Why would a brand new leader decide to pick up 500 tons of

trash as one of his first priorities?

Welcome to Part 2 of our special CEO Roundtable recorded live at APTA Expo.

Hi, I'm Paul Comfort, host and producer of Transit Unplugged.

In Part 1, these CEOs talked about what their first year on the job has been

like, what surprised them, and what inspires them to keep doing this work.

Look for the link to Part 1 here in the show notes.

And now, in part two of this program, we rejoin Dave Dech from TriRail,

Coree Cuff Lonergan from Broward County Transit, Dottie Watkins from CapMetro

in Austin, Tiffany Homler Hawkins from LYNX in the host city of Orlando, and

Frank White from KCATA in Kansas City, talking about what are the top tech

trends they'll implement in the next few years, and the best or most fun project

going on right now at their agency.

Let's jump back into the conversation where we left off in part one, and

make sure you stick around to the end for Elea Carey's Marketing Minute.

Enjoy the show.

Alright, we're going to shift up and now talk about, I'm going to ask each of them

to tell us about one really cool project they're working on right now, and I've

got one for Dave that I want him to talk about because it was so impressive to me,

and that is, he's got miles and miles of track, and you know what was on the track?

Trash.

Tell us about what you did.

So yeah, we, um, I was, I was a little stunned, I guess,

when I took the first train ride.

I was, uh, I was accustomed to a different level of railroad, uh, in Austin.

but we hit the ground running.

We've, um, we've really tried to, be a good neighbor.

And by being a good neighbor, that means we need to take, like, we

need to take care of our backyard.

So we've...

Uh, along with our contractors.

Like, I didn't go out and pick any.

Well, I have picked up some.

I will say, yeah.

Uh, but we've removed about five to six hundred tons of debris.

Did you hear that?

Five hundred tons of trash from his train tracks.

From our right of way.

And, uh, and, cause really, I mean, there's selfish interests as well.

So we want, we have, you know, we have transit oriented development.

We want people to invest near our tracks, and no one wants to invest next to that.

So we've, uh, we've gone through a tremendous effort and we're working with

the counties on, on helping with, uh, with some of the encampments that are

near the tracks to find better places and safer places for, for people to

be and that's a benefit for all of us.

Um, so we are continuing to, you know, to try to clean and harden our railroad

and be a good neighbor and then we're gonna, we're gonna take that and

we're gonna turn left and we're gonna drive into this beautiful station.

Uh, right in the Brightline station in Miami, and uh, and

we are exceptionally excited.

We are rounding third, I think, on that project.

That's great, man.

Alright, Dottie, tell us about your big project.

So I think the thing that is most exciting that

we have going on right now is, um, the construction of a new station.

It'll be the first station on our rail line since we

opened the rail line in 2010.

And we are in partnership with the owners of Q2 Stadium, where the Austin

FC soccer team plays, um, building a station literally on their back door.

Um, they have a beautiful kind of...

Outdoor amphitheater, kind of, uh, terrace that comes down toward the

rail line and previously a fence.

And now it will be a station, so we're really excited about that.

We are closing in.

We're rounding third on that one, too.

We're closing in on getting that construction done.

Um, we will open that in February.

Um, and are very excited to have that station in place for

the upcoming soccer season.

And I love it.

It's going to be a beautiful station at a beautiful stadium, um, but

it really helps us kind of, uh, evangelize the value of transit.

Because a lot of people who otherwise would not use our service,

use our service to that game.

We have standing room trains already and the current station is

a 15 minute walk from the stadium.

Um, so I'm a teensy bit worried operationally what's going to happen

when, um, we get, Get the station open and we're right there, but I'm

confident in our rail ops teams.

They are fantastic and will be able to handle it, but just being able to get

people onto transit who aren't necessarily our normal demographic and have them

talking about how great it was to be able to use the train to get to this event

and have such a positive experience.

When you're riding transit to an event, you're often having a good time, right?

The intent, even if your team loses, the intent was to go out and have a good time.

And so, to be able to associate that with our public transit investments,

I think is really important.

So, I'm looking forward to continuing to use that as an opportunity, um, to

teach new people how to use the system.

And then just give us a brief highlight of the whole program.

Yeah, so the rest of the Project Connect program includes Those

two BRT lines, um, we already have two in service that have been in service

for about a decade, but we have our next two coming, and, and these two will

actually serve the eastern side of our service area, um, which is an area that

has traditionally been, um, underserved.

Um, and so, we are very excited to be starting up those lines.

They will start up in about a year.

About a year.

I'm looking at my capital guy over there and he's smiling like,

yeah, sure, Dottie, about a year.

Um, we're, we're in the, we're, we're not quite round in second on that one.

Um, we're, we're getting there, but we also, um, are launching our fourth...

Pickup Zone.

So Pickup is our microtransit service.

It's a zone based service where you can hail or ride anywhere within that zone

to anywhere within that zone for the 1.

25, which is our base bus fare.

Um, and so we're launching, um, in kind of southeast Austin, one of those

underserved, traditionally underserved areas where we'll be investing in BRT.

We're launching a neighborhood connector and really helping

those pockets of neighborhood connect to the transit system.

There are some places that...

I'm sorry, no matter how hard I try, I'm never probably going to be able to run a

bus route frequently enough through here that it would really drive people to get

out of their cars and get to transit.

But if I can say, we'll just go to this app and within 15 minutes we'll pick you

up and take you to the bus stop, then that actually makes a big difference.

And so, we're very excited about that, to be launching that this coming January.

Awesome.

Tiffany?

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: Well, I, uh, somebody at LYNX said that, uh,

LYNX is, we are elegant adopters.

Uh, we'll let you all be guinea pigs and innovators.

Um, but we are moving forward to contactless fare payment.

I, it sounds, you know, like the duh factor, but we're

moving in that direction.

We are finally implementing an ERP system for our administration team, and these are

the things that, have needed to be done for a very long time, and we are, again,

these are the projects that are finally moving forward to make us more efficient.

Um, and so we, we took some time during COVID, we installed the,

uh, uh, bus shields, uh, for the drivers, for their safety.

Um, they had been asking for that for many years, uh, changed out our fareboxes.

So, now we're focused on our facilities, um, and what else can we do to

enhance the passenger experience?

And going to David's point about the trash, it is a never

ending battle with the trash.

Um, and so we're looking at innovative ways to, how do we

zone out the contractors for that?

How do we, and we want our passengers to take pride in our system.

So, and that, that means doing our part too, so.

That's great.

I'm excited on Wednesday we're going to go film for Transit Unplugged TV all around

the LYNX system to show some of their facilities for our episode for next month.

I think it'll be our November episode.

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: Yeah, and I was remiss in talking about our

public private partnership with BEEP.

We are doing a mixed traffic autonomous vehicle demonstration with BEEP.

The Swan Shuttles, um, somehow the City of Orlando as well as

the City of Altamont have named their BEEP Shuttles after birds.

Uh, we have the crane shuttle and we have the swan shuttle, um, but in

reporting back to, um, FTA on this demonstration along with the NHTSA

waiver, how do we, how do we make the unions not afraid of autonomous vehicles?

If you look at, if, if you have ATU, the first three, um, of their

legislative priorities is to protect the jobs from autonomous vehicles.

So we want to, we're always going to have attendance, we're always

going to have an ADA issue.

What we are doing is introducing new types of jobs into the LYNX

system with this demonstration.

That's great.

Thanks, Tiffany.

Alright, Frank, what are you, what's a fun project you're working on?

Oh, yeah, so you know, Paul, I came from the TOD side KCATA.

So, um, we've done about 300 million dollars in projects

before we got, I got in this role.

And now we've really kind of doubled down on TODs.

We just finished a project, about $85 million corridor project.

Um, and what we're now doing is really trying to own corridors.

So we're now, like I say, Prospect is a 10 mile corridor that we have.

Um, we have through what we call our four pillars of access to

education, employment, healthcare, and housing through transit.

And so the question becomes, when you get off our bus, where do you go?

Where do you eat?

Where do you live?

Where do you play?

Where do you go to church?

What are all these things that you do?

And so we work very closely with the City of Kansas City, through the land bank

properties, the brownfield properties.

To acquire the land and the corridors to basically control those, those,

those properties, own those properties, stage those properties to really say,

okay, let's really become a community development asset, um, to our region.

One, that builds density, which builds ridership, but also density is safety,

uh, brings culture, diversity, and really builds a city back to life.

Um, we feel like, feel like Kansas City is a city that was built for

transit over 100 plus years ago.

Um, we've got a city audit that we did that really identifies

about 4, 000 different zip codes.

That if within a mile or half mile from our bus lines currently, which we know

if we're intentional about the type of stuff we build, single family apartments,

duplexes, over the next 10 years, we can probably build another 100, 000

residents to Kansas City, Missouri, and another 30 to 40 million dollars in

property tax revenue all through transit.

Um, I like to say that the ATA is an economic development

agency that operates transit.

Um, we make, we matter, we make it happen, and really trying to reframe how we view

public transit as an economic driver.

Um, and a community brings value to a community, a value add,

what we're considering necessary.

And so, we are really doubling down on TOD, or we call it transit

communities, um, that's kind of my jam.

And I think it's really, again, if we show we bring value as an authority,

then people kind of want it to the table.

At the same time, with these projects, we create operational revenue that

is not dependent on a sales tax, a ballot initiative, and allows us

to really control our own destiny as an authority moving forward.

That's, as you know, that's what they do in Hong Kong with MTR and

other places around the world where the transit company, uh, is able to increase

property value so much that the taxes kind of cover the cost of the operation.

Uh, or they have rents on the properties they own where

they rent them out directly.

And it's a great way to reduce our dependence on tax revenues.

So that's brilliant, Frank.

Thanks, ma'am.

All right.

Tell us what you got, Coree

. Coree Cuff Lonergan: Thank you.

So, um, from my perspective, I just want to switch the narrative

just a little bit and talk about it from an initiative perspective.

I'm going to and one of the things that's really deeply important to me, and I've

shared this with my team when I started, was the intent to create a just culture.

Um, I've always wanted to do that.

I really believe in it.

I think that's the best way to manage people, um, is to

have a just culture in place.

So that's one of the initiatives that we're moving forward.

And just to give you an example of, um, of one of the things that we've been

working on in that space is building a stronger relationship with our union.

Um, and quite frankly, we have been quite successful in doing that.

Um, we just, uh, completed our latest round of contract negotiations.

Um, my understanding is that they sometimes would take

years, uh, to bring to closure.

Um, but we were able to do it, um, I would say, uh, Angelica, who's, who's with me?

About four months, so something that typically would take years to do,

we were able to do in four months.

Why did, why did that happen?

It happened because we put a lot of value on our workforce.

And, and when I say that, I mean in terms of putting that value on

there, we realized that for us to be competitive and to attract talent.

We need to have wages and conditions that do, do that and recognize

the dynamics and the changing and the diversity in our workforce.

Um, we have a lot more, um, um, women, uh, bus operators joining us now.

Um, and so that creates an interesting dynamic, um, not only for women, but

for all of our employees in terms of responsibilities outside of work.

Which shows up, um, from the perspective of having schedules that allow them to

take care of those responsibilities.

Although, you know, we are 24 7, we all know that.

But there are schedules that can be put in place to, to help manage that.

Um, and so now we're, we've got wages that match, um, what we need them

to be to make us more competitive.

Outcome, just the first outcome, is we had a job fair a couple of months ago.

So we've been working really hard in our retail, talent acquisition space.

And we were able to, hire on the spot.

About 64, bus operators and, um, COAs.

And we actually had, of those 64, 57 of them show up to work last Monday.

So, I mean, and that is all, um, response to the initiatives that we've taken to

build those better relationships with our, you know, frontline workforce

and have wages that match the demand that we need in South Florida.

That's good.

Yeah, it is interesting about our industry, isn't it?

Because every transit agency...

It doesn't compete against the other city.

So they're not competitors, they're actually trying to

share best practices, and that's actually the next question I have.

So we're in the rounding the third base here, right?

Two more questions.

First off, I just want, if you could, don't mind, a show of hands, how many

of you are moving into electric buses?

Just about, well, not you, yeah.

How about electric trains?

Not yet, okay.

And anybody doing hydrogen?

Anybody up here doing hydrogen?

You are moving, tell us about that.

Yeah, so we have been battery electric bus to date.

Um, and my biggest piece of advice on battery electric buses is, it's not about

the bus, it's about the infrastructure.

So, don't think about what it's going to take to buy the bus.

First, think about what it's going to take to basically fuel that bus, right?

We already have tens of millions of dollars worth of most of us

diesel or CNG fueling infrastructure built into our facilities.

So that infrastructure piece has been huge.

Um, as we have looked through that...

Um, we are concerned about the ability of range on a battery electric bus to be able

to serve 100 percent of our transit needs.

And so we are starting to look at hydrogen fuel cell enhanced battery electric buses.

Um, and we'll, and hope to be testing a handful of those

out in the next little while.

I think we have to be willing to change the way we do business, but to

the extent that changing the way we do business makes it extremely more

expensive, like there's a real balance.

And so how much more infrastructure do I want to put out in the world?

It's one thing to put a million dollar opportunity charger at the park and

ride, but what if that one goes down?

So do I now need to put two one million dollar chargers at the park and ride?

And now I have to maintain them, and I've never maintained high voltage.

Like, I, it's just a whole world, um, that as transit operators, we

hadn't really had to work in before.

Um, so, it's, it's still a lot.

I think we're all still learning from one another.

Um, so if anybody has horror stories about running hydrogen buses, I want to

hear them before I get the first one.

I'd love to hear from you.

Modaxo is the world's largest transit technology company, so

I've got to ask you a technology question.

Tell me about one piece of technology that you see that's going to most impact your

agency in the next one to three years.

We'll start with you in Orlando.

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: I think the contactless fare payment.

Okay, yeah.

Uh, that along with the integration of, uh, SunRail is our commuter

rail system here in central Florida.

The funding partners will be taking it over next year.

Um, it's currently run by the state, the Florida Department of Transportation.

So, as we take on what is a commuter rail system, but how do we enhance

that with, great technology to make that seamless transition?

as we bring two systems together, over the next year or so.

Oh, that'll be great.

Yeah, people love that.

They want ease, right?

Ease of, uh, fare collection.

That's good.

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: If I can't explain it to you in 30 seconds,

we're not doing something right.

Um, because that's how our society is.

We want it easy.

We want it quick.

Um, and so that's our marketing team, our IT teams, finance, sit

together, and how can we make it.

It's a 30 second elevator speech.

That's really good.

Frank, how about you?

What piece of technology is coming for you?

TransitMaster.

Boom!

I didn't pay him to say that.

Go ahead.

No, seriously.

I mean, we've got a World Cup coming in 2026, and so how we communicate with our

vehicles is going to be crucial for us.

So you didn't pay me for this, but that is the truth.

Thank you.

How about you?

Coree Cuff Lonergan: So for me, the, the two technologies I think that are going

to affect us the most, or at least I hope they do, is in the training space.

So, I really want to see us leverage virtual reality more for

training, particularly in mechanics.

I think that is a, a strong opportunity to use virtual reality

to create environments where...

Our mechanics can be stressed and understand, um, some of the challenges,

uh, in the learning environment on, um, on fixing equipment.

And also, you know, from an operator perspective, doing the same thing, right?

So that they feel those challenges in a traffic environment before

we put them in one, right?

So, I would love to see...

Um, our simulation capability moved from the traditional simulators to

a virtual, virtual reality world.

The other one that I'm particularly excited about is AI, and I know there

was some conversation this morning about that, um, but I'm very curious

to understand how AI can improve our relationships with customers and how

we respond to customers and how we respond in real time to customers.

So, those are the two things that I think, from a technology

perspective, I can't wait to do.

Yeah.

And there are those that I don't even know about yet, but I'm game, for

sure.

That's exciting.

We just did a, uh, I just did an interview last week with Eve Machol

from Microsoft Corporation and, um, A person from the Eno Center for

Transportation who wrote an article this last week on ai, and it's gonna

be on our podcast transit unplug coming up, but it's about just what you said.

We've even got the video on it of, uh, them turning a piece of equipment to go

into a bus, but it's not really there.

They're wearing glasses.

It's virtual reality, and they're, that's showing them how to put it

into the, uh, the engine of the bus.

Really cool stuff.

I'm glad you're, you're doing that.

That's awesome.

Alright, alright, Dave?

Oh, uh,

Coree hit it right on the head.

I mean, AI is, we are so excited to see where we can leverage it.

Like, I don't even understand it fully enough, and I know

that it's gonna help me, right?

So, um, you know, but it can help me as far as, uh, you know, scheduling and work,

you know, where can we build our capacity?

Where can we put our people?

I mean, just the limits are endless.

Um, and then we, so we, you know, we're trying to embrace that as we can,

uh, but we're also, you know, I don't want to say step backwards, but we're

trying to bring us to the present.

So we have, you know, this beautiful neighbor of ours that's bright yellow and

black and they just ran to Orlando and it's a beautiful service, I wrote it up

here, and they have amenities that I want.

Bright line.

I won't always be, you know, I won't have, you know, the fundings are different.

My ticket prices are different, but like, why can't my people

have some of those amenities?

Like, why can't I have better public information system?

Why can't I have better wifi?

Why can't I have better connectivity?

You know, it shouldn't be, you know, it's, it's public transportation.

It's good enough.

It's not good enough.

Yeah.

It needs to be better.

And that's the only way we're gonna get the choice riders to come in

and who want to go to the airports and want to go different places.

Uh, and we need that.

So, we're trying to bring our level of customer service and, and customer

amenities as, as much as we can.

And we have to do it, obviously, within some budget constraints,

but, uh, I really, I really think our people deserve better than

what they're getting right now.

I'm glad you're focused on that.

That's great.

Dottie?

Yeah, I think, um, the real opportunity we have in the next

three to five years, I still don't know how we're going to solve it, is to

really lean into the idea of mobility as a service and have a seamless way

for our customers to plan their trips, pay their fares, do the whole thing.

Um, you know, I was bellyaching to one of the vendors earlier today about how I have

four apps, um, to use my various services.

They all kind of come with their own app, which is great.

If you're only going to use that service, but if you want to use our bike share

service, we can plan a trip that shows you how to use a bike to the bus, but

actually if you're going to pay the fare, it's a little different, and we

have the pickup microtransit service that isn't exactly integrated as well.

So really figuring out how to crack that nut, um, and get it all on the same page.

We've made all of these great advancements in our ability to deliver service, but

if people don't understand it, if you can't explain it to them, or if they

have to physically call your customer service call center to figure it out,

then you've missed the boat, right?

God love the customer service call center folks who solve all those problems for

our customers every day, but that's...

That just shows that we hadn't figured something out that they were not

able to figure it out on their own.

That's great.

Great technology.

All right.

We're ready for the last question.

And, uh, it's a fun one and you can say, you know, this will, this will

give you a broad palette to paint on.

What's one of the best things happening right now at your agency?

And if you want to tell a story about it, that's great too.

So we'll start with Frank.

We got the World Cup in 2026.

And so, um, just preparing for that from a federal state,

global piece is just an exciting project, uh, gives us a chance to

really put the ATA on the world stage and show off how great we really are.

That's great.

So, there's a couple things I'm really excited about is, um, you know,

the first one is Miami Central Station.

I mean, it's such a beautiful station.

It's going to be really a game changing event for us when we take the first

revenue train into the station.

And it's been a long time coming.

The people of South Florida have been infinitely patient.

And, and I think that lends into the next thing I'm excited about is that, you know,

we're, we got kicked around in the press a little bit in the last couple years, you

know, it's, you know, there's no hiding it, I guess, but, uh, so we're, you know,

we're starting to get momentum, and we're starting to get some small victories,

and some small wins, and so, you know, we're, we're, we're crawl, walk, run, You

heard, we've heard that before, right?

Um, but we, uh, we're starting to get some momentum, so people are starting

to, you know, they're starting to see that it's working, and we're starting,

that, that, then that positive attitude comes through in the workforce.

You know, we've got, we're gonna be into Miami Central.

We, we were awarded a grant for rolling stock.

We're gonna go out and buy some, some, a significant amount of, At least for

us, rolling stock, uh, so that is, I mean, just having that nice new cadence

of momentum where people start to have, there's good news stories that are coming

out in the press and when people, you know, they come to work, they're proud

to come to work, they're happy to come to work, we're doing good things, um, and,

and I just want to keep building on that.

So that is just what I'm absolutely proud of right now

and we just got to keep building

on it.

Awesome.

Dottie?

I think one of the things I'm most excited about is the, the energy we are

putting into supporting our workforce and developing the workforce of the future.

Um, much like Coree we had to have a real moment of clarity coming out of the

pandemic as to what is the value of the work that our frontline employees do and,

and how are we going to set a wage that will attract talent in the current market.

Um, and so having made that pivot, that's step one.

But it's also a really hard job to work the shift work that is required of many

of our frontline employees to deal with the general public who, by the way, have

completely lost their sense of decorum and common sense since the pandemic and

are just not Just awful nasty people on a regular basis to these folks.

And so how can we support them better because fundamentally our customers aren't

going to get a great experience if the workforce that is serving them isn't

satisfied with their work and doesn't feel they have the support that they need.

And so we're really leaning in on training and retention.

But then also developing the workforce of the future.

We have this significant capital program that right now is all about

construction, but when it's all constructed is going to require a lot of

people who don't currently exist, right?

You know, I, there, the light rail signal maintainer that I probably need in a

decade is currently in the 8th grade.

And I I can guarantee that he or she does not know that light rail signal

maintainer is something that they might want to be when they grow up.

They just know they like to tinker with this stuff, right?

They like to take stuff apart and put it back together and see how it works.

I need to find that kid, they need to find me.

And so we're actually partnering with our local workforce board to do a study

of all of the mobility and mobility infrastructure jobs that are needed

in the next decade in our region.

So that we can get that pipeline going, um, so that I can go find that eighth

grader and make sure that they know what path to be on to have all the skills that

are necessary so that when they're ready for work, I've got a career for them.

So really investing in the workforce.

That's a great vision.

Really good.

Tiffany.

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: Yes.

Career and technical education is so important.

I, we have all these medical pipelines and construction pipelines.

Here in the state of Florida, but we don't have auto shop in high schools anymore,

and we, we need to create that pipeline.

Mayor Demings announced it, uh, this morning, um, he has a 100

million initiative, accelerated safety transportation program.

Uh, LYNX will be a recipient of 6 million a year in additional

operating funds from the, from Orange County for increased service.

As well as 264 new shelters over a five year period.

Um, Mayor Demings is one of our staunchest advocates for, uh,

uh, sales tax in Central Florida.

So, we'll see where he goes with it in 24 or 26.

Um, but, uh, two of our biggest congressional, um, champions are

gonna be starting their panel.

Uh, uh, they started a minute ago, Congressman Frost and Congressman Soto.

Uh, there's never been a better time to, uh, have a champion in Congress like we

do with those two for Central Florida.

So, that's what we're excited about.

That's awesome.

And thank you for being such a great host for us here in Orlando.

Really appreciate it.

All right, Coree bring us home.

Coree Cuff Lonergan: Okay, thank you.

there's so many things that I'm incredibly excited about that's

coming forward for us at, um, BCT.

Um, you know, namely the fact that we have the PRIMO plan coming forward.

Um, that's huge.

But, I'm excited about the possible, right?

Like, what we can grow to, what we can be, what we will be,

that excites me incredibly.

And I'm also excited about the fact that I've got a great team to work

with, and I'm excited for the future that we're going to build together.

And in the audience, I've got Gia, I've got Chai, I've got Ripton, and,

uh, Michael, and Omar, and, um, Nikki, and Lynn, and Angelica, and Kalila,

uh, over there somewhere in the back.

I saw you.

There she is, waving.

I'm excited, truly excited about continuing to work with you guys

and I know we're going to bring it

home together.

Way to go.

Let's get a big round of applause for all five of our CEOs, Corey Cuff Lonergan,

Dottie Watkins, Frank White, Tiffany Hawkins, and Dave Dech Thank you so much

for being here as part of our Transit Unplugged podcast live today for you.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Elea Carey.

I'm a communications consultant who loves working with public transit agencies.

Coree Cuff Lonergan talks in this segment about giving a shout out to your team.

We all know that team appreciation is vital to keeping the lifeblood of our

systems moving in the right direction.

There are lots of ways to show people they're doing a great job.

Driver or Staffer of the Month awards, employee appreciation events,

holiday parties, and halls of fame are all good and necessary ideas.

But you know what makes people feel really great?

Actually being heard, especially by the senior members of your team.

Letting your team know they're heard can take several forms.

Just a good ol anonymous comments box is a helpful start.

You can also make time for feedback during your regular meetings.

Set aside time on the agenda and make appropriate apologies and

follow up if you don't get to everyone who wants to say something.

There will often be someone who has more to say than you'd like, so delegating

a spot on the agenda and a discreet amount of time for comments is key.

I also encourage leadership to set up annual meetings with

as many employees as possible.

If you've got a huge team and it's not possible for everyone to meet with,

say, your GM or chief of staff, direct the top tier of senior staff to the

executive suite and provide time for lower tiers to have annual, off the record

time to check in with senior managers.

If you'd like to talk more about supporting your team or anything else

related to communications and public transit, look me up on LinkedIn.

My first name is spelled E L E A, last name C A R E Y.

Hi, this is Tris Hussey, editor of transit unplugged.

Thank you for listening to this week's episode and a special

thank you to our guests.

Cory Cuff Lonergan, Dottie Watkins, Tiffany Homer Hawkins,

Dave Dech' and Frank White.

Now coming up on next week's show.

Paul is talking with Adam Hill.

Editor in chief of ITS International Magazine about high speed rail

in both the UK and north America.

ULEZ, ultra low emission zones.

They're being set up around the UK.

To reduce pollution from cars.

It's a really interesting discussion.

And I think you'll really like it.

But before next week, show Transit Unplugged TV comes out.

And it features Orlando.

Home of Tiffany Homler Hawkins and Brightline trains.

Once Paul is he tours through APTA expo.

It gets a tour of Brightline and LYNX and BEEP autonomous vehicles.

It's going to be a really good episode.

Watch for it.

Thursday, November the ninth.

If you have a question comment, or I'd like to be a guest on the show.

Feel free to email us anytime@infoattransitunplugged.com.

Transit Unplugged is brought to you by Modaxo.

At Modaxo, we're passionate about moving the world's people.

And at Transit Unplugged.

We're passionate about telling those stories.

So until next week, ride safe and ride happy.