Transit Unplugged

Across North America there are four fundamental issues facing transit agencies: Getting enough buses Getting enough people to fix and drive the buses Getting enough funding to keep running the buses Getting (cyber)secure The bus manufacturing crisis is forcing many transit agencies to get creative at keeping buses running longer. Workforce shortages mean agencies are getting creative at finding an...

Transport for London (TfL) covers every transport means possible from the iconic red double-deck buses to The Tube to trains and even ferries. Which means the person in charge of it all has a lot going on at any given moment. Andy Lord, Commissioner for TfL spent over 25 years in aviation before coming to transit in 2019 to run The Tube with then Commissioner Andy Byford. Sitting down with Paul, A...

This week we're celebrating the release of Paul's newest book, The New Future of Public Transportation , which is the sequel to The Future of Public Transportation published early in 2020. To say public transport faced an crisis or inflection point in the past four years is an understatement. In this updated edition, Paul collected essays by 30 transit leaders from around the world covering every...

In a previous episode we talked about SEPTA's innovative SCOPE (Safety, Cleaning, Ownership, Partnership, and Engagement) program -- https://transitunplugged.com/transit-unplugged-podcast/how-septa-is-making-a-difference-in-the-lives-of-vulnerable-people/ -- and how it was helping the city's most vulnerable people. This week we get the big picture from the woman at the head of it all. Emily Yates...

Transit Unplugged, the world's leading podcast for transit professionals, is hosted and produced by Modaxo SVP and transit evangelist Paul Comfort. Each week, Paul sits down with public transit leaders from around the world to talk about their agencies, how they're facing current challenges, their thoughts on the future of public transit, plus insights into their careers and their approaches to le...

Welcome to episode 300 of Transit Unplugged! When Paul started the podcast in November 2017, I don't think anyone would have thought that seven seasons later we'd be at our 300th episode. Paul started this podcast to shine a light on the impact of transit on society and give transit leaders a chance to talk about their agencies and their careers, unfiltered and unplugged. Throughout the pandemic P...

Justin Stuehrenberg GM of Madison Metro and his team used COVID as the impetus to finally put a long-planned system redesign into motion and completed it in June 2023. Since then they've seen a 15% increase in ridership. Justin and Paul talked about how his new network works, how geography figured into it, and the new bus rapid transit (BRT) lines coming soon that will use battery electric buses c...

In this special episode we have guest host, and past guest, Dr. Kaan Yildizgoz hosting a live CEO roundtable from the Modaxo booth at the UITP MENA Transport Congress and Exhibition. Kaan is joined by: Renée Amilcar: President of UITP & General Manager of OC Transpo, Canada Abdulla Al Marzouqi: Director General – Integrated Transport Centre (ITC), Abu Dhabi Mohammed Obaid Al Mulla: Member of t...

Usually on Transit Unplugged we bring you the voices and stories of transit leaders from around the world, but this week we have something a little different. Join Paul as he sits down with Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt to talk about transit, politics, and changing how people view public transit in his city. As David describes it, like many cities West of the Mississippi, Oklahoma City was planne...

Update July 31, 2024: This podcast episode, the companion podcast episode, and the Transit Unplugged TV episode were honored with a Spotlight Award by the South West Transit Association. More info here: https://transitunplugged.com/transit-unplugged-2024-spotlight-award/ We kicked off 2024 with an episode with Rep. Earl Blumenauer-- https://transit-unplugged.captivate.fm/portland-streetcar --who c...

Update July 31, 2024: This podcast episode, the companion podcast episode, and the Transit Unplugged TV episode were honored with a Spotlight Award by the South West Transit Association. More info here: https://transitunplugged.com/transit-unplugged-2024-spotlight-award/ Frank White III is a strong advocate of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) and has a track record of making it happen. He oversa...

Welcome to another special edition of Transit Unplugged featuring an episode from another transit podcast. This time we welcome past guest Brandon Bartneck with an episode from The Future of Mobility featuring autonomous vehicle visionary Larry Burns. The episode was released in August 2023. The original show notes are below: Aug 2023 https://brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/larryburns2/ Larry...

Hydrogen is one of the hottest topics in transit right now, but hydrogen is facing a huge challenge to reduce its cost and increase its availability across North America (and the world). Paul sits down with Stark Area Regional Transit Authority (SARTA) CEO Kirt Conrad--who manages the largest fleet of hydrogen fuel cell buses outside California--and Ballard Power Systems Dir of Market Development...

In part two of our series featuring Tulsa, OK, host Paul Comfort gets a special tour of Downtown Tulsa with Chase Phillips, the Director of Planning for MetroLink Tulsa. Chase talks about the city's rich history, architectural wonders, and the role of transit in its development. Chase sheds light on Tulsa's transformation from a 1920s hub of oil wealth, with the largest airport in the world at the...

In the first of two podcast episodes--and an upcoming Transit Unplugged TV episode--from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Paul chats with MetroLink Tulsa ( https://www.tulsatransit.org/ ) CEO Scott Marr about: His city His career in transit The overwhelming success of microtransit and merging it with paratransit operations His plans for expanding Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) to Route 66 for the 100th anniversary And t...

This is a special episode of Transit Unplugged shared with us from our friends at the Transit Authority by APTA . Recorded live at APTA EXPO 2023 in Orlando, Florida, Art Guzzetti, VP of Policy and Mobility at APTA, interviews Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardener. Make sure you follow the Transit Authority wherever you listen to podcasts. Here are the show notes for this episode originally released October...

Holly Arnold has spent her entire career at the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA). Starting as a contractor in grants administration then leading capital planning and then Deputy Administrator responsible for engineering before she became Administrator and CEO two years ago. The head of the MTA is a massive job. Not only is she responsible for massive capital projects--like the largest public-...

When you think of big city transit agencies you think about Boston, New York, Toronto, LA, San Francisco...maybe not Mississauga, Ontario. It might surprise you that this city of one million people supports a transit system with over 500 buses and serves as the essential connector between cities East, West, and North (South is Lake Ontario). Mississauga Transit (or MiWay) helps people in Brampton,...

When we think about public transit we often think about subways or buses travelling through bustling cities, we don't often think of small towns in the midst of woods and fields. But the reality is there are thousands of rural transit agencies in North America serving people and places miles and miles away from each other. In this episode, host Paul Comfort talks with with Wendy Weedon, Deputy CEO...

There is more than a little bit of irony that when we have unprecedented levels of funding to buy and replace buses, there is a manufacturing crunch so there are few buses to be had--and with longer delivery times. From manufacturing delays and fewer manufacturers to massive price increases, agencies are pushing buses well beyond their useful life. How can we solve this crisis to not only meet the...

Sometimes we're so afraid of making mistakes, that we don't push ourselves to take a chance on a new innovative idea. We've all been there, but in this conversation Adam Barth, CEO of the Stanislaus Regional Transit Authority--https://stanrta.org/--, reveals advice he got from a mentor at a critical time in his career. Paul Comfort sat down with Adam Barth, CEO of Stanislaus Regional Transit Autho...

Host Paul Comfort interviews Ken Divers, Director of Outreach Programs at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), and Flora Castillo, President of Pivot Strategies and former APTA chair, about SEPTA's innovative SCOPE (Safety, Cleaning, Ownership, Partnership, and Engagement) program. Ken and Flora talk with Paul about how they created the program over a weekend and its goa...

Over his five-decade long career in politics Congressman Earl Blumenauer has been a staunch support of transit and livable cities. Paul sat down with Rep. Blumenauer after a chance meeting at the Impact Conference in Phoenix last fall to talk about his life, career, passions, and what's next after he leaves Congress at the end of his term. In their wide-ranging discussion, Paul and Rep. Blumenauer...

We have a special holiday gift for you with a special bonus episode to close out the year. We worked with Jeff Wood from Talking Headways and The Overhead Wire -- https://theoverheadwire.com/ -- to trade episodes with each other. Jeff will be playing our interview with Randy Clarke that kicked off Season 7 and we have his interview with Dr. Karel Martens from March 2021 talking about the philosoph...

In our final regular episode of Transit Unplugged for 2023 we have Paul Skoutelas, President & CEO of APTA, and Petra Mollet, VP of Strategic International Programs at APTA talking with Paul about the year that was in 2023 and what we should be looking forward to in 2024. The boost in infrastructure funding was, of course, the big news of the year, but it's somewhat overshadowed by ongoing fun...