Transit Unplugged

Greater Manchester is about the size of London with a population of roughly 3 million people. Vernon Everitt, Transport Commissioner for Greater Manchester, wants to help his region have safe, convenient, affordable, and green public transport options. Transport for Greater Manchester already has one of the largest tram networks in Europe and now they are in the process of following the Transport...

Lisa Walton is the CTO of SFMTA, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (aka Muni) , and is responsible for one of the largest and most complex transit regions in North America. She needs to interact with over 20 different agencies and services around the Bay Area, not to mention all the people within the city and county of San Francisco. And the biggest challenges are seamless travel and g...

Stretching from San Francisco to Gilroy (the garlic capital of the U.S.), Caltrain follows the spine of the Bay Area peninsula and straight through Silicon Valley. Having been around since the 1860s, Silicon Valley  grew up  around Caltrain. And unlike most commuter rail lines, Caltrain doesn't serve a single city center with traffic going one way in the morning and back in the afternoon...

Suhair Al Khatib knows safety. After years at Baltimore MTA, he's now a Commissioner for Maryland on the Washington Metro Rail Safety Commission and his job is simple. Keep passengers safe. Safety isn't just about ticking boxes or enforcing rules, it's a mindset. It's knowing that putting safety first sometimes means disrupting service. Sometimes it means inconveniencing the traveling public. Beca...

Our guest host Julie Gates, award-winning broadcaster and Director of Marketing at Trapeze interviews Paul about his upcoming book Conversations on Equity and Inclusion in Public Transportation . They talk about why he wrote it, what it's about, what you'll learn from it, and most importantly what it means to Paul. We also hear from Bacarra Mauldin of MARTA reading excerpts from her forward to the...

We've all stood at a stop wondering when the next bus will arrive. And a lot of us have wondered why a bus didn't go where we thought it would because of a detour or closure. These are not good feelings as a rider. Steve Young, VP of Technology and Innovation at VIA Metropolitan Transit in San Antonio, TX knows a thing or two about data and customers. He and his team have pushed the limi...

David Scorey leads Keolis North America working with agencies across the U.S. and Canada. From starting in the trenches in the UK's rail sector to managing the MBTA commuter rail contract, and now CEO of Keolis North America, David keeps his sights on what's important to agencies and riders. David looks at transit holistically, like how he views accessibility: "When I talk about accessibility, man...

Six years ago Steve Martingano challenged conventions with his innovative policing strategy at Denver RTD by pairing officers with mental health workers. He saw a lot of police interactions weren't  criminal  issues, but  medical  issues. People needed help. They needed medical care. They needed support. They needed housing. Steve talks with Paul about how after six years he's...

Monica Backmon, CEO of the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority , has a unique job in the transit world. Her agency plans and funds transportation projects as small as traffic calming and as big as Bus Rapid Transit. And she does it across cities, towns, and counties in Northern Virginia. While often compared to a Municipal Planning Organization, NVTA has no close comparators in the United S...

Paul met April Rai, CEO of COMTO (Conference of Minority Transportation Officials) at the recent COMTO conference in Miami. He sat down with April to talk about the origins of COMTO, the challenges transit is facing today, and her vision for how we'll solve them. On Transit Unplugged News and Views this week we also have: Transit news of the week Elea Carey's messaging minute Mike Bismeyer on lead...

This week Paul talks with a guest we've wanted to get on the show for a long, long time. When Henry Li arrived in Sacramento, the agency needed to restore both public trust in the system and financial stability for the agency. In his 7 year tenure so far he's launched the first microtransit pilot in the U.S., made the system free for kids in grades K-12, and ensured there was pay equity across his...

Alva Carrasco and Herold Humphrey are on a mission. A mission to increase the visibility, opportunities, and voice of Latinos in public transit. And not just when talking about issues, but more importantly in leadership positions to help the communities they serve. Alva and Herold talk with Paul about the origins of Latinos In Transit from a casual group of people working in the same industry...

Matt Tucker, Executive Director and CEO of the North County Transit District covers a huge geographic area north of San Diego. From buses to rail to a new hybrid light rail, Matt has served his region for over a decade with big plans for the future. Matt and Paul talk about all the different transportation modes, Matt's plans for going green with battery electric and hydrogen, and hints at his pla...

This week Paul talks with Wiebe Wakker, sustainable adventurer about his three-year trip from the Netherlands to Australia in an EV--with no money--and then how he traveled from the Netherlands to Dubai (most) on public transport to give a keynote speech at UITP MENA earlier this year. It's a fascinating story of someone who admits wasn't really into sustainability when he started but has now...

Charlotte Shaw, CEO of Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority, has deep experience in getting things done. From project and program management to capital planning, Charlotte is the person who makes a transit vision a reality. After years at MARTA, she came to Birmingham to manage building a bus rapid transit (BRT) for the city before it would be handed over to BJCTA. But as she tells Paul,...

This week Paul talks with Sam Morrissey from Urban Movement Labs in LA about their mandate to help the city navigate the changing face of transportation. When scooters came to the city, there were issues with where to ride them--not on the sidewalks, but maybe not the road either--and how to return them. As new transportation technologies emerge, Urban Movement Labs serves as a trusted partner wor...

Sam Snead is looking towards the future of transportation in Anne Arundel County, MD. From solar-lit bus stops to websites to full system maps, Sam sees up-to-date technology as crucial to success in his region. Paul talks with Sam about his career journey and then gets into Sam's ambitious Move Anne Arundel  transit master plan looking forward to create sustainable, accessible, and green tra...

This week on Transit Unplugged News & Views, Paul is talking with Tom Wright of the Regional Plan Association (RPA) about planning for the future in the New York Metropolitan area (New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut). Over its 100 year history, RPA has put a stake in the ground for what needs to be done to build and sustain the region. As Tom says, all of their recommendations are implement...

Melinda Metzger is the first female Executive Director for Pace Suburban Bus, one of the largest bus and paratransit systems in the United States covering 3,500 square miles and serving 272 communities.  On this week's Transit Unplugged In Depth, Melinda and Paul talk about how the great resignation has impacted public transit and how local partnerships are combating those effects. To get mor...

Jen Shepherd is passionate about public transit. As GM of Uber Transit she is responsible for helping agencies move more people, more flexibly, and more cost-effectively. In her chat with Paul, Jen talks about how Uber provides agencies tools to balance demand and resources with on-demand capacity when it wouldn't make sense to have an agency-owned vehicle on the route. One of the most exciting wa...

Northeast Maglev has a vision for bringing fast--really, really fast--rail service to the Northeast Corridor (Boston to Washington D.C.). This week Paul talks with Wayne Rogers, Chairman and CEO of the Baltimore Washington Rapid Rail, LLC, and Northeast Maglev, LLC, about his vision for what maglev trains could do for the region. Faster than steel wheel-based trains, maglev trains use superconduct...

Christiaan Blake is responsible for the  business  of offering paratransit services that balance accommodation and sustainability. Christiaan needs to serve the most people he can with paratransit, while also creating accessible fixed-route transit that is open to all. One of the tricks up Christiaan's sleeve is his innovative rider's choice program where, if paratransit r...

This week Paul is talking with Eulois Cleckley, Director and CEO of the Miami-Dade County Department of Transportation and Public Works. Eulois manages everything from buses, trains, microtransit, and even exploring urban air mobility--yes, flying cars--along with all the roads and bridges in his county. Eulois is undertaking a massive update of the county's  3000  intersections with sma...

In our 199th episode, Paul talks with Luc Richard, Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of  Réseau de transport de la Capitale , in Quebec City, Quebec. Quebec City is one of the oldest cities in North America and one of the snowiest too. RTC delivers bus service year-round with winter weather that would shut down many transit systems. Now looking ahead to creating a more inclu...

Steve Poftak is leading the MBTA  during unprecedented times. Three years into the job he's managed through a pandemic and invested billions into revamping bus and rail service across the system. The T--North America's oldest subway--is growing and adapting to new rider patterns and on the commuter rail side, he's made changes to make the largest commuter rail system in America a regional rai...