How do we get better at the people business?
Transit is the business of moving people, but who will keep the business moving tomorrow?
Tom Drozt, CEO of Ben Franklin Transit in Washington State, has worked at agencies across the U.S.—literally from coast to coast. In his conversation with Paul, Tom talked about the different places he’s worked, retiring early, coming out of retirement, and now his plans for Ben Franklin Transit. A fascinating look at an impressive transit career, but it’s this discussion that should really catch our attention:
“… maybe we don’t do a good enough job, us as leaders in transit, to find those individuals and invest and mentor them so that we can strengthen our bench overall. We could have talked about technology and the buses and all these flying ships and everything like that, but at the end of the day, on any of those things, you still need the people.”
It harkens back to what Matt Booterbaugh talked about on his episode of Transit Unplugged: Are we creating enough future transit leaders?
Have a listen to this week’s episode and let us know what you think about moving people around and up.
Coming up next week…
It’s no secret that we’re huge fans of rail here at Transit Unplugged. Last year we had a special feed swap with the American Public Transit Association’s podcast featuring Stephen Gardner, CEO of Amtrak. And from the looks of it, a lot of you are big rail fans too, because that was one of our most popular episodes last year.
To get an update on how things are going at Amtrak, Paul went to visit Stephen in his office and get an update on all the projects Amtrak has cooking to bring passenger rail to the fore in the U.S. From record-breaking ridership to upgrades to expanding service, Amtrak has a lot on the go. Make sure you follow us wherever you listen so you don’t miss Stephen’s great vision of what rail in the U.S. could be like in the future.
We have a favor to ask…
We make the Transit Unplugged podcast to lift up the entire public transit industry. It’s a big mission, but we’re passionate about it and we love the job.
But we also create the podcast for you so we’d like you to have your say about the show too.
We kicked off our listener survey last week so you can tell us what you think of the show and what topics you’d like us to cover. It only takes a couple minutes to complete and we’d really appreciate the help.
We can’t get enough of Brisbane!
Last week we brought you the last of our episodes from Paul’s epic trip to Australia. Our Behind the Scenes from Brisbane brings you uncut interviews from all the people Paul interviewed on the show. In the episode you’ll hear from:
- Steve Hammer, GM Major Projects, Brisbane City Council
- Councilor Ryan Murphy, Chair of Transport Committee, Brisbane City Council
- Michael McGee, CEO, Transit Systems
- Nerida Hand, Director of Customer & Operational Integration, Cross River Rail
- Steve Butcher, Executive GM and MD Rail and Transport Division, John Holland Group
Click below to watch the whole video on YouTube
You’ll find this video, and a whole lot more where that came from, on the Transit Unplugged TV YouTube channel.
This Week in Transit News…
Will the Trump Administration Cancel NYC’s Congestion Pricing?
In the news this week:
- The potential cancellation of New York’s congestion pricing by the Trump administration
- California’s rail compliance review puts high-speed rail at risk
- Canada’s high-speed rail project connecting Toronto to Quebec City
