Hi, I'm Paul Comfort and this is Transit Unplugged.

And today I have the pleasure of bringing to you at interview with my friend Marcus

Moore, who is director of Transportation.

From the city of Annapolis, Maryland, my home state, just across the

Chesapeake Bay from where I live.

I actually lived in Annapolis for a couple years when I was younger as a child.

Uh, and this interview is a companion episode to our upcoming

Transit and Unplugged TV episode in which we include an interview

with Marcus Moore as well as a.

Uh, Holly Arnold, the CEO of the MTA in Baltimore, and we look at the

purple line and other transit systems around the state, um, including

one in Howard County, the RTA.

All of that is coming up in our September episode of Transit Unplugged tv,

our once a month television program.

We actually record this podcast on the roof of the Hillman Garage on my

phone, talking about transit, Annapolis.

Of course, Annapolis is the capital of the state of Maryland.

Not only do they have a Naval Academy there, but they have, you know, the

State House, the General Assembly, the governor's office and all that,

and it's a great historic city.

It's also the sailing capital of the United States.

And there's so many, uh, facets to their public transportation system.

I wanted him to share it with you on this podcast.

And so he does.

I think you'll find it fascinating.

Speaking of Transit Unplugged tv, this is a companion episode as I mentioned, but

we had a great honor this last week and that was, we were honored with the 46th

Annual Tell Award for travel and Tourism.

That's right.

It's probably our highest honor we've ever won.

Uh, we.

Submitted this episode, the Rocky Mountaineer Train Experience.

Uh, and it earned a bronze tele in travel and tourism.

It was recognized for excellence in an online and television series.

It's the same show that we won these two awards for the, uh,

communicator Award and the Worldwide Web W three award this last year.

This is a great episode.

Go to our YouTube page, transit Unplugged tv and check it out.

It's the Rocky Mountaineer experience.

I'd done a podcast interview, uh, with the president after I rode the.

The Rocky Mountaineer train that, that was Denver to Moab route, which was fantastic.

And they said, we'd like you to come up and join with other media

and um, do an episode in Canada.

So we did that and it was fantastic.

And the show is unlike any other.

We've done a real tourism type show.

I think you'll love it.

Check it out.

Um.

I wanna give congratulations to our team, of course, myself

as the host and producer.

I loved making this episode.

It's one of the most fun episodes I've been on.

Uh, but really a lot of credit goes to our video director and music director

and creative director, Jamie Quadra.

Uh, and, uh, also Herardo.

Colin Tuo was helping U.S. on it some.

And our executive producer for our program is Julie Gates.

Thanks to all them for their role in this.

We've got a lot of great upcoming episodes.

Uh, coming up with Transit Unplugged tv, like I said, including the

one right here in Maryland and my home county of Queen Annes County.

Two episodes.

The Maryland episode that supports this podcast will air in September.

The Queen Annes County episode will air in October.

Now let's jump into this fun interview we did from the roof of a parking garage in

downtown Annapolis with Marcus Moore, the Director of Transportation for the City.

Enjoy.

This is Paul Comfort and we are in downtown Annapolis and commissioning

week for the Naval Academy.

I'm standing on top of the Hillman Garage.

And I'm with Marcus Moore.

Who

yeah.

We're looking right behind your, your shoulder as the state capitol.

Yes sir. The great dome.

This is the oldest.

What is it?

The oldest,

oldest, uh, working legislative building in the United States.

That's amazing.

And what's your official title here at Annapolis?

I am the director of Transportation and parking for the City of Annapolis Public.

So you work for the city government?

I do work for the city government.

So tell U.S. about

your transit system.

Our transit system is like a pulse system.

We have a fixed route.

Uh, we have a DA complimentary paratransit, and we're piloting a

new on demand transit service that we go when you, where you want

to go, uh, when you want to go.

Within three quarters of a mile of our fixed root stocks.

This is a pilot program that we started last July and it's

really working out pretty well.

Paul, we're really excited to try something new.

. So, um, how long have you been here in this job?

I've been here with the city of Annapolis, department of Transportation

since, uh, December of 2015.

And my current position as Director of Transportation since October of 2022.

We were just talking about kind of our shared background

and, , tell U.S. about some of your past because it is, you have

a great history for transportation.

In both rail and bus.

Yeah.

Paul, thanks for asking.

Going back to 1983, I started with uh, NRPC, which is National Railroad

Passenger Corporation, better known to most people as Amtrak.

Amtrak.

That's right, baby.

Yes.

I started as a trainer, attend outta New York City, uh, doing most of the East

Coast runs and transferred to Washington DC Uh, did that for about four or five

years before I went into ticketing.

Uh, I was a ticket agent for about two or three years in station operations,

and then I ran the auto train for about.

Four years from 92 to 97.

That's pretty cool, dude.

Yeah, it was really a lot of fun.

But the most fun, uh, job that I think I had was bringing high

speed rail to North America.

That was on the Ella project out of , Philadelphia office.

So high-speed rail that came, , to fruition back in 20 2001 as a part of

bringing that in, , bringing a lot of our, our employees, uh, conductors, engineers.

Onboard service attendants to see how they, , do it in another country.

So we got a chance to travel and benchmark some high speed rail in Europe.

And how fast is that Acela train

go?

I've ridden it, it's pretty

fast.

What it did, it, uh, with tilt technology was able to take, , certain curves at

a higher speed, but the highest, uh, recorded speed is 150 miles an hour.

Wow.

And that's up in New England.

There's only about 30 miles of track that it gets to that.

But the old Metroliners in the northeast quarter got as high as 1 25.

And these can take the curves also at 1 35.

So it is pretty fast getting from Washington, DC and

clearly DC to Boston where they electrified that segment of track.

They used to take five hours, brought it down to like two and a half.

Really?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I've done it.

I, I ride from, um, Wilmington, Wilmington, Delaware.

Yeah.

To Joe Biden station right there where he's from.

Delaware guy, you know, and, uh, ride it up to New York City.

Yes.

Yeah.

Or I will go to One Pen Plaza to go see New Jersey Transit, and I think

later this year I'm gonna ride it.

It's really a great way to go, you know, sit back and watch sea.

Uh, what do they say is, uh, see America at sea level.

Oh yeah.

So you're even to go, you can just travel and, and have a nice beverage

and look at the scenery you're going by.

So, but that's a great rep.

Let's swing back in your story a little bit then.

So you were at Amtrak for how many years?

Uh,

eh, 20.

20 years.

Mm-hmm.

Got a full career in.

Full career In.

And then what'd you do after that?

After that I went to, uh, freight Railroad.

I worked.

For Norfolk Southern got qualified as a freight train conductor from

CP three, which is just south of the Philadelphia station to the Susquehanna.

So I brought a lot of uh, cars to like Chrysler Yard, and I was a part of Norfolk

Southern's Harrisburg crew base in the New Castle subdivision in Delaware.

Okay.

For about a year.

That's so and then what?

And then I came into busing, and then busing comes in around 2006.

Okay.

And I worked at BWI as the assistant general manager for MAA.

We were the contract bus operator.

For the, uh, state owned garages, long-term, a long-term

B deal garage, and all.

Oh yeah.

You're

the one I gotta complain

to.

Kidding.

And then the, um, the old Howard County Transit

as known today as the RTA.

And when were you there?

I was there from like 2000, uh, 11 to 2013.

Okay.

We were on, uh, McCall Court in, um, Elkridge.

And did you work for, who did you actually work directly for then?

Uh, then was, uh, David Van Fosen was the vice

president of, I remember him, um, first Transit, but , through CMRT.

There was a guy by the name of John Powell.

Yes.

He was the, uh.

Uh, CEOI believe of CMRT.

Yeah.

So he was our client.

Again, our path could have almost crossed because I was managing

that Operation Howard Area Transit.

Remember, it was hats for a while.

Hats, yes.

And then Howard Transit, we got that green, the green buses we created

that Howard Green color, it was the only transportation system in

America run by a Chamber of Commerce.

Mm-hmm.

Who had the CMRT logo?

I had a guy named Ron Scots that was there.

Yes, yes.

I, I still see him.

And Ray somebody was our, was our director there, but I worked for the contractor.

Yes.

But it was yellow.

Yes.

And, and then yellow became, you know, uh, Conex.

Yes.

Which became Veolia.

Yep.

Which became Transdab.

And so you were there

for first I was there for First Transit.

Okay.

And also working with John Powell was a guy by the name of, uh, Maynard Nash.

Oh, I know.

Maynard Maynard was working with Ron SCOs and all, we were all there together.

This's such a funny small world man.

This is

so, how many years did you do that?

Uh, there with first transit in about five and a half years.

Okay.

Before I went to National Express and they said, go west, young man.

And I went to Vallejo, California.

And

that's where you met my buddy John Duncan, right?

Yes.

I met John Duncan there.

That's right.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yep.

So ran, um, uh, Vallejo or, you know, in, uh, Vallejo.

California.

California.

California.

Yeah.

So on of transportation in Magnesia, Vallejo, California.

And, um, we ran that operation for, for about six months.

Okay.

Before I decided to go to South Florida.

Ah.

And then was another contract and we were.

The sub, uh, contractor for the Hollywood Fort Lauderdale airport for their

transportation to the parking garages.

Oh yeah.

We were

just there.

We just filmed there.

Wow.

That's a great, great location, huh?

Cory Lonergan, who is CEO of Broward County Transit.

Okay.

She just did the podcast.

Yeah.

And then what?

Uh, then came to good old city of Annapolis in, uh,

December of 2015 and been here since.

So 10 years, baby.

10 years just about here.

Yes sir. Yeah.

That's amazing.

And what's it like running a system in the state capitol?

It is so amazing to see so many different folks that come here.

We have a melting pot of, of visitors, of residents, of business owners.

It's really just a great place to be and in our own, uh, backyard with

the employees that, um, I work with.

The same kind of melting pot is really just great with the, you know, if you

want great seafood, you come out here.

That's right.

Take, you know Right on the, uh, Chesapeake Bay.

We just had some, so we did really just have some, one of the local restaurants.

Yeah.

So the Saturn River going into Chesapeake Bay that goes

into, uh, Atlantic Ocean, who

could

ask for anything

more?

Yeah.

If you, and this is really the sailing capital of the world, right?

This is the sailing capital.

Yeah.

So many sail boats here.

Yep.

Just at our boat show, uh, back

in April, and then the Fall boat show with the Power Boat sailboats in October.

Uh, please come out.

We're reimagining a city dock.

It's gonna be a, a world class, uh, event area.

Really?

I didn't know that.

Yeah, that's being redeveloped right now.

Oh, that's awesome, man.

Yep.

In about two and a half years.

We should be done.

For those people who don't know, the Annapolis downtown area is like.

Nowhere else in the country.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, and uh, the inner Harbor area is just fantastic.

And it's right next to the United States Naval Academy.

It sure is.

Which is why we're up here on the garage roof today, right?

Yes,

there was.

So when we come back in just a minute, we'll talk more about the

Naval Academy and the role of transit in moving, uh, a state capital.

Hey friends, it's Paul Comfort host of Transit Unplugged, and I've

got some exciting news to share.

Did you know that Transit Unplugged is now a hybrid podcast experience?

That's right.

We're not just in your ears anymore.

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Each week on YouTube now you'll find a brand new version of our show

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From transit centers to waterfronts and boardrooms,

we're taking you there visually.

Adding a whole new layer to the storytelling and the response

so far has been amazing.

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So if you haven't yet, take a moment to check U.S. out on YouTube.

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Now let's get back to the conversation.

We're back with Marcus Moore who is the head of transportation

for the city of Annapolis.

Marcus, tell U.S. about the Naval Academy and uh, and their

interaction with the city, et cetera.

Yeah, thanks for asking.

The Naval Academy has been here founded, uh, back in like 1845 and it's really a

gemstone here and it really gives a lot of prestige to the city of Annapolis.

Yes, they're a great partner to be here with them.

With, with U.S. and the Naval Academy, as most people know, they train, uh,

officers for the, uh, the Marine Corps and the United States Navy, of course,

right to, to be officers and go out in the world and serve, serve our country.

Uh, it's really a great partner with them.

Um, as you take a look downtown, you'll sometimes see them walking

about with their families.

Yeah.

The mid shipmen, their white uniform.

I saw a bunch of today.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, this is commissioning.

We, uh, uh, Paul, um, and we we're looking forward to seeing all of them tell U.S.

what that means.

Commissioning week is when these, uh, graduates become commissioned officers

and they get their deployment somewhere around the country, around the world,

uh, to serve, uh, the country as they just got their, um, their degree here.

Yeah, so yesterday we had the practice of the Blue Angels.

Today is the show, , And Friday is actually the commissioning ceremony.

At the United States Naval Academy parking lot, , and this is a

really big time for the city.

It brings a lot of visitors and guests, uh, media and light to

just see this kind of event.

Yeah.

It's really exciting to be around this.

It is.

Yeah.

For those of you who are listening, we are, uh, we're also filming an

episode of our television show, transit Unplugged tv, and I'm here

with our video director, Jaime Quadra.

Hello Paul and a bunch of other folks.

Congratulations for the latest award, teleworks.

That's right.

And, uh, got some other friends with U.S.

too, who are helping U.S. film.

And um, , you'll be able to see what Marcus has been talking

about because we're filming here.

We'll show you the city, we'll show you Actually, we're gonna

show one of your free buses.

Tell U.S. about that.

Oh yes.

The Magenta Shuttle PA is our free services.

Uh, it's a circulator bus, uh, it's called the Magenta Downtown Shuttle.

It starts just outside of the city at Park Place.

Garage runs about every 20 minutes, every single day.

Some abbreviated schedules on weekends, like Sunday, eight to eight, uh,

Saturdays, eight until midnight, , Monday through Friday, , six o'clock in the

morning until 11 o'clock at night.

So it's a great shuttle service.

It's a great shuttle.

It, the whole loop is about a mile and a half.

And it takes about 20 minutes to go from start to finish.

So jump on and off.

There's a bunch of stops along the way.

Look for the magenta shuttle, , and stop and yeah.

Flag it down and jump right on.

Oh,

that's awesome.

So we are like standing, it's not really sunny today, but in the shadow, let's say

metaphorically of the state capitol dome.

Oh gosh, yes.

Uh, which is just phenomenal looking.

If you, if you've never seen the Annapolis Dome of our state capitol,

it is just a tremendous place when.

When I was CEO of the MTA, I spent a lot of time there

testifying before the legislature.

Uh, but what's it like having them come into town where you've got the delegates

and the state senators and the governor and his staff all, I mean, right here,

right in your system sometimes, I'm sure.

Absolutely, Paul.

So for those a hundred days, starting in the early part of January, all to

the middle of April, um, the legislative session, all kinds of bills, all kinds

of, um, legislators from around the state are going to descend on the.

State capital to introduce your bills and hopefully get 'em through committee.

And as you've been, , saying Paul as an advocate for public transportation,

um, those are some really big bills that we want to get through to.

Um, we wanna really make sure we have a avenue to get those that have an option

out of their cars and ride the bus.

Yeah.

How do they do that when it's safe, reliable, and

convenient for them to do so?

Right now you get a lot more of just, uh, folks that you know

that they're dependent on it.

So being able to be able to increase the, um, the footprint of what we

have and where we go is what we want to do to get people outta the cars.

Absolutely.

Let's talk some about your system a little bit more.

How many drivers?

The union, I think that's interesting.

They're, they're in a, uh, so tell U.S. a little bit about that.

Yeah.

Our system here, um, we're probably, we're considered a follow, a locally operated

transit system, better known as a lot.

There's about 23 lots in the state of Maryland from western Maryland Cumberland,

all the way down to Ocean City.

So we're one of those and we have about 30 full-time drivers and

about a dozen part-time drivers and they are part of the union.

And being a full-time, , employee of the city of Annapolis, you're

part of the state pension system.

Yeah, I love that.

Um, and

then being vested 10 years to become vested to be a part of that.

And what's the name of their union?

Afme, A FS.

Me ASME is a, uh, union that represents our bus drivers and our mechanical

state, county municipal employees.

Those kind of things.

Right, exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's interesting.

And um, so you got the drivers and then who else do you have?

Mechanics and

dispatchers?

Right.

We have the supervisor dispatchers that give the direction to the, uh,

operators when they're on the road.

And we have a fleet of mechanics that actually take care of our buses.

Uh, we can do about 90, 95% of all of our, um, repairs in-house, certain things we

have to send out to be, uh, a heavy lift.

But we do have an operation that has, uh, dispatchers, supervisors,

drivers, and mechanics about a staff of about 52 to 55 employees total.

All right, Marcus.

So, um, tell U.S. about the service area that you serve.

Yeah.

Even though the city of Annapolis is about five and a half square miles,

we have about 40,000 residents.

We're a little bit more far reaching into the county and uh,

we're connecting with other, uh, services to get you to other places.

So, you know, going out to like the, um, community college,

which is in, uh, Arnold.

Oh, yeah.

On brought too, yeah.

I, yeah.

Down that direction Or to the mall, which is actually Save Annapolis,

but is actually in the county.

Okay, so we have five and a half square miles and about 40,000 residents.

But looking at not just the residents, but the businesses that are here,

and the Naval Academy is one of the big, uh, employers as well as Anne

Arundel, uh, county Medical Center.

Do Midshipman ride free?

Uh, that is a good question.

And you know what the answer is?

Uh, yes.

Is that right?

Uh, matriculating student?

Well, K through 12.

Yeah.

Rides free during the week.

Okay.

During school sessions.

6:00 AM to 6:00 PM but there is a, uh, student rate of $1.

Okay.

To approve.

So, yeah.

So the local college is like St.

John's?

Yes.

Which I believe is the second oldest college in the United States.

That's right.

Yeah.

They're big liberal arts school.

Very

well respected.

Yes.

Yeah, there's so many cool things around there, isn't there?

Just the cobblestones, just the, the brick streets?

Yes.

, The downtown area, the main street here is phenomenal.

Um, and you're, you're under the city of Annapolis and you kinda

report up through the mayor?

Yes.

Uh, through the city manager

and the mayor.

Yes.

That's good.

And you all connect in with your regional transportation partners,

like the RTA with Jason Kwan.

I mean, we just interviewed him the other day.

Uh, yeah, we wanna make sure we have, um, you know, those invisible

barriers that we can connect and get to, like Crofton or to, um, other.

, Employment hubs.

Yeah.

Arundel Mills Mall run.

Arundel Mills Mall.

Yeah.

Annapolis Mall probably.

Yeah.

So connecting with Howard County, um, Anne Arundel

County and of course Baltimore City.

They have the number 70 bus here, Paul, that one of their longest

routes from per capco to Annapolis so we can get, you know, other places

for employment and getting to the airport and all that stuff there.

Yeah, Annapolis is like right in the middle of Baltimore,

Washington corridor, isn't it?

It it really is.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So the MTA brings people down here from Baltimore, right?

On routes.

They, they do, yep.

That

one bus that does come every single day about, uh,

once every hour and a half or so, 20

minutes.

I

And you mentioned , you're piloting a, um, on demand.

You wanna tell U.S. about that and what do you think is gonna happen with that?

Yeah, the on demand service is, um, a subscription service.

You can call our office to actually, uh, make a reservation or you can

download the app and I'll send you information, Paul, on that.

But you can download the app and actually call that, uh, bus for

yourself and they'll tell you when a bus will actually be available to come.

Um.

Pick you up.

So what you actually do is go on.

Oh, she's doing it right now for me.

Yep.

You can book your up.

You show the app here.

Okay.

And it says where we are right now.

It says where I am at 1 45.

Um, main.

Okay.

Main.

Yeah.

Just

like an Uber.

It'll tell you where you're at.

Right.

It'll

tell you where you're at.

You tell U.S. where you want to go and it'll tell you how close.

'cause it's not like Uber will come right to you, but there's a geo fence.

It'll tell you where you need to go.

Yeah.

Which may tell U.S. uh, Gorman Street at Main Street.

Pick up the bus.

Oh.

It'll give you a corner spot to go to it.

It will.

Okay.

It'll tell you when your bus is coming.

You can actually track your bus.

And this is the same fair Paul as our regular fix route buses.

Wow.

So $2, or if you buy a daily pass, weekly pass, you can tap

that and go along that way.

Seniors are half price students.

, Disabled and handicapped are half price as well.

So $1, one way.

That's awesome.

So as I mentioned to you earlier, I, I grew up here in

Annapolis when I was very young.

My dad, we lived over in, uh, my dad had a job here in Eastport, , as

a pastor of a church over there.

And so we lived in the parsonage mm-hmm.

Uh, in Eastport and um.

I used to come over that bridge, but eSports, like

it's part of Annapolis, right?

Still it's, yes.

Yeah.

But it's very preppy.

I hear.

Yes.

The houses are very expensive and

Yeah, right on the water, that's is the next thing you know.

So it does get kind of bottleneck when you come out to kinda watch

the Blue Angels or things like that.

Yeah.

Um, but you have bus service all back in there?

We, we do have bus service down there.

We have a lot of service that goes from the mall to Eastport is a

turnaround point to come back out.

Okay.

So three of our routes actually do serve, um, Eastport all the

way to the mall and coming up.

Um, main Street that you saw earlier,

and you mentioned over lunch that you, um, you just

bought a couple electric buses.

We do.

Tell me about that.

We're really excited to have those in our fleet.

We have two 30 foot, , BYD, , buses that are fully electric, but they're made

here in America.

What's the name of the company?

Uh, the

company is our Ride.

And they're in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and this little built, um,

right here in the United States.

Yeah.

And

who's the sales guy?

Our buddy

that used to work with U.S. Uh, Carl Wheeler.

Carl, that's, do you remember Carl?

Yeah.

Man, he's my guy.

I like him.

Yeah.

So how's that working for you?

It's

working out very well.

Yeah.

Okay.

Uh, people love it, you know, clean, clean, green and quiet.

We have, is our logo on there, especially like

in a downtown area, like Yes.

Downtown

Annapolis.

They probably love that.

They do love it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We're trying to change our carbon footprint and making, you know,

the place a little bit better for the people that come behind U.S.

Yeah, we're doing

our share.

Well, that's wonderful.

Anything else you wanna talk about?

I

can't think of anything else though, Paul, thanks for coming

out and thanks for having U.S. You know?

Yeah.

Coming down to see U.S.

Thank you for listening to this week's episode

of the Transit Unplugged Podcast.

We're so glad you're here.

My name is Julie Gates.

I'm the executive producer of the show, and our goal is to create

programs that promote the great things going on in the transit industry

by providing you with behind the scenes access with industry executive

leadership so we can work together to find innovative industry solutions.

We would love to have you be a part of the Transit Unplugged community by

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Head to the show notes to find the link.

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