One of my favorite movies of all time is Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Right?

It's following his fun adventures all over Chicago and all the fun things he

does on the day he took off from school.

Well, that's where we're headed today: to Chicago, the Windy City, the Second

City, and we're, we're talking to Nora Leerhsen, who's the acting president

of the Chicago Transit Authority.

I'm Paul Comfort, and this is Transit Unplugged, the world's number one public

transportation podcast where we talk to top executives around the world.

And this month of September is Super September.

We're bringing you some of the top American public transportation leaders.

Last week, if you didn't get a chance to listen, go back and listen

to Demetrius Chrichlow's episode.

He's the head of New York City Transit and today we talk to the head of Chicago

Transit Authority, Nora Leerhsen.

And it's a great interview.

First time I've met her, we talk about the agency itself.

It's massive.

What's happened with ridership, which is good news and what

they're doing about safety.

We talk about her background, her legal background.

She's an attorney, how she started in compliance and how that was a great place

to grow into the president's office.

We also talk about her vision and her philosophy of the role that public

transportation plays, not only in Chicago, but in any community to really improve

the lives of the people they serve.

This is a wonderful interview with a great leader of this

agency, Nora Leerhsen in Chicago.

It's our second episode of Super September.

Dig in and enjoy this wonderful interview.

Great to be with Nora Leerhsen, the acting President of the

Chicago Transit Authority.

Nora, thanks for joining us today.

Thank you.

Thanks so much for having me.

Super September and we've got New York and Chicago, the one-two punch of the

biggest transit systems in America.

Tell us about Chicago Transit Authority.

Yes, happy to.

So we are the Chicago Transit Authority.

We have 11,400 employees.

We run 24 hours a day.

We have 2000 buses traveling, 127 bus routes.

1500 rail cars, traveling eight routes to 146 stations.

We serve an average of a million people every day.

We have a $2.1 billion operating budget.

So a big agency serving a lot of people and very proud of it.

That's awesome.

And so tell us about the modes that operate there.

So you've got the bus, you kind of went through a little bit, but

what kind of rail do you operate?

Yeah, we have eight rail lines across the whole system, 146 rail stations.

And on our bus side we have 127 bus routes.

Our buses travel nearly 150,000 miles every weekday, using 2000

buses across our fleet to do so.

And we serve the city of Chicago and 35 surrounding suburbs.

Wow.

Big time man.

Wow.

That's something.

I mean, everybody who've been dealing with post COVID ridership increases

people trying to get their ridership up.

I think that you guys have been doing pretty good at that, what I've seen.

What are you doing in Chicago when it comes to bringing people back to transit,

and what's helping make them wanna ride?

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, the last few weeks we've actually seen some of our highest ridership in

years and we're really excited about it.

So, particularly with our special events, we see that people are back on transit.

You know, they're back on transit across our summer special events in a way that

even exceeds our pre pandemic numbers, which I know is the barometer that

everybody's using in the transit world.

Yeah.

Uh, but you know, the week of Lollapalooza, for example, which is a

huge festival in Chicago, that was our biggest ridership week since 2019.

So, we're hitting record numbers, since the past few years.

Actually an interesting fact, the Ventra system is the account that

people have to pay fare on our system.

So we track those numbers and in our Ventra accounts, we

actually have more Ventra account holders than we did in 2019.

So people are back on CTA, they're of course traveling differently still,

given the remote work impact and the way in which our world has changed.

But they're back.

They're traveling in different patterns.

We're regularly hitting a million riders every day.

So our service is also back.

In the pandemic, like other transit agencies got hit with

a lot of resignations and lost a lot of our workers.

But in the past two years, we've hired more than 5,000 people,

and so we actually, yeah.

Yeah.

We actually have more bus operators than we did before the pandemic.

We have 95% of employees on our rail side, so we're really thriving

in terms of our service as well.

And of course, that's what brings people back.

People want frequent, reliable service and we know that front and center

from surveys and also just know it from knowing our industry well.

So, we're excited about initiatives underway to show that increase in service.

Particularly this year we launched something called the Frequent Network.

Which is 20 bus routes across our whole system that we'll receive

10 minute or better service all day long every day of the week.

Many of those routes even get better than 10 minute service.

But this has been a key indicator of the health of our agency and to show that

we're ready for investment and ready to hit the ground running and grow, with even

more funds, in the coming years as well.

And, we see ridership increase on those routes.

So some of those key routes are seeing upwards of almost 20%

ridership increases year over year.

And it really shows that, my field of dreams reference that

if you build it, they will come.

People will follow frequent service and that's what they wanna see in transit.

So that's been a key focus.

You know, people in the transit world also know safety and security.

The ridership experience is front and center, and that's

been a focus of mine as well.

And really deepening our relationship with various stakeholders across that

arena, from social service agencies to the police department, and thinking of

new and innovative ways to make sure people have a pleasant riding experience,

and that those in need of support on our system are getting the support they need.

Yeah, my good friend Kevin Quinn always says frequency is freedom.

And, uh,

yeah, absolutely.

I love it.

Yeah.

He's the head of Vancouver now, but he was here in Baltimore with me back a

while ago, and then ran it himself,, did an amazing job as CEO there.

One of the other things that CTA has been focused on is

safer, cleaner, more reliable.

Tell us about what you've been doing to improve kind of the

day-to-day rider experience.

So I mentioned that partnership with the police department and that's been huge

just to make sure people feel safe and secure throughout their ride on CTA.

And we have a vast system, you know, 146 stations covering Chicago and the suburbs.

So this is a vast system to cover with resources.

So a focus of mine has been working with them

on targeted missions,

a visibility for those officers.

So we have something called safety outreach missions where police are

deployed across our system and interacting with riders, giving them tips about how to

ride safely and smartly and talking with them, on their way and on their commute.

And we also work with them to talk about the code of conduct on CTA to make sure

that people are following that code of conduct and, behaving well on the system.

And I think that's been welcomed by riders just to create that sense

of order and safety on CTA, which

we hear in

a larger urban environment comes up a lot.

And, and I want people to know that's front and center.

That's definitely in addition to, frequency and reliability as being

the primary driver for ridership.

So in addition to that frequent network I mentioned and the addition of bus

service throughout this year, we're working on different things like the bus

tracker system, which, you know, really is what indicates people's faith in our

system having reliable information about when their bus and train is coming and

finding new ways all the time to improve that information and expand upon it.

So we've added new features to that tracker this year that gives people even

more reliable information about when their next bus is coming, just to further

instill that trust in the information coming from CTA and that we're a great

ride and a great way to get places.

I was riding that red

tour bus in Chicago.

Chicago's one of my favorite cities in the country, and whenever I

go there, the first time I always take to take the tour bus around.

And on that bus, the driver mentioned this book, Devil In The White City.

Mm-hmm.

It was all about the history of Chicago and the World's Fair of 1893.

This was like three years ago, four years ago.

And I got down this rabbit hole of studying all this stuff about

the 1893 World's Fair, and how the trains, really the L and all, kind

of got their start around that.

Right.

So you guys operate the L tell us about that a little bit.

I think that's the elevated trains.

People who are trained maniacs love the L, you know?

Yeah, absolutely.

And it, I appreciate you bringing up your experience.

Seeing the L as a visitor, because I think a lot of us can take it for granted

when we're rushing around in the morning.

But CTA is absolutely beautiful and I think that's one of our greatest assets,

is our beauty and the visual of what the elevated looks like running through

our city in this way over the river.

And, we have our name, the city of Big Shoulders, but I often

think CTA kind of looks like the shoulders that carry our city.

And the rumbling sound of the elevated is, it's why people are here, right?

That's right.

I mean, it's what drew people to Chicago and the memories that people

have throughout their lives, on the elevated system and on the CTA.

It just is what we all share and kind of epitomizes what

it means to be a Chicagoan.

And, you know, how, how many movies start with that image, right?

Of the elevated train running and you just know.

You're in the coolest city in the world and that that's where this movie's set.

And all you have to do is show the elevated to tell people that.

So yeah, we're really proud of that.

And you guys interact with several other agencies, PACE and Metra, and

tell us about all that interaction, who does what and all that, because it's a

pretty interesting system, by the way.

It's similar.

I just did Detroit, I did a show there and all kind of the same setup,

an RTA and then three operators.

So tell us about what you guys do in Chicago.

Yeah, so the Regional Transportation Authority is an oversight entity over

the three service boards that are CTA, and then Metra is the commuter rail,

and PACE is the suburban bus system.

We do work closely together on service planning and certainly right now we're

working with our state legislature to come to a funding solution for CTA and we're

all very close partners in that effort.

We look at different ways to make sure we're supporting riders

that cross between our systems.

So there's kind of key transfer points where we work together our service

planning teams to make sure the service is connecting as it should,

and that when riders are coming from one service to another they have

that point of access between us.

We do studies together, you know, with PACE since we both have a bus service.

We do work together to do vision studies about how bus

service should flow throughout.

We share an interest in the improvements of bus street infrastructure to

make sure we're having our buses flow as quickly as possible, so we

work together on strategizing around that and as well as our fare system.

You know, we're always looking to grow our collaboration there as well.

And we just launched this summer, a regional day pass where people

can use, fare across our whole systems using that day pass.

So, working together, always committed to continuing to build

that relationship as well to create that sense of a unified system.

Okay, so let's go into your journey some.

You've been there for a while.

Tell us about what you've done.

You've risen from what you were a project coordinator or something when you

started, and now you've worked way all the

way up to the acting president.

Congratulations, by the way.

I should have started with that, but it's not really new anymore.

You've been there a little while, but tell us about your journey.

Thank you.

Yeah, I started at CTA just under 11 years ago.

I started in the law department as someone working in compliance,

which sounds like kind of boring, but you actually learn a ton.

'Cause I ran the audits with the Federal Transit Administration.

Oh yeah.

Which cover every aspect of our work.

So you really get to learn every department how they keep

all their records, and the responsibilities that they all have.

So it was a fascinating place to start the work here.

I had come out of law school and I actually interned here as a legal intern.

Okay.

And really fell in love with transit and the impact that it has on people's lives.

As an intern here, I was working on the background check policy for hiring

to adjust to new federal guidelines, advising that you had to take a factor

analysis into people's backgrounds and you had to manage conviction history

in a certain way in compliance with the law, and it was thrilling for me.

I came from being a public school teacher and a historian of civil

rights history, very passionate about government working for people and

correcting the wrongs of our history's past, and transit is just kind of

unmatched in terms of the impact it can have on a city and on its trajectory.

And I just fell in love with the dynamic aspect of transit

and what it provides for people.

So I started there and I also worked in the safety department, which was also

an incredible experience after that.

'cause compliance has to do a lot also with safety audits.

So I was conducting a lot of those.

When the federal government first issued the Safety Management Systems policies,

I was here at CTA and learned a lot about those and how to implement them.

Then I was put on a detail assignment to the president's office about

eight years ago, and I've never left.

So, I came here to help the president and the chief of staff, chief

operating officer at that time.

And, was just immediately attracted to the impact you can have here

from a policymaking perspective.

I'm a lawyer by training.

I've never billed an hour.

However, feel very passionate about policymaking and applying that

understanding of how law is made to daily decision making and seeing that impact.

So that's been huge for me.

You know being here, in this office for the past eight years means I

was here through the pandemic, which was definitely the most defining

experience of my career so far.

And I think has really defined our agencies in a different way

and managing through that crisis and never shutting down really was

a true lesson in leadership and management of service in various ways.

So, for the past six years I was chief of staff, and then for the

past seven months I've been in this leadership role as acting president.

Yeah.

I think the law is a great background for a CEO.

I'm one too, and I know that it helped me interact with our attorneys when

I was in that role and I just gave a speech this week in Kentucky and I

talked about when you get to the top of an agency or an organization, all the

easy decisions have already been made because they're ones that have a template.

The ones that end up on Nora's desk are the ones without a template, where

you have to use judgment and wisdom.

And having that legal background I'm sure helps, right?

Yes, absolutely.

I mean, it's all gray once you get up to this part, right?

Yeah.

It's not black and white.

You gotta, so you have to have that background in how to protect your

agency and make smart decisions.

I didn't go to law school until a little bit later in life, however, so started my

career in public education in the Teach for America program in Philadelphia,

and those years really shaped a lot of my focus in terms of working with

students in poverty and in schools in our country that we're in great need.

And that's what drives me very much in my daily work, still in transit.

One of the things I really, admire about what you're doing there is

you feel like spending time out on the system is so important.

Riding the buses, riding the trains, talking to the

riders, it's a big priority.

What have you heard from riders recently?

What's really stuck with you?

Yeah, we have a great program we started this year called CTA Chats

where we're actually out on the system.

High level staff and staff from different levels gather together in groups and

talk to the riders as they're getting on and off the train to hear directly

from them about what's on their mind.

They're excited about talking with staff and sharing that information.

We know they value frequency, they value reliability.

They value safety, cleanliness.

I mean, it's a great confirmation that our focus is the right one when you talk to

rider and you know, I think Paul, also, what you see is that love for CTA too.

So if you're talking to a rider that's already on your system, that's someone

that's already put their faith in you and believes in you in a certain way.

And they're a great partner in discussion about what they

want to see from more transit.

They also recognize where there's been improvements.

You know, I mean, I hear from riders that they can see services strong,

that they can see frequency has improved and that they see a commitment

to them and their experience.

Being on the system is also incredibly valuable in terms of our employees

and hearing directly from them and their experience, you know.

I say employees are riders a lot because they ride themselves, but also

our operating employees are out on the system for hours at a time, right?

I mean, a commuter commutes half hour, 45 minutes.

Our operating employees are out there for an extended period of time every

day, and they have incredible insights into how to improve our system.

And to what needs to be done.

So I also spend a ton of time in garages and terminals, and upon taking this

role, did a whole tour of all of our work locations to make sure I was talking

directly with them and hearing directly from them about their experiences too.

Speaking of your employees, I just wanted to call out too, that I've had

interactions with lately that I've been

so impressed with.

Arlana Johnson on your

team is tremendous and kudos to Steve Fuentes, who after a 30 year

career at CTA, just became the new head of Milwaukee's Transit System.

So I know people coming outta your team.

Yeah, no, thanks for recognizing them.

I'm so excited for Steve.

It's such an exciting step.

and you may know Paul, Arlana was just brought

in as a senior advisor in the president's office, so I'm really excited about

watching her continue to rise here at CTA.

That's wonderful.

Yeah, me too.

So let's talk about, now we've done kind of the present your system, a

little bit about your background.

Let's talk about the future, what's coming for CTA.

You've got some exciting expansion plans like the Red Line extension.

Can you share where that stands and what'll mean for communities in

the south side once it's complete?

Absolutely.

Yeah, we're full speed ahead on the Red Line extension.

It's a incredibly historic project, adding four fully accessible stations

to extend our Red Line to 130th street.

You know, our Red Line is our busiest line.

Almost a third of our million riders are on it every day.

And this is a really exciting expansion of that access.

This is 50 years in the making, Paul, I mean, if you're in Chicago,

you know the story of people asking for this project and wanting it.

So it's truly a historic moment for our city.

All you need to do is look at our recently opened Red Purple

modernization stations on the north side to get a sense of the brilliance

that is to come with that project.

Those stations, next time you're in Chicago, I encourage

you to go stop by them.

We just open four stations on the north side that are absolutely breathtaking.

They're not just stations, they're works of art, and they're fully accessible

and just such a reminder of what you can do when you invest in transit.

You can really transform communities.

So,

yes we're super excited

to move forward with the Red Line extension heading into next year.

We also have some exciting accessibility projects.

Our Austin Green Line Station, Racine Station on the Blue Line are both gonna be

opened within the next short period with new accessible stations, which, you know,

really gets to the core of my mission at CTA in terms of accessibility, we have

our All Stations Accessibility Plan that we're moving forward with to make our

rail system all fully ADA accessible.

And that's a really exciting front for us.

We have a strategic plan that we're moving forward with to make sure that we are

adjusting to the different needs of our region, and make sure that our bus system

is aligned with the needs that people have and what they need from transit.

So it's a really exciting time where we're really looking freshly

at our system and making sure we're thriving into the future.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

When I go to Chicago, each time I come I try to do one more

thing from Ferris Bueller's Day Off that I haven't done already.

Yeah, I know!

There's so many fun things to do there.

And the architectural tour and the boat ride is just amazing.

The history you all have in Chicago is fantastic.

I wanna switch a little philosophical now, if you don't mind.

Coming to a big role like this at one of America's largest and one of the

world's largest transit systems, we're all kind of in a transitional moment

with a new administration in Washington.

We're not kinda sure how things are going when it comes to financing.

Hopefully this budget will come through outta DC and get us fully funded again.

But, what are some of the values or guiding principles that you

bring to your leadership style?

One of the reasons I love public transit Paul, is the way in

which it brings people together.

So celebrating the community and shared experience of public transit.

You queued me, you allowed me to get philosophical, so bear with me.

Yeah.

Go with it.

You know, something that I find quite magical and inspiring about public

transit, and I think we'd be hard pressed to find another entity that brings people

together from various circumstances and backgrounds, to a shared space, especially

post pandemic, where we continue to be more isolated than ever as a society.

I think celebrating transit and how it brings people together, and

has us all thrive as a community is something that I really am

focused on, as the leader of CTA.

And I also want people to feel connected in various ways with their

communities outside of transit.

So partnerships with stakeholders, other organizations across the whole city,

making sure we're all supporting each other and looking out for our interests

in a shared way is also a focus of mine.

Just this morning, we actually had a workshop around security at transit.

It was unprecedented.

We had police, security forces in different ways, but also had them

there with our unions, with community organizations, with transit advocates,

all talking about how to create a great environment for our system.

Partnerships are a key focus of mine, talking with people,

trusting that we all have a

shared interest in CTA's success and building

it out so that Chicago is thriving.

Transit is the lifeblood of our big cities in America, and especially

at a time where the narrative is complex around big cities.

I think it's really important that we put our best foot forward and

present us as thriving engines of the economy and the future of our

society and connectivity overall.

So let's look ahead like a few years from now, what would you

like people to say that CTA accomplished under your leadership?

I would love if people saw this time as a time of renewed faith and

confidence in CTA and a commitment to its future as the backbone and

lifeblood of our Chicago region.

I would love if people saw it as a time where we took off in new ways in

terms of investment, never before seen, and people accessing it in new ways.

Ridership growing at numbers we'd never seen before, and really a

turning point towards growth and a thriving atmosphere for our system.

And I think that has a lot to do with faith and excitement about CTA.

In a positive way.

I lean very positive, Paul, in terms of tapping into that same thing you

talked about in the experience of the elevated and who we are and getting

people excited about being on transit, about what it means for the environment,

about what it means for each other and our work together with each other.

I would hope that people would see it as a renewed time of positivity around CTA.

That's a great vision.

I think it's gonna happen.

I think you've got a great start on this.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm a transit evangelist at heart.

You know, I've been doing this for almost 40 years now, and I really

think transit, and it sounds like you do too, is the magic pill for

society, whatever you wanna call it.

You know,

we help people get to jobs right?

We improve

the environment.

We're helping people, elderly and people with disabilities get access

to all of life's opportunities.

I mean, it's a solution to so many problems that society has.

And so I love your positive vision

and your talk about this is what we can

do.

Yeah.

And it's where so many dreams are made, right?

It's where the

opportunity is.

I mean, I talk a lot about what

kind of lever could you have to just start running a bus through a community that

didn't used to have bus service, right?

It's hard to measure, but think about the kids that see that

opportunity that, wait a second, I could get to a different school.

I could get to a new job.

Maybe I'll apply to something now I wouldn't

have applied before because I see that bus

running more regularly in front of my house.

I mean, what an honor it is to have that type of impact on communities

and to be able to do that.

And,

you know, we all have those

stories, especially if you've

come from cities.

I grew up in New York, so my

great-grandmother came from Lithuania, was a cleaner in the

Woolworth building in New York.

Raised my grandmother, who was a New York City diner

waitress for 50 years.

Who ended up putting my

father through college, but she was riding the subways doing that, right?

I mean, she wouldn't have been able to do that without being in New York on those

subways, building her life and her future.

You can't match the power that transit has for people in terms of what they

can envision about their futures.

And investing in it is just one of the most powerful things

you can do for our society.

Wow.

What a great way to wrap it up.

Thank you, Nora, for sharing a few minutes with us today

on the podcast.

And not only your

description of how the system operates and how it's growing and improving, but also

your vision for the future is fantastic.

I can't wait for people around the world to hear about it on this Super September.

Yeah.

With Nora Lyon, the head of the Chicago Transit Authority.

Thank you so much, Nora.

Thanks for listening to Transit Unplugged.

I'm executive producer Julie Gates, and this episode was

created by host and producer Paul Comfort, producer Chris O'Keefe,

associate producer Cyndi Raskin, and podcast

intern Des Gates.

Transit Unplugged is being brought to you by Modaxo, passionate

about moving the world's people.

If you wanna dive deeper behind the transit headlines and get boots on the

ground intel on important updates like the Trump Administration's transit

priorities, or how to get funding check out Transit Unplugged Insider,

our new YouTube show where Paul and I take you inside today's hot topics.

Paul knows what's going on in Washington, DC and has the inside scoop.

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You can watch and subscribe to Transit Unplugged Insider on the Transit

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Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you on the next episode of Transit Unplugged.