Super September is here on Transit Unplugged, and we're kicking it

off in a big way in New York City.

I'm Paul Comfort, and today I'm talking with Demetrius Critchlow.

He is the president of New York City Transit, the largest

transit system in America.

It's a system so essential that the majority of New Yorkers rely on public

transportation every day to live, work, and connect in their city.

Demetrius brings decades of experience with the MTA to his

role and is about to celebrate his first anniversary as president.

In our conversation, he pulls back the curtain on what it takes to run an

operation this massive, the challenges and the triumphs along the way, and the recent

customer experience improvements they're making, some of which may surprise you.

He also discusses how they're addressing crime on the system and

the role of congestion charging in America's largest city.

Whether you're a transit professional, a daily rider, or just curious about how a

city like New York City keeps moving, this is an inside look you won't wanna miss.

So let's dive into my conversation with Demetrius Critchlow,

president of New York City Transit.

Demetrius Critchlow, president of New York City Transit at the MTA, the number

one transit agency in America, baby.

Great to have you with us my friend.

Thank you for having me.

Excited to be able to chat.

I read a couple years ago, and I think it's still true, 40% of all the rides that

happen in America on public transportation on any given day happen in New York City.

Is that still about right?

Those numbers?

Yeah, that's still about right.

We like to flaunt that.

We are the big dog.

We're the big dog.

Yeah.

Well, tell us about it.

Tell us About the scope of what you do there in New York City.

Sure, sure.

So roughly 50,000 employees.

We operate subway, bus, and paratransit service.

Somewhere around 26, 27,000 on the subway side.

Somewhere in the 20,000 range for the bus side.

And, you know, we have the largest paratransit operation in North America,

and we also have some administrative functions that support the operations.

Yeah.

So I just had Justin Vonashek on, he's actually gonna be the

podcast for this coming week.

So tell us about the structure of how it all works in New York, 'cause you

have some commuter work, but you do the main stuff in the city, right?

As president of New York City Transit.

We are all under the MTA umbrella.

So consolidated functions for procurement, HR, budget.

You know, all of the administrative support that's not tied to the operations

comes out of the headquarters function.

Okay.

And, we share the reporting agencies of New York City Transit, Bridges

and Tunnels, Metro North, Long Island Railroad, and Capital,

Construction and Development.

It's exciting.

We have everything that runs in the city if it, as long as it's not yellow,

with rubber tires, we kind of handle it.

And, the system itself.

How's it going now?

Just like from a general perspective as president, what would you say if

you had to give yourself a report card now, how are things going?

I might be a little biased, but you know, performance is great.

It's been better than it has been since we've modernized technology to have

automatic time points for service.

We've been somewhere in the 84, 85% performance range, which is for us a

huge, huge improvement of where we were.

Yeah, man.

It's a challenged system.

I mean, it's a dated system over a hundred years old.

A lot of infrastructure, things that need to be repaired.

Aging fleet, both on the rail and bus side.

And, and everything is just large scale.

You know, when you're doing a replacement of a fleet it is a large

scale replacement, so it's just a very, very different beast than

most folks would have to deal with.

And again, we are doing great.

Doesn't mean that we can't do better.

Our paratransit operation has, without question, been one of the

shining stars, doing a fantastic job of supplying services, in ways

that many thought were not possible.

And has achieved an amazing customer satisfaction score

as a result of doing it.

Oh, that's wonderful.

I was working in DC for five years for MV running their paratransit

system about 15 years ago.

And that's such a critical part.

I thought we were big with 8,000 trips or 10,000 a day.

You've got 35, man.

Amazing.

Yeah.

So talk to us about your background.

I mean, you've had an amazing background to work your way up to this.

Give us your origin story.

Yeah, so I started as an assistant signal maintainer at the Long Island Railroad.

28 years ago.

I was literally climbing poles, running fiber optic cable, digging ditches,

working on crossing gates and then took progressive opportunities to improve.

Went to Towers, Dispatcher, went into management.

I've been in management at the control center for, 2 0 4, which

is Jamaica Control Center, Penn Station Central Control, and then

I transitioned to MTA headquarters, and then to New York City Transit.

I've worked as the head of field operations for service delivery, a general

manager for service of several lines.

I've been the head of the Rail Control Center, which is the largest

control center in North America.

I've been vice president of Staten Island Railway, Executive Vice

President for operations, senior Vice President leading all Subways.

And then, you know, to this position now at transit.

So it's been a long career.

Probably one of the only ones that have gone through the

organization starting from the bottom level to be able to get here.

So it's great.

I have a history in transit.

My grandfather was a porter, before the MTA existed, when transit

used to report up to the city.

And, my father worked here as a car inspector.

Both retired.

You know, it's in my blood.

It's been exciting to be able to fulfill a family's legacy

of getting to where I'm now.

That's beautiful.

I love that story, man.

My dad was born in Brooklyn, and when I was younger he used to tell me, you

know, he used to ride the subway for a nickel, I think it was, and he said

I could ride it all day for a nickel.

New York City really is for America, the New York City MTA, it's the

place where the transit service is kind of in your blood, right?

If you grow up there, that's how you get around the city, right.

Yeah, I mean, the reality is if you live in the city or any of the boroughs

within the city, your primary means of transportation is public transportation.

I mean, yeah, there are some of the extremes like Queens, some

portions of the Bronx that, that folks drive, but the reality is most

folks take public transportation.

I think the last percentage we did was something like 60% of New

Yorkers take public transportation, which is like, you know,

Yeah.

It's the primary means of transport here, which means you also have a

big accountability to be service.

When everyone, the entire city, the region, this huge conglomerate New

York, which is the mega, financial district is relying upon you to

be able to do your duty every day.

So it's a huge task, but exciting to be able to do it every day.

Yeah.

From a personal perspective, having kind of grown up in the system, what's it

mean to you to finally, I mean, to me, the message that sends to the employees

is, Hey, you know, you do a good job, you could end up in the top seat.

I love that message to your employees, but what does it mean to you personally?

Yeah, I mean, so I never set out to be president.

Yeah.

It was not on the list of things to do here.

I really just wanted to see if I could do a good job and the

opportunities just continue to grow.

So, it has been personally, a huge thing for me again to follow in the

footsteps of my family, my father.

Yeah, my father.

That's huge to be able to accomplish it.

But I think, as an organization that is predominantly minority,

it does also show the prospect for what you're capable of doing.

Sometimes the world isn't fair, but the reality is at New York City

Transit, we really do value diversity and making sure that the people who

have the skillset to do the job are in places to be able to do it well.

That's wonderful.

What a blessing.

So how would you describe your leadership style?

You've gone through all these positions, now you're in the top.

Tell us about that, especially with such a large and complex organization.

It's interesting because I think my style has changed a lot over the years.

When you start off at the low ended organization, you do what's necessary

to be successful at that level, and with each step you take, you have to grow,

you have to change, to be something that you weren't in order to be successful.

Most of our organizations are hierarchal and it'll be a position

that that's available to you.

And, generally the next person who gets the job is the next person whether

or not they're the most skilled or not, it's usually the senior person

that winds up getting the next job.

And so, you know, growing up in that organization you had to

really look for opportunities to be able to improve upon that.

I've been really big on confidence.

Finding people with the right skillset for specific positions.

And in some instances, they weren't necessarily the person

that has been here the longest.

Sometimes they weren't even individuals that were here.

But selecting people specifically for tasks, and I think that has been a

key element to support to my success.

My leadership, I gave you a brief description of the positions I had.

I think I've had somewhere in a range of 19 or 20 positions in

Wow.

I have been here.

And so I believe firmly that the more a person is exposed to an

organization, the more ability that they get to be able to see different

parts of the operation, get challenged, that strengthens you as a leader.

And so I've been really big about taking the team and pushing them,

throwing 'em into different areas that they've never led before.

Which is different for sometimes like for people because, you start an

organization, you kind of expect, like, this is my skillset, so I'm gonna stay

in these barriers, but in order for the organization to grow, especially when you

get to those senior levels of leadership, you need to challenge people to do more,

to hone their skills, to take on more and different types of experiences.

So, taking folks that have never set a day in a bus garage and

moving them over to buses from subways, it's like a huge change.

Sending people who worked at New York City Transit over the Staten Island Railway,

which is a completely different system.

Different rules, different unions, different agreements,

like challenging people to expand their mind and their horizon.

So that's really been a huge, part of my leadership and I think,

you know, with that, we've really grown the management team, and we

continue to grow the management team.

I would say I'm really big on respect, within the organization,

but earning the respect.

Uh, yeah.

And having worked in the operations, seeing a lot of the faces that are

out there working right now, you earn the respect of people 'cause

you stood with them in the trenches.

You were there for the derailments.

You were there through the snow storms.

You were there through the hurricanes, through flooding.

You were there.

And so you earned the respect of the people when you stand shoulder to shoulder

with them, tackling these major events.

And so I've always encouraged the team get out in the field.

We have days set aside, no meetings, that your job for that day as a leader

is to be out in the field, engaging your people, speaking to people, communicating

with them, finding out what their issues are, being there to be able to

support your operation to be successful.

So it's been a big, big part for me.

Yeah.

That's awesome, man.

I love that because too often, I think especially in bigger organizations,

people end up managing kind of by their laptop or managing by email, right.

If you're not out there in the field, I mean, you just said it, right?

Not only is the respect, it's also the knowledge that you gain that

you can't get unless you're there.

Really there.

Yeah.

And I mean, there is like amazing work that happens every day out in the field.

And

Sure.

It's my perception, my perspective, that if at the leadership level we

aren't seeing that, then we aren't doing our job to really promote it.

To talk about the agency, the people, the support, the needs of those folks.

You cannot do that unless you understand it.

If you like this episode of the Transit Unplugged Podcast, then you

will love what we have coming up.

We're calling it Super September because we're creating an all

star guest lineup just for you.

Let's face it, the world is rapidly changing and everything is so fast,

and our industry is speeding up.

So in September, the Transit Unplugged team is bringing you some of the biggest

voices in the industry from New York, Chicago, maybe even at the federal level.

I don't wanna tip our hand yet.

But you'll get a chance to learn how to manage all the policy and funding changes,

the post COVID funding fiscal cliff, how to do all of it, and so much more.

If you haven't yet subscribed to the podcast, do it now so you

don't miss a thing when Transit Unplugged brings you Super September.

Subscribe right now before you get distracted because we know something's

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some great shows in Super September.

Now back to Paul Comfort and this episode of the Transit Unplugged Podcast.

Let's switch to what's happening right now in the organization.

What are your top priorities now as president?

So we've tackled a couple things.

We set key things that we're focused on.

One has been modernizing service delivery.

So modernizing service delivery is overall looking at different ways

that we can improve our service.

Every system operates a service from end to end, but we've been

introducing new technology to be able to refine our service.

It's a complicated system and when a switch takes an extra 15 to 20

seconds to operate on every different switch move, and it operates 4-

or 500 times a day, that adds up.

It amounts to more time that you're gonna lose in your service.

And so literally looking down to the minute aspects, the minute forms of how

we provide service and looking for ways to improve upon them each, if you can

gain five, six seconds and every single instance, you can improve service.

And that's one of the things that we've been doing on subway side

to be able to improve our service.

On the bus side, we just rolled out the Queen's bus network redesign.

Which is a huge new system.

How we can look at the routes that our buses are taking.

They were still built on the old trolley system from years ago.

Neighborhoods have changed.

Where there were farms, you now have tenements and large

locations, homes, and everything.

And so we haven't changed over the years to be able to really support our riders.

So we did the largest, bus network redesign, I'm gonna

say in our history for sure.

For 700,000 riders of Queens it's a lot of work.

I mean, changing their routes so that you could have more direct routes to

connecting points to subway systems.

We created what's called a rush route, where some of our longer lines

will have a couple of stops, 5, 6, 7 stops in some of the longer areas.

And then come straight into the city.

Listening to customers and then focusing our redesign to

be able to meet their needs.

So, it was a really challenging way of looking at things which

we had not done in the past.

You know, sometimes we just, think we know what's best, but we really

gotta include our customers.

I'd say the second thing that I've been focused on is protecting

and supporting our employees.

We have a lot of employee assaults, and so focusing on how

do we protect those employees?

What relationships do we have to have with NYPD, protecting specific areas, what can

we do infrastructure wise to support them?

That's been a huge, huge support of me.

Again, having worked side by side with these individuals, it's important for me

to see that they're safe in their jobs.

The third thing has been hardening the system.

We had probably the largest fare evasion issue, probably in North America.

And we averaged somewhere around what we forecasted to be somewhere

around $700 million in revenue loss.

And so, really targeting efforts to be able to look at all of the

different indicators, specific areas that we are losing fares

and to target them one by one.

And, introduced Eagle teams on our buses to reduce fare evasion on buses.

We've done a host of infrastructure changes in our subway system to be

able to improve fare compliance, and all in all, we've had a huge,

huge reduction in fare evasion.

I think on the subway side, we reduced about 27% of fare evasion.

It's huge to be able to get that much, but it increases how

customers see us and what we do.

And the last thing I would say, it's certainly not the least, but

it's improving customer service.

When you have a huge system like this, sometimes you're just like,

listen, we're the only game in town.

You just need to get in line.

But that's not my perspective.

We really need to do a better job of listening to customers, hearing

their concerns, their complaints, and then being more supportive of them.

So we've rolled out a couple different things.

One, getting station agents out of the booth.

That was a huge, huge step forward in being able to

engage people where they are.

Helping them directly with the systems.

And then introducing customer service centers where a person used to have

all of the major work that you'd have to come all the way down to

2 Stone Street in Manhattan to be seen to get a reduced fare card.

But you know, now having the ability to service these people at

customer service centers has been a huge, huge shift in the culture.

We introduced 15 of them, about a year ago, and now we're looking

at rolling out another 15.

Changing how we trained people so that they could better support our

customers, giving them different tools so they can have more information.

Giving them cell phones with apps on customer service, different languages.

Apps on service, service strategies, like giving them the tools to

be able to do better at customer service with our customers.

It really has been about focusing on how do we, even though we're so

big, how do we focus on providing better service for our customers?

That's awesome.

What about, you mentioned the customer service thing, down here

in Maryland, I'm reading the New York Post and it's a lot of stories

about crime and stuff on the system.

Can you give us an update of what you're doing there to address the concerns?

Yeah, so we don't have a police force for New York City Transit.

The NYPD has a transit force, which Chief Gullota is the lead for.

I mean with Chief Gulotta on a recurring basis to talk through

different concerns, issues that we have.

And so for us it really is about partnership.

Talking to them about some of the trends that we're seeing, not just for

customers but for our employees as well.

Talking about the incidents where we're seeing assaults on the rise,

talking about instances where we're seeing a higher number of vagrants.

One of the things that we rolled out was a scout program, which is a combination

of a mental health provider and a MTA police or NYPD, and they have the

ability to be able to take someone to get the help that they need, even in

the instances where they don't want it.

Which is a huge change from us to be able to help people who need the help.

But I would say for our part, for New York City Transit, since

I've been here we've installed cameras in all of our train cars.

All of our train cars, multiple cameras.

So, even in our stations we have cameras in all of our stations.

So telling customers, listen, this is not your old transit system where

there were so many blind spots.

All of these guys who have committed these crimes, they're getting caught.

The NYPD has been responsive posting posters up of these

individuals and they get them.

99% of the time.

And then it really does rely on the court system to be able to take the next steps.

And so the MTA hired a criminal justice advisor and she's been fantastic in being

able to deal directly with the ADAs.

Kathryn Falasca has been a big proponent of tracking incidents.

This person assaulted a customer, this person assaulted an employee.

When's the next hearing on that individual, who needs

to be there to support it.

And so it's been, a huge effort to be able to fight.

This is not one of the ones where you actually declare victory.

You continue to fight this until your career is over.

It's, it's, yeah, it doesn't go away.

So what is exciting you, what's the most, you know, innovation or

technology that you're most excited about deploying in the system next?

I will say it's not new, new, but CBTC, Communications Based

Train Control, is new for us.

We have two lines fully with it now and we're rolling out more.

Most systems, and I'll say our system as well, we were really adverse to change.

And so when we first rolled out CBTC, we did it as a signal overlay.

It's literally on top of our existing signal system.

And so the systems are fully functioning.

I mean, throughout the world CBTC has been kind of established

as the future of our signaling.

So that's the way we've been going.

You know, since I've taken the lead, we have been saying like, we're

going to get rid of the conventional signal systems and focus more on

Communications Based Train Control.

But I've taken that same perspective on other areas.

So we're just, we just created a team now.

Everyone has what they do well, right?

You buy this switch because, you know, you work with this manufacturer for the

last 20, 30 years, and everyone has that same thing, whether it's a switch, a piece

of signal equipment, it's a converter, it's an inverter, it's whatever it is.

It's that thing that we've always done and, you know, so we created a team.

We have a benchmarking team that talks to the industry and says, internationally,

what are you doing for this?

What are you doing to work on this challenge?

Now we just expanded that to include a group that will go out there

and see what is your best widget?

What is your best switch?

What is your best inverter, converter.

What are the things that you benefit from in your car classes?

What bus manufacturers are you doing really well with?

Are there pieces of safety that you've been using that

have benefited your employees?

Having a group go out there and say, what are the best things that are being

done in the system and how can we bring them back to New York City Transit?

Doesn't mean that everything will be able to be accepted, but at least having the

mechanism in place that goes out there and looks at that and then determines

whether or not it can be included.

So I'm excited about being able to affect change.

It's funny because this position has always been a one, two,

maybe three year position.

And you know, when you have a really short turnaround like that, it's hard to

be more strategic on where you need to.

You're not really, you're focused on like today, right?

There's always gonna be emergencies like, so you always get bogged

down with the emergencies.

But it doesn't give you the time to be strategic.

I am a career employee and so I have time.

It does give me the opportunity to say, listen, where would I like to

see the organization five years?

Where would I like to see it 10 years down the line?

What is the trajectory?

How do we put that on the right trajectory to get there?

Yeah.

I may not see it 10, 15, 20 years down the line, but I will have the time to

be able to put in to get it there, to be able to put it on that trajectory.

So tell us, what would you like to see in five or 10 years?

Do you have it thought out?

Absolutely.

So, I'm coming up on my one year anniversary in October, and what I'll

be laying out is over the next two years, the things that I'd like to

accomplish or set in motion, and a lot of it is on the capital side, right?

Yeah.

We now have this capital program that we just introduced, which is exciting,

but it's on us to deliver, right?

And we have to deliver that without having an impact to our customers and

giving the true benefit intended for it.

Get a substation that comes in new substation.

Fantastic.

You haven't replaced any of the cables tied to the substation.

When there's a power outage, you're gonna say just change the substation.

So being able to introduce functional systems so that each time you introduce

something that's set to improve our service, being able to put check

that one off as a new accomplishment.

I'm excited.

So I think working through the long-term issues of how do we best

serve tomorrow for our customers, is a really exciting thing for me and

ultimately being able to put my stake in as one of the, if not the premier

presidents of New York City Transit.

So, and that's what congestion charge is about, right?

I mean, a lot of people hear about congestion charging, they don't understand

the money's going to capital, righ?

Rich Davey told me that when he was there, when it was first getting

going, I remember I interviewed him like at APTA or something like that,

and I didn't even know it then.

He said, oh yeah, all the money's going into capital.

Yeah.

And I think most people, they really focused on the funding, right?

Yeah, the funding on capital.

But the reality is it has a huge benefit to our customers.

Bus service has sped up considerably since we introduced congestion pricing

because less people are driving.

And so the buses, we have some buses that have picked up five to seven minutes

worth of time coming into the city since we introduced congestion pricing.

And those who continue to still ride, even their commutes are now better

because there are less cars on the road.

So ultimately, there are huge benefits for the region, not to mention clean air,

the fact that we're a congested system.

Unless you've lived in New York, you have no idea what noise is.

But it is amazing to be able to hear a different New York,

especially at nighttime.

It's pretty amazing.

Alright.

One final fun question.

What's one thing you wish more people understood about the complexity

of running New York City Transit?

So I think most people see the front facing employees, they see

conductors, bus operators, they see customer service station agents.

But they have no idea the level of expertise that goes

into running the system.

Our drainage system, for example, we take on 18, 17 million gallons

of water, a day when it's dry out.

Mm-hmm.

Now to be able to maintain a system that is not only free flowing so that

the water can go to the drains, but also big pumping mechanisms to be able

to pump this water out into the sewer system, is a huge task that no one

even knows happens behind the scenes.

When you talk about substations, no one knows what it's like to

maintain or operate a substation.

They have no idea.

When we talk about our car barns.

Nobody wants to replace it, a barn, right?

They say, oh, we want new cars, but why do you have to replace the barn?

Well, that barn doesn't have ceiling heights tall enough to be able to

repair the air compressors on the cars.

There is not enough space for an employee to work safely in between the two

cars, much less get under the train.

So being able to look at how do we affect this system and having our customers see

that it's not just a simple as the front facing employees, it's like a watch.

There's a whole host of things that are going on behind the scenes,

and all you see is the time of day.

I love that analogy, Demetrius.

That's really good.

Yeah.

So they're just looking at the driver on their bus, not understanding

that that's the tip of the iceberg would be underneath the surface.

A lot going on to make it happen, huh?

Absolutely.

Well, great talking to the guy who's at the very top of the iceberg, making it

happen, and it's wonderful that you even know all this because you came up through

the organization, so you know the places to look and where we need the support.

Thank you so much again for your time today, Demetrius,

and we wish you the very best.

I'm hoping I've been talking to your media department about coming up there

and actually filming an episode of Transit Unplugged TV there next year to show them.

Maybe we can get into there, into a substation and you can show us or one of

your guys can, you know, look at that.

See, we gotta keep that running all day long.

I'd love, love to have you.

Love to have you.

Yeah, that'd be great.

Well, thank you so much for being with us and we wish you the best, Demetrius.

Thank you so much.

Good chating with you.

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

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Head to the show notes to find the link.

Thanks for listening to Transit Unplugged with Paul Comfort, our favorite transit

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