancy levels to create a better understanding of vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions.

Susan Shaheen, co-director of the TSRC, said she hopes the study can be released this fall. “We’ll be looking at [two questions]: How are people con-necting first mile/last mile to public transit, and are these higher-occupancy vehicles filling gaps in the transit net-work?” she said. It also will examine the levels of late-night trips when transit service is reduced.

An earlier survey in which Shaheen took part examined the impacts of TNCs in San Francisco. Of the 380 ride service users surveyed, 92 percent said they would have taken their trip by other modes had a TNC not been an

PART I

key questions and details principles to “help shape the evolving new frontiers in mobility and public transportation and assure that the public is served with efficient, equitable, and conve-nient travel choices.” (See related story, page 9.)

In addition, baby boomers and mil-lennials are opting out of the driver’s seat and into passenger seats on buses and rail in growing numbers, making integrated mobility increasingly impor-tant to the industry, said Marlene Con-nor, chair of APTA’s Mobility Manage-ment Committee.

“[T]he drivers of this are the two groups—the boomers, who are moving back to places and not driving a car, and a lot of young people who aren’t getting drivers’ licenses,” said Connor, principal at Marlene Connor Associates LLC in Springfield, MA. “It’s a great opportunity for public transit to say, ‘Hey, we have the answer here.’”

Both Connor and McDonald are part of a multi-committee APTA working group exploring the issue. Connor said the group has reached out to the Transporta-tion Research Board, National League of Cities, Institute of Transportation Engi-neers, AARP and ITS America, among other entities, “to cre-ate a dialogue with APTA as a thought leader in this area.”

As part of that effort, the working group—which includes broad representa-tion from many of APTA’s committees—conducts monthly calls with experts in this area, including Steven Polzin, University of South Florida’s Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR); Susan Shaheen, Institute of Transporta-tion Studies’ Transportation Sustainabil-ity Research Center (TSRC), University of California, Berkeley; Joshua Schank, Los Angeles County Metro; and Mobility Lab’s Howard Jennings.

Mutual CuriosityPrivate providers are anxious to keep the discussion going with public transit agencies, emphasizing that the partner-ships are a start toward reducing overall car ridership and encouraging more transit use—while providing them with a possible well of new customers.

“There’s been a lot of mutual curi-osity,” said Peter Gould, Uber’s senior transportation policy associate. “We’re excited about having these conversa-tions and having these connections, and talking to each other about the other not in a negative sense, but about how we complement public transit and the impact of Uber.”

Joshua Cohen, director of strategy and partnerships at the Durham, N.C., transportation technology firm TransLoc Inc., agreed. “The pace of change we’re seeing now is faster than I’ve ever seen it. Even talking six months later to the same transit agencies, their perspective has changed.”

In January, APTA member TransLoc and Uber (soon to be an APTA member) unveiled a pilot program that the com-panies said they hope prove influential in bridging the first mile/last mile chal-lenge. TransLoc will integrate Uber into the TransLoc Rider app, a smartphone application that provides real-time bus tracking and route planning. The integration is scheduled to begin in mid-February with Raleigh-Durham’s Go Triangle and Tennessee’s Memphis Area Transit Authority.

“With ride sharing, its strength is the distributed network, where you have all these options to get you to that first mile, last mile,” said Cohen, whose

CONNECTING THE SECTORS CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

If done properly, such partnerships “can change our value proposition” within public transit without jeopardizing ridership.

Private providers are emphasizing that partnerships reduce car ridership and encourage transit use—while providing them with new customers.

“Staying smarter is how the best organizations succeed and the most dynamic industries grow.”

— APTA President & CEO Michael Melaniphy

How Public Transit and Private Providers Are Weaving New Networks for Integrated Transportation

Thomas and an increasing number of others in public transportation agree it’s fruitless to echo the adversarial stance that taxi companies initially adopted after Uber came on the scene in 2009. They say the explosive popularity of Uber and other on-demand private providers such as Lyft, Bridj and Zipcar with millennials and other potential customers compels cooperation, not confrontation.

In addition to Dallas, Uber has formed partnerships or agreements with agencies in such cities as Atlanta, San Francisco and Portland, OR. DART and several other cities also have worked with Lyft, which launched the “Friends with Transit” awareness campaign in November as part of what company spokeswoman Mary Caroline Pruitt called an effort to showcase “the poten-tial in unlocking Lyft as a first-and-last-mile transportation solution.”

At the same time, public transit agen-cies are also teaming with other private entities. For example, Minneapolis’ Metro Transit joined with the car-shar-ing organization Hourcar in September to enable the use of its Go-To transit cards—rather than the company’s key fobs—to access the companies’ vehicles.

All of this is occurring as companies are rapidly unveiling advances in trip-planning software and other features that makes it easier for smartphone users to seamlessly integrate their bus or rail rides into their planned car or bike trips. For example, the public transporta-tion planning app Moovit announced a new feature in Janu-ary that enables users of iOS and Android phones to look for shared bikes in more than 200 cities.

Also that month, Los Angeles’ DOT rolled out the “Go L.A.” mobile app, which lists various route options for public transit along with ride-hailing services, taxis and other transporta-

tion modes. It ranks them not only by which is cheapest or fastest, but which is “greenest” by measuring carbon-dioxide emissions for each option.

Jon McDonald, chair of APTA’s Research and Technology Committee, agrees that public transit has an excel-lent opportunity to work with TNCs. If done properly, such partnerships “can change our value proposition” within public transit without jeopar-dizing ridership, said McDonald, vice president for Americas Rail and Transit Practice-Leader, CH2M in San Francisco.

Forces of ChangeThese partnerships and other innova-tions are being fueled by two unmis-takable trends—evolving technologies and changing demographics, both of which are challenging the industry to be nimble and flexible and are key strategic goals of APTA.

“Staying smarter is how the best organizations succeed and the most dynamic industries grow,” said APTA President & CEO Michael Melaniphy. “It starts with knowing what’s around the corner and how the market is changing.”

What’s around the corner, he said, are new technologies. “This can only be good news for our industry if we look for synergies beyond the boundaries of public transportation.”

APTA has been taking the lead in bringing together members, research-ers and TNCs to bet-ter understand these changing dynamics and how the indus-try can maximize these opportunities.

At its October 2015 meeting, the

APTA Board of Directors developed a policy framework that can guide its members in navigating those shifting boundaries. The APTA Policy Frame-work/Principles: Integrated Mobility/Transformative Technologies identifies

It’s fruitless to echo the adversarial stance that taxi companies initially adopted after Uber came on the scene.

CONNECTING THE SECTORS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

10 | Passenger Transport February 8, 2016 | 11

option. Among that group, 45 percent would have driven or taken a taxi, while 24 percent would have opted for bus, 9 percent would have gone by rail, 8 percent would have walked, 2 percent would have used a bicycle and 12 per-cent were marked down as “other.”

But Shaheen agreed that the small-scale study offers only a limited per-spective. It was done in spring 2014, before the introduction of Uber’s Uber-pool or Lyft’s Lyft Line enabling riders on similar routes to share and split the cost of trips.

Start SmallFor now, public transportation agen-cies and the companies with which they work say it makes sense to start modestly.

After the successful St. Patrick’s Day promotion, DART revamped its GoPass mobile ticketing application to include links to Uber, Lyft and Zipcar as a “nice next step,” general manager Thomas said. He cautioned that not all agencies have the technology right now to dive into such deals.

“You’ve got to have that ability or switch it all to the private provider and let them deal with it and work out the back office with them,” he said. “Then the architecture between the two as far as the two apps being able to communi-cate with each other has to be in place. That can be a little more challenging. If you have proprietary apps and software, it’s going to be harder for you to com-municate with Uber.”

Morgan Lyons, DART’s vice president of communications, said GoPass usage has remained strong. “We have not seen a decrease in ridership where the car services are particularly active,” he said.

In the Portland area, TriMet teamed up with Uber and Mothers Against

Drunk Driving (MADD) to give its cus-tomers a $25 coupon for the service using a promotional code for New Year’s Eve rides home. The agency also has been in discussions with Lyft, said Alan Lehto, TriMet’s director of planning and policy development.

“We’re still talking through and think-ing about what other opportunities are out there,” Lehto said. “We have to be smart about how we move for-ward… . We have to do it in a deliberate way.”

TriMet does have previous experience in working with the private sector in inno-vative ways. In 2013 it became the first U.S. public transit agency to implement a mobile ticket for both bus and train use. Within two years, TriMet riders bought more than 5 million mobile tickets.

The Portland company that worked with TriMet on the project, GlobeSherpa, subsequently built rela-tionships with other entities, including the Virginia Railway Express commuter rail, the three Chicago area transit agen-cies (Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace) and San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (Muni).

“Mobile ticketing is the hot thing,” said Mac Brown, GlobeSherpa’s com-munications director. “The big picture is that agencies want to lower the cost of fare collection. Managing cash is very expensive and they want to provide a service to their riders and remove barri-ers to increase ridership.”

A Texas company, RideScout, acquired GlobeSherpa last year and is integrating online tickets into its own

mobility planning. In GlobeSherpa’s dealings with transit agencies, Brown said, “We went to them [at first], but now the tide has changed where we’re getting a ton of interest.”

Uber, for its part, isn’t talking with only the largest metropolitan public

transit agencies. In Boise, ID, Valley Regional Transit Executive Direc-tor Kelli Fairless said she has been in discussions with the company about integrating the agency’s bike- sharing program, Boise GreenBike, with the company’s service, as well as promoting Uber use

during the city’s local music festival and offering guaranteed rides home.

Fairless said she hopes to build on the lessons learned from when she worked to launch Boise GreenBike last April.

“In our enabling statute, we’re encouraged to work with the private sector,” Fairless said, noting that Idaho is one of two states without a dedicated transit funding source. “So we’ve always leaned toward, if there’s a way to do it in the private sector, that’s the first place we go rather than create it ourselves.”

In addition to such bike-sharing programs, transit agencies and experts say they still see plenty of opportunities for collaborating with companies that have been around longer than Uber, Lyft or Bridj, such as Zipcar.

Agencies already incorporating Zipcar’s car-sharing service at local

stations include DART, MARTA, the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART), Chicago’s CTA, Seattle’s King County Metro Transit, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, New Jersey Transit Corporation, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

But Zipcar is exploring mobility even further. In November it announced a marketing partnership with Divvy, North America’s largest city bike sharing pro-gram, to provide an offer through the end of the year to new and existing mem-bers of either service in the Chicago area.

To Shaheen, all of those arrange-ments are encouraging. “Maybe these initial discussions—they’re not all deep-dive partnerships, maybe it’s just a coupon on a website—but perhaps as those evolve and there’s a greater degree of trust, maybe the conversa-tions start to shift into a quasi public-private arrangement that provides much higher access at a lower cost. That’s really exciting.”

Next TimePart II of “Connecting the Sectors,”

scheduled for the Feb. 22 issue of

Passenger Transport, will address some

of the longer-term challenges and

opportunities on the horizon for both

public transportation and private-sector

providers.

Public transportation agencies and the companies with which they work say it makes sense to start modestly.

CONNECTING THE SECTORS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9 Around The IndustryMetro-North Launches Close Call Reporting System

McCall, Castillo Among COMTO’s ‘Women Who Move the Nation’APTA MEMBERS including Chair Valarie J. McCall and Past Chair Flora Castillo are among the 2016 Women Who Move the Nation whom the Con-ference of Minority Transportation Offi-cials (COMTO) will honor March 16 in Washington, DC.

In addition to McCall, a member of the Greater Cleveland Regional Tran-sit Authority Board of Trustees, and Castillo, a member of the New Jersey Transit Corporation Board of Directors, other APTA members named to the list are Grace Crunican, general manager, San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District; Kimberly Avery, Southwest Region engineer, Michigan DOT; Polly Hanson, chief of police, Amtrak Police Department; Feysan Lodde, founder, MV Transit; Margaret O’Meara, vice president, Boston office, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff; Karen Philbrick, execu-tive director, Mineta National Transit

Research Consortium; Leanne Redden, executive director, Regional Transpor-tation Authority, Chicago; and (post-humously) the late Mary King, former interim general manager of AC Transit, Oakland, CA. In addition, Bryna Helfer, DOT director of public engagement to the secretary, was named to the 14-per-son list.

“COMTO is very excited about this year’s class of honorees. They are extraordinary women with amazing accomplishments who reflect the diver-sity in modes of transportation in this country. I look forward to celebrating each of them in March,” said Mioshi Moses, COMTO president and chief executive officer.

COMTO inaugurated its Celebrat-ing Women Who Move the Nation awards in 2012. This year’s recipients bring the total number of honorees to 62.

TRANSIT CEOs SEMINAR CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

MTA METRO-NORTH Railroad recently announced the extended imple-mentation of the Confidential Close Call Reporting System (C3RS), an initia-tive designed to encourage workers to report any potential safety hazard or breach of procedures they might observe by providing them with a convenient, non-confrontational and anonymous method to do so.

Metro-North is the first commuter railroad to implement the system with all of its operations workforce through-out the entire network.

Metro-North President Joseph Giulietti, FRA Deputy Regional Administrator Les Fiorenzo and representatives of labor organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding describing the system’s core principles and values.

“I am proud to put my signature on a document that provides the opportu-nity to continue the initiatives we have already put in place to enhance railroad

safety,” Giulietti said. “This program confirms how much we depend on our employees to detect potential risks to our operations. They are the eyes and ears of Metro-North and we appreciate their contribution to making the system run safely and efficiently.”

C3RS is an FRA-funded program that provides a voluntary, non-punitive approach for employees to report certain incidents and close call events that pose the risk of more serious consequences. A third party, NASA, will receive the details of the incident via an online form and de-identify the information before presenting it to a Peer Review Team consisting of local representa-tives from FRA, Metro-North and labor unions representing 4,000 mechanical and engineering employees.

MTA Long Island Rail Road, New Jersey Transit Corporation and Amtrak also currently use some features of C3RS. PSTA Hosts Electric Bus Demo

The Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA), St. Petersburg, FL, hosted a demonstration of

New Flyer of America’s all-electric Xcelsior® bus on Jan. 26. PSTA has applied for an FTA Low or

No Emission Vehicle Deployment Grant that would help cover the cost of a fleet of all-electric

buses. PSTA Chief Executive Officer Brad Miller, left, and John Andrews, regional sales manager

for New Flyer, participated in the event.

BMBG ANNUAL MEETING CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

A CEOs’ roundtable titled “The Public Sector Funding Landscape—How Has Your Agency Overcome the Fund-ing Minefield?,” moderated by Scully, brought together Barnes, executive director, Foothill Transit, West Covina, CA; J. Roger Morton, president and general manager, Oahu Transit Services; and Dan Grabauskas, executive director and chief executive officer, Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART). They reported on funding at their properties and discussed their chal-

lenges in working with their communi-ties and funding sources to continue to provide safer, more sustainable public transit solutions.

The meeting also included a techni-cal tour of the HART rail project, led by Grabauskus and Deputy Executive Direc-tor Brennon Morioka.

Participants also had numerous opportunities to ask questions and continue talking with panelists during session breaks and many scheduled net-working activities.

McMillan reviewed major provisions of the FAST Act, reminding attendees that it applies to all FY 2016 funds and increases funding for surface transporta-tion with an additional $1 billion per year for public transit.

She also reported on FTA’s Capital Investment Grant Programs, Rides to Wellness, Buy America, workforce devel-opment and DOT’s Smart City Chal-lenge, among other topics.

FTA and TSA officials also discussed public transit safety and security in a roundtable facilitated by Flowers.

“We may temporarily assume the administration of a State Safety Oversight program,” McMillan said. “We hope that we never have a reason to interfere with operations of your transit agency, but in order to trust that they are in safe hands, riders want to know that some entity has that authority. And trust is what makes this industry possible.”

She said other changes in the FAST Act to FTA’s safety authority “paved the way for a Notice of Proposed Rulemak-ing in which, together, we can outline solutions that help diminish the risk of transit operator assault.” TSA and FTA representatives also discussed crime pre-vention activities and resources of their

organizations.On the topic of how autonomous

vehicle technologies might transform public transportation, Steven Polzin, director, Mobility Policy Research, Cen-ter for Urban Transportation Research, University of South Florida, discussed their implementation and safety benefits and proposed strategies for leading in this new environment, including under-standing and monitoring the impact of technology on travel behavior, advocat-ing for transit’s strengths and benefits

and making sure the new services com-plement transit.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Christopher A. Hart shared the 2016 Most Wanted List of trans-portation safety improvements, which his agency will focus on this year and beyond. He also described how NTSB works during an investigation.

APTA Chair Valarie J. McCall and President & CEO Michael Melaniphy reported on association initiatives and

priorities in the Opening General Session, “Where Public Transportation Goes, Community Grows.”

McCall, board member, Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, noted that APTA is planning a mission to Cuba “to explore transportation and infra-structure needs, to cultivate business opportunities and to establish useful contacts in that nation of 11 mil-lion people. Our delegation will include mayors, other public officials and trans-portation professionals,”

she said.Melaniphy recapped three key goals

from APTA’s strategic plan (safety and security, new technology and workforce development), noting that each presents opportunities. “I’m confident that if we concentrate our efforts and resources on these three areas, we can make change work for us,” he said. The opening ses-sion was sponsored by GIRO.

The seminar also featured a listening session to gather feedback for the APTA Task Force on Member Collaboration, McCall’s initiative to enhance partner-ships among three key membership groups—agency CEOs, board members and the Business Member Board of Gov-ernors—and to strengthen relationships between APTA and organizations with shared interests.

Other highlights included a discus-sion on board ethics, labor relations, a presentation by Leadership APTA graduates on transformative leadership, a partnership between LYNX, the city of Orlando and the Orlando City Soc-cer Club to build a new soccer stadium, diversity (especially regarding LGBGT communities), succession planning, social media and more.

Phot

o co

urt

esy

of P

eter

Var

ga

APTA President & CEO Michael Melaniphy and Carl Sedoryk,

general manager/CEO, Monterey-Salinas (CA) Transit; Carolyn

Flowers, FTA senior advisor; FTA Acting Administrator Therese W.

McMillan; Thomas Littleton, FTA associate administrator for safety

and oversight; TSA official Sonya Proctor; and Keith Parker, general

manager/CEO, MARTA, at the FTA and TSA forum.

Return to the February 8, 2016 issue of Passenger Transport online here.