December 3, 2024 • 30 mins
Community DC Host Dennis Glasgow visits with CEO and General Manager for WMATA Randy Clarke. Topics Include: Exciting growth since Covid, New Faregates, Safety, New trains, Fares, Budgets and the exciting future for Metro Trains and Business in the DMV!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, and welcome to another edition of Community d C.
I'm your host Dennis Glasgow. This morning we get a
chance to talk about transportation, specifically the Washington Metropolitan Area
Transit Authority also known as WMATA, WAMATTA, or you might
know it as Metro and the DMV. Our guest this
morning is the gm and CEO Randy Clark. Like myself,
(00:21):
a lot of you probably have either ridden Metro or
are regular users of the trains or the buses on
your commute to get around from work. Aaron's are heading
to a sporting event. Over the next thirty minutes, we'll
delve into all the things that Randy and his team
have accomplished and the exciting things that are coming up.
So here's my conversation with Randy Clark of the WMATA.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Good morning, Randy, Good morning today.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I'm well, it's a thrill to talk to you because
as a Northwest DC representative, I ride Metro and I
ride it pretty regularly.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
I know you do too.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
You know, one of the cool things, and there's so
much to talk about with you when it comes to
everything that is Metro. The buses, the the initiatives, all
the things that are happening for the future. There's new
lines coming up, new trains coming up. I'm excited as
a resident and somebody that uses a regularly in the DMV.
But I first wanted to talk about public transportation in general,
(01:13):
because I know this has been in your history, not
just since you know, twenty twenty two as you joined
as GM CEO, but this has been a part of
what you do for a long time. I'm just curious,
you know, back in twenty twenty twenty two, what kind
of guy you excited about joining Metro.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, well, I.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Mean, like honestly, Dennis, we could talk about that all
day long. And I'm glad to use the system what
we were treating you well every day. I use the
system every day, so listeners should know that. I think
last year I had over six hundred trips on the system,
so I planned on having a ton again this year.
I use the bus and train almost every single day.
My wife and I live in the city, so I
do that, and then, you know, I.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Think that's the best way to get out and see the.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Product too, right, talk to customers every day, talk to staff,
eyes on things, try to get things resolved quickly.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
You know, always say if you're going to own a restaurant,
you should eat at it. And that's kind of the
motto I try to live by.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
So you know what mean got me kind of I
got listen. I fell into transit, just like you know,
you didn't follow in the radio. You got a goodvoice
for radio, but voice is not a thing for transit.
So I fell into transit. Early grad school, I got
a job. I started working in the kind of the
space a little bit, worked in the Boston system for
a lot of years, came down here, worked in the
(02:26):
National Association, got recruited. I ran the system and system
in Austin for a little bit, and then I got
this and honestly very happy.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
They're a great time to live in having a good time.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
And I got a call about this opportunity, and I
said to a few people the only place I would
leave that job for was to run Metro.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
And in some way.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
People are like, are you out of your mind? Why
would you want to run Metro? Right, It's it's like,
you know, like the history of the roller coaster here,
and and you know, honestly, in twenty two there was
a lot of challenges, right. There was a the post pandemic,
which every agency had, but pretty deep here because of
the federal government and my ages here. So it's just
the pandemic set in here a little deeper than a
(03:09):
lot of other cities and regions, good or bad, and
not judging it, just just actually obviously there was a
seven thousand series train issue. All the trains were sidelined,
had serious hiring issues, and we had very little ridership,
so lots of other things going on as well.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
So I came into an eyes wide open. I knew
it was going to be a big challenge.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
That's actually why I want up the opportunity. To me,
it's arguably the most complex transit system in the country.
We have, like my board is made up of three
states and the federal government, so and everyone has a
jurisdictional veto so it's very complex governance, very complex fund
funding model, but a big, huge workforce. And obviously we
(03:51):
were part of the National Security framework at the same time,
so that's what got me really interested.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I had the opportunity.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
I'm really appreciative I had the opportun been here two
and a half years and feel really proud of what
this team has been able to accomplish for the region.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Right, that's the end the DEA. We're here to serve
the readier.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Well, thanks for that context. And there is, as I mentioned,
a ton to talk to you about writership, your customers.
I'm one of them, I know you are too. Also,
fairs and all the different budgets, new trains coming on,
new lines coming on.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Why do we do this?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Let's start because you mentioned the pandemic, and it's not
new news that everybody got affected by that, including the
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, especially when it came to
Metro rail. But when it comes to that, as you
adopted that after COVID and you saw maybe issues and challenges,
where are we today two and a half years after
that when it comes to ridership.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
Yeah, ridership just decimated. You know, probably the three industries
that got the most impact of by COVID are the
medical field. Obviously, right that was the number one healthcare,
But after that, I would say schools and transit are
probably the next two on the list. Most people don't
want to be on buses and during the bed where
(05:02):
people are worried about.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Spreading disease and dying for obvious reasons.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Then this work work from home phenomena kicked into a
much higher level. So all of those things kind of
all built together. So when you look at ridership, we've
done an incredible job of recovering, especially to a lot
of our peers in the country. So right now we
actually carried more people on the bus system than we
did before the pandemic. So we are leading all large
(05:28):
bus operators in the country on recovery, and that speaks
to the frequency network we built and the kind of
quality of service that we're trying to get out there.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
On the street.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
To do that, you need to staff up, and we
had a big staffing problem, so we really got straight
and I got here on staffing to deliver that service.
On the rail side, last year, I believe we were
the highest percent growth, and this year through the end
of September is the most recent data, we're leading again
all large United States transit rail operators in growth. So
(06:03):
we now carry more people on the weekends than we
used to before the pandemic.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
And you know, so our big big days now we've
a lot of days we're in a little bit of
a holiday lull. Now DC area kind of empties out
a little bit.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Most people listening would know that are kicks back in
in January.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
But our bigger days now are you know, nine fifteen,
nine hundred and twenty thousand a day.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
So we expect in the spring to probably get back
closer to a million, depending on how things are moving,
you know, we expect obviously the federal workforce. It sounds
like there might be some more return to office in
play coming in January as well. So we built up
really high frequent network. Though you may.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Recall living here for a while, I used to live
here mentor.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Used to run a very what we would call it
tight peak, so a lot of trains in peak service,
but at night in the weekends, there's a lot more,
if you will, gaps between trains. So now we run
a better frequency all day, all week and the idea
is to serve everyone in the region, not necessarily just
people working in offices. So midday if you're going to
(07:04):
a healthcare appointment, at night you're going to a game
or a concert. Weekends you're going to the mall, this
a museum or an event. The frequency is much higher,
and that's what's really inducing a lot of people using.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
The service well, and I noticed there's a difference to
Randy because I'm the one that takes the Georgia Avenue
Petworth all the way to Gallery Place for all the
Caps and Wizards games and Concertstown there. It's easy and
I love it, and there's a lot of frequency, especially
with the masses that you have during an event that's
down in Chinatown.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
So I'm very appreciative.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
You know.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
One of the other things I want to talk to
you about the many different topics is the new trains.
And you mentioned the seven thousands and issues that we're
had with them, but I've been on them several times,
by the way, as you know as a regular writer,
it is a beautiful train air condition, especially during the summertime.
I imagine you're getting great feedback from it. I know
that newer trains are coming down the line, and don't
(07:51):
know if you can talk about that today, but let's
just talk about the seven thousands and about the integration
of those and are we going to still see the
older trains for quite a long time for some years
as you continue to make the changes.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Yeah, I think that's that's a great topic talk about Dennis.
So we finally retired our two thousand series trains.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
About forty forty years old.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
So you know, people like you know sometimes if you
have a train issue, I think some people can get
rightfully frustrated.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
But it'd be equivalent of driving.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
A car from like nineteen eighty two. You drive it
seventeen to twenty hours a day, and a lot of
other people get to drive it during the day too, right,
And that's the kind of workload these things take. So
right now we have we got all of our seven
thousand series trains back. We had we did a preventive
(08:38):
maintenance issue with the wheels just to ensure that there's
this really technic technicality thing about derailment that happened before
I got here. No one got hurt, none of that,
but but obviously you know, a risk problem that we
had to manage. So we brought in some expert people
when I got here. We solved that problem. All of
the wheels have been repressed, just mitigated any chance of
(09:01):
it even happening. I think the chance is incredibly low,
but you know, safety verse, we took care of that.
So now the fleat availability means we got rid of
the two thousands. We have a new eight thousand series
train and by the way, the seven thousands a great train. Yes,
it is very very reliable train. Last year we had
the highest reliability of any heavy rail fleet in the country,
(09:23):
so basically how long between a breakdown on the train.
We have one little issue on a brake system that
we've identified and we're putting a fix in on that,
so we think that number is even going to go
higher next year. But overall, just a really rock solid
good train and incredibly sophisticated with data, a lot of
video on there, data analytics that we're going to start
using AI for previctive maintenance.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
So really good train. We have a new train though,
the eight thousand series.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
It's actually being built by our Haitachi is the name
of the manufacturer, and they are building.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
They just built a.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
New factory in Hagerstown, Maryland, and they'll be building an
assembling there.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
So the first part gets done in.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
Italy and then they'll be done over in Hagerstown. So
our first batch of trains will start around twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Very complex systems to get this.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
Done and those will allow us to replace the three
thousand series, So the oldest trains from there. We do
have options that we could replace six thousand or grow
the fleet from there, because at some point we'll need
more trains to run more frequent services this region. We're
predicted to gain a million people over the next twenty
thirty years here, so obviously we'll need service more at
(10:34):
some point.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
And then and then Randy, those those eight thousands just
for a second, I think I saw you kind of
debut it in the pr Thing is, are those the
trains that you can actually walk through from train to train?
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Yeah, exactly mentioned so that in our business we call
that open gangway kind of maybe a geeky transit term,
but the idea is you could walk between railcars and
it creates a more seamless So we're going to do
that as two car sets, so not the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
So it allows us for better maintenance and optionality around it.
But basically, beat.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
People could spread So you say, coming after a Caps game,
so I went to the I went to the Wizards
game the other night. Right, as soon as people get off,
trains get packed, and if we could spread people out,
poor it ends up more space. It's also better for
people with grocery cards. Luggage to the airports or union
station bikes that type of thing as well. So we're
(11:23):
creating more space and it's just a better user system.
So that's how that train will come from Hitachi. So
we're looking forward. Then we'll have all the doors, we'll
line up with the seven thousand, so we'll have a
little bit more closer to a homogeneous feeling and maintenance fleet,
which will lead to more efficiency long term as well.
So yeah, we're really excited to work with our partner
(11:43):
for that delivered.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Do you have a do date about when you hold
to plan to start to integrate them.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Yeah, in twenty twenty seven, we'll have our pilot cards
and then from there, the way our business works, you
get a couple of cars, you test them out. I
think we get four to four in the pilot, go
through very rigorous testing, and from there they start delivery,
usually a couple every week, or two or four every
week or every other week across probably a year and
a half cycle.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Well, really exciting. I didn't want to talk to about
all the lines because it seems like exponentially thing has
been growing in the last decade. There's been extensions, of course,
you know the Silver Line and all the way out
to Dallas, which a lot of people that are from
Washington that are traveling to Dulles and being an international airport,
that's got to be huge for you guys. But also
the Purple lines being built right now too. So I
(12:28):
don't know what you want to tackle about the different
lines and the extensions, but I'll leave it for you
because you're the expert and you know everything about it.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
But did you want to expound on any of that.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
For us well and give some insight tell your listeners
on a couple of So one, the Silver Line is great,
so this time of year, holiday season, very busy of
TA Dallas specifically National is arguably the best rail connected
airport in the United States.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
I use both.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
We work very closely with our airport partners on a
lot of things there, so we definitely encourage people to
use the system.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
It's very frequent and it's very well in grades of
the airports.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
So that was a good extension that that part on
the Silver Line is actually growing faster than the rest
of the system. So it's again a good example of
kind of transit development builds. So it's kind of like
if you were in the balls in the Courthouse area.
You know, twenty five years ago, it does not look
like it looks today. And so where Metro goes, the
community kind of tends to grow, and that concentrated development,
(13:25):
it's an enormous amount of economic development along that corridor.
You know, overall, the way this region works is about
three percent of our land is around half a mile
within a Metro station.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
So think about that, only three percent, but it makes.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Up almost a third of our regional tax space. So
that's how much development and actual tax space and economic
you know, jobs and activity happens around Metro. It's almost
a third within three percent of our land. It's amazing.
On the Purple Line, just your listeners, edification, that's actually
(14:02):
not a Metro project. That's that project is being done
by Maryland Dot.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Okay, So it's.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
It's not our project. We've it's never been our project.
We're working with them best we can, obviously, to help
them facilitate getting that project done, completed, and online. So
a good example would be at Silver Spring that's going
to integrate to our station, the Red Line station, same
as Bethesda, kind of connect into New Carrollton and over
(14:29):
the College Park. The college parks are not exactly aligned
with the station, but the idea is we are trying
to be the best partner to make it as seamless
possible when that line is up and running, because a
lot of customers will obviously transfer between the lines.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Right, no doubt. Okay, well, let's do this.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
I want to talk about some safety initiatives because I've
noticed them as a customer, and I know you have
to and I do want to hear about, you know,
customers talking to you regularly because you ride it regularly.
But with that said, the new sharegates are up, and
they're certainly up at my Georgia Avenue Petworth station, and
I welcome it like everybody else who's a paying customer.
But also I've noticed that the Metro Transit Police Department
(15:06):
has got a regular role now that I see more
often and listen, I'm a big guy, but I still
love to feel safe, and I love it that these
initiatives are going on. Talk a little bit about those
and some other safety initiatives, because I think they're all
really welcome to Rannie.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah, well thanks, I gotta tell you that's probably the thing.
Maybe I'm most proud of the team for the work
on because when I.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Got here in the summer of twenty two, I mean,
I think it was fair to say the system was
not as safe as we wanted it to be.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
You know, it was not as many people.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
So we're also, I should not like a transit system
is like a park, the more people are on it,
the safer it is. Yeah, And so you know, eight
o'clock at night, two people to park, you might not
feel as safe walking through it. Same as on a
train if there's three people on there, you're like, if
there's eighty people on there, obviously it feels much more normal.
And you know that's what community's about, right, So the
(16:00):
previous gates you could kind of just walk over. It
was the number one thing I heard complaints about.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
So we retrofitted every station.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
Eighty two percent production of fair of asion on the
rail side, which has not only helped us significantly from
our revenue side and revenue at our place.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
You know, there's no profit center here, We're not.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
We're a service oriented organization pays for service, so that
is a big deal for the balance sheet.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Secondarily, it's allowed us to really.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
To weed out some people that are doing disruptive behavior
on the system. So not everyone that would fairravate commits
other activities on the system.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
I think that's clear.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
But universally, if you do bad things on the system,
you've also fair at it, you know.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
And so we're a microcosmic society.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
If we move nine hundred thousand people a day, we
believe we're the safest part of the entire region where
that happens. But like every place, crime could make its
way onto Metro. Like I always say, we're not a
community are We move the community right, So if there's
crime in an area could leed into Metro that way.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
So we've really worked hard the last quarter year.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
Overy year, crime is down forty percent than it was
last year across every category, serious prime to a less
serious prime. Our trans and police department has done a
fantastic job.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
We brought in a lot of special police officers.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
We have people that walk the trains literally up and
down the trains, checking in with people harder. On the
bus system, we're actually ramping up very significantly in a
couple of weeks of big fair enforcement activity on the
bus side.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
We hear it from people that are paying customers.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
They want people to pay their fair share because their
fairs pay per service. We also did something pretty unique here.
We hired what we call crisis intervention specialists. So we
have a group of ten people kind of mental health experts,
if you will, and they go around the system and
try to help people that may be experiencing mental health issues,
experiencing homelessness, and try to connect people with services. And
(17:59):
our thing is is, you know, we don't do those services,
So we're getting people off the system and try to
connect them with the services, whether it's in DC, Maryland
or Virginia that are better able to deal with that.
So we've helped they've interacted with a thousand plus people.
Those individuals either get help or we help them try
to connect with something else. But you put all those
(18:20):
efforts together, we have over thirty thousand cameras in our
system that we've really.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Upgraded and made them much more real time use.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
So when you put all that together, you know, we've
really taken on the safety piece very heavenly.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
You know, you said, I.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
Use the system every day, my wife uses the system.
There's nothing I care more about than the safety of
the people to use the system or my employees. You know, Unfortunately,
from time to time we'll have an employee that might
get assaulted. Unfortunately, there's crime in the world, and there's
illness in the world, and we are trying to make
our system as safe as possible, so people feel that
way and use it. I think the fact that our
(18:58):
ridership has increased so much shows that. To give you
another stat you know, quite frankly, I think this proves
where we've done well to us The number one stat
that matters is customer satisfaction, and that is basically what
people think of us.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
So we were two years ago in the mid.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
To high sixties on what people thought about, and one
of the big categories that pushed down on that was
perception of safety. Last quarter we just announced last week,
actually the last quarter results on rail side ninety two
percent and on bus eighty three percent. Now bus, because
we don't control the roadway, it's always a little less
because it takes the trip a little bit longer depending
(19:35):
where you are. Those are both the highest we've ever
had in the history of the organization, so literally since
the shovel has been put in the ground here to
build the system. Those are the highest people have said
they rate the quality they're getting out of Metro.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
So we you know, perfect, No, every day is not
going to be perfect. We have nine hundred.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Thousand thousand people, we have thirteen thousand customers, a lot
of equipment. We're never going to be perfect, but we're
pretty proud of where we are right now and moving
this region.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
I appreciate you sharing all that, and I can tell
folks unequivocally and to be honest, and I've noticed a
big difference, especially when it comes to the fairgates and
the police presence. And I also think, you know, having
those people on the ten Metro Ambassadors is so brilliant
because listen, it's an issue, man, I mean, we talk
(20:20):
about this all the time in every urban area. There's
just a lot of people with mental health issues and
also the homelessness. So I'm glad that you're addressing that,
Randy with your team. I think it's a wonderful idea.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yeah, no, thanks.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
At the end of the day, orderliness is important, you know,
I'm not interested in having it. You know, like quite frankly,
we never gave a citation and an arrest, we would
be very happy. We're we're not looking to do that.
But right people deserve to be able to use the
public transportation system safely to get to where they're going right.
And the people that I hear the most that actually
(20:53):
appreciate our efforts are usually elderly people or people that
might feel more vulnerable.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
You know that you're a big guy.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
I'm not necessari a big guy, but I can look
after myself. But you know, people women, unfortunately in our society,
get a disproportionate amount of harassment in public places. So
you know, elderly people have to see bad behavior. So
we really try to crack that down, not as a
you know, a strong police thing, as much as it
(21:20):
is a respectful society should be able to use public
transit in a respectful way.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
And that's the way we've I've got about it.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
So cleverliness matters, our resculator, I'll lator matter.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Our trains being on time and not breaking down matter.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
So you know what I tell people all the time
is the little stuff is what matters, because if you
do enough of the little stuff right in totality, the
good stuff, it's the big thing. Don't worry about the
big splashy thing. Do all the basics. Well, when that happens,
you can do a lot of good government well and then.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
For me, and I'm sure you two and your team
proofs in the pudding. Right, you're getting the customer satisfaction,
you're hearing the feedback that everybody is better, and those
numbers are.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Dramatically down, which is huge.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
I did want to talk to you about fears and
budget and I know this is its own category. I've
always been a firm believer in no matter if it's
a restaurant or a department store, a big box or
on Amazon, that you get what you pay for. That's
just how I roll. And I know fares have gone
up a little bit. I've been one of those people
that said, oh, here goes another fairy increase. But listen,
with all these additions that you've been making, when the
(22:19):
faregates and the transit police and the crisis intervis specialists
and you know, the maintenance that goes on that people
don't know about but you might follow you on X.
I do want to address that before we get out here,
because I think you guys are wonderful communicator to the
public when things are going on. But let's talk a
little bit about fares and budgets right now. If you
could for me just expound in those categories.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
Yeah, so obviously listen, I think you hit the nail ahead.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
You do get what you pay for now. Our job
is to be efficient.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
I'm a taxpayer like everyone else, so we want to
be efficient. Since I've been here, we've identified just over
five hundred million dollars of savings between the operating and
capital budget, which is an enormous amount of money. Some
of that last year and this year, A little bit
is for the next three years in the upcoming capital budget,
but all distinct savings around how we do business and
(23:05):
how we were able to work through things. Myself and
the whole staff took a zero merit increase, so no
one got to raise this year to help balance our budget,
which is very hard in a very expensive region, in
a region.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
With very low unemployment and inflation.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
So that was a big sacrifice by the team, but
we thought it was the right thing to do to
show our customers and our jurisdictional partners, because our bill
is really paid by DC, Maryland and Virginia in a
lot of ways, and then the customers pay the other.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Part, you know. On that we did raise fares.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
We raised them thow to make up for the rate
of inflation since they were raised last years ago.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
So you know, it wasn't like every year we're just
raising them.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
It was really to get back up to inflationary level,
and we've seen that that is.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Actually people have not left the system.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
Some people get worried about you know, elasticity, but people
have stuck with the system because they realized generally speaking,
it's still much cheaper than ever owning a car or
getting around in a car.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
It's a very affordable way to get around. And we
cover a vast area of the DMV, so overall our budget,
we've really tried to pull that in. I will say
the big challenge we have, and we have this initiative
called DMV Moves we have our partners of the Council
of Governments and all the elected officials around the region,
is we have a long term capital problem here.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
So the money.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Needed to do state of good repair we call it,
which is maintenance of equipment, maintenance of track and power
systems and vehicles and you know all of that kind
of stuff.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
It's an expensive business to run.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
It's sophisticated, it's complex, it's been very safety critical stuff
so there's there's not a room for error.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
So that stuff.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
There was a bill done back in twenty eighteen in
this region to kind of fill that gap, but that
gap was never indexed, so kind of like Social Security
was never index right, and unfortunately, you know, what seemed
like five hundred million dollars back then was a lot
of money and it is wrong, but I'm not indexing it.
We've already lost twenty five to thirty percent of the
(25:05):
purchasing power because of inflation since twenty eighteen. So basically,
like everything in life, if you don't have an index fund,
you're going to eventually burn through that money. So that's
one thing we're working with all the partners. How do
we rebalance the capital account? Index it and then this
place has to be that sustainable dedicated funding. But then
(25:25):
Metro also owns the responsibility to run the system with
that dedicated money, and it can't keep putting its hand out.
So there's a gift from our region that's going to
have to come together and say this one hundred plus
billion dollar asset that clearly moves the region based on
like I said, three percent of land drives the economy.
But at the same time Metro needs to say, hey,
we got to live within our means as well. So
(25:45):
I think that's a really good, healthy, transparent conversation going
on in the community.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Agreed. I appreciate you being candid about that.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
We've only got about three nap minutes left and I
do want to tackle very quickly, just for about a
minute or two, the strategic transformation plan, because I know
that's a big deal. Well, and then we'll get some
final thoughts with you, but can you talk about that
because there are kind of four buckets that are pretty interesting.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
Yeah, So we put this in together and I got here.
I felt like we needed a real, a true strategy
plan with our board based on all of our stakeholder input.
And you're really focusing about orienting the place. If it's
if it's not about strategy moving forward, what's it about?
And you know this is why we're becoming much more
of a digital organization.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Right it's twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
We have an AI team already set up, and how
we're thinking through things and now we're moving all of
our digital assets, how we invest in our people.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Right at the end of.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
The day, they're not just to do the job that
they did twenty years ago. How is it the job
of the future, and how are we going to train them?
And we hold them accountable, but we empower them to
be better, you know, so driving everything through transparency and
data metrics. So really granted the whole organization, and so
everything we do, our capital plan, I attend personally, monthly
and other meetings that are all driven by our data
(26:55):
and performance. And you know, that's how we really see
this organization. So we built a plan based on performance
and accountability.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
So, Randon, we got about two minutes left.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
We will give the website to everybody, because a lot
of things we've talked about are on your gorgeous, easy
to navigate websites, So we'll give that in just a second.
But sir, just some final thoughts from you. You and
I could talk for hours about this. I know I could,
because I love everything that you're doing with Metro and
I know you have such a hard working team. But
just some final thoughts the floors here, sir.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Yeah, well, I appreciate that, and good. I really enjoyed
the conversation.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
And you know, I do encourage people to follow us.
You know, we got a lot of social media that
we do our website.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
We want engagement.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
You know.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
My whole thing to people is simple.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
We are working very hard to deliver the best system
possible for this region. We're here to serve the region.
We are never going to be perfect every day. We
are thirteen thousand of us. Listen, I've been married for
a long time. I make a lot of mistakes. Since
my wife would tell me it's okay to make a mistake.
The key is to learn from it and continually get better.
We encourage people to use the system. It is this
(27:59):
community system. People pay for it, they use their tax
dollars to fund it.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
It's there.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
Let us know how we can be better, but get
out and use the thing that is valuable to this region. So,
you know, encourage people the next time they're thinking about
driving and parking, say they're coming downtown for like you
mentioned a caskame, take the train and give it a try,
and if you haven't done it in years, we hope
that you'll be pleasantly surprised that you know it's clean.
We believe with the cleanest system in the country, the
safe at sists in the country. We have great frequency
(28:26):
and we hope people are willing to if they haven't
been on give us try. And the people they do
use all the time, we thank them for choosing Metri.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
So Randy, let's give the website to everybody.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
Yeah, wellmana dot com. You can hit us on all
the socials too. We're on Twitter, Willmai follow me, wimana
GM let me know how.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Things are going.
Speaker 4 (28:42):
We're on blue Sky, We're on Instagram, TikTok, if it's
shaken out there.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
We're on it.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Well, And I wanted to tell you because I mentioned
this a few moments ago. I'd be remiss if I
didn't say that. I follow you on a lot of
different social media and the people that you have working
on they're do an excellent job. It's in real time.
They're also updates and it's it's all the time. So
the people that you have working on that, I just
give them kudos because they really it's hard. It's hard
to update up people in real time and all the
(29:10):
things that are going, but they do a great job.
Speaker 4 (29:12):
I will thank you, thank you for manchall that it's
you know, Colums, is very hard because everyone is instantaneous.
But we're trying to get real good, transparent awful information.
At the same time, have a little fun on there too,
because the world once in a while, just you know,
we get too serious.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Sometimes it's okay to have a little fun.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
I'd standing well Rannie, listen continued success. It's just fantastic
of what you and your team are doing. And I
know it takes a whole community to people to do
all the different things, especially when you're working with all
the different agencies and states in the district.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
But thank you for all that you do.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
We really appreciate it, and thank you so much for
joining us on community DC great.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Thanks for having me donus have you there.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
I killed so much theotions and make good world the
better say.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Learn more at she Can Stemps. A message brought to
you by the ad Council.
Good morning, and welcome to another edition of Community d C.
I'm your host Dennis Glasgow. This morning we get a
chance to talk about transportation, specifically the Washington Metropolitan Area
Transit Authority also known as WMATA, WAMATTA, or you might
know it as Metro and the DMV. Our guest this
morning is the gm and CEO Randy Clark. Like myself,
(00:21):
a lot of you probably have either ridden Metro or
are regular users of the trains or the buses on
your commute to get around from work. Aaron's are heading
to a sporting event. Over the next thirty minutes, we'll
delve into all the things that Randy and his team
have accomplished and the exciting things that are coming up.
So here's my conversation with Randy Clark of the WMATA.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Good morning, Randy, Good morning today.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I'm well, it's a thrill to talk to you because
as a Northwest DC representative, I ride Metro and I
ride it pretty regularly.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
I know you do too.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
You know, one of the cool things, and there's so
much to talk about with you when it comes to
everything that is Metro. The buses, the the initiatives, all
the things that are happening for the future. There's new
lines coming up, new trains coming up. I'm excited as
a resident and somebody that uses a regularly in the DMV.
But I first wanted to talk about public transportation in general,
(01:13):
because I know this has been in your history, not
just since you know, twenty twenty two as you joined
as GM CEO, but this has been a part of
what you do for a long time. I'm just curious,
you know, back in twenty twenty twenty two, what kind
of guy you excited about joining Metro.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, well, I.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Mean, like honestly, Dennis, we could talk about that all
day long. And I'm glad to use the system what
we were treating you well every day. I use the
system every day, so listeners should know that. I think
last year I had over six hundred trips on the system,
so I planned on having a ton again this year.
I use the bus and train almost every single day.
My wife and I live in the city, so I
do that, and then, you know, I.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Think that's the best way to get out and see the.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Product too, right, talk to customers every day, talk to staff,
eyes on things, try to get things resolved quickly.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
You know, always say if you're going to own a restaurant,
you should eat at it. And that's kind of the
motto I try to live by.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
So you know what mean got me kind of I
got listen. I fell into transit, just like you know,
you didn't follow in the radio. You got a goodvoice
for radio, but voice is not a thing for transit.
So I fell into transit. Early grad school, I got
a job. I started working in the kind of the
space a little bit, worked in the Boston system for
a lot of years, came down here, worked in the
(02:26):
National Association, got recruited. I ran the system and system
in Austin for a little bit, and then I got
this and honestly very happy.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
They're a great time to live in having a good time.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
And I got a call about this opportunity, and I
said to a few people the only place I would
leave that job for was to run Metro.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
And in some way.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
People are like, are you out of your mind? Why
would you want to run Metro? Right, It's it's like,
you know, like the history of the roller coaster here,
and and you know, honestly, in twenty two there was
a lot of challenges, right. There was a the post pandemic,
which every agency had, but pretty deep here because of
the federal government and my ages here. So it's just
the pandemic set in here a little deeper than a
(03:09):
lot of other cities and regions, good or bad, and
not judging it, just just actually obviously there was a
seven thousand series train issue. All the trains were sidelined,
had serious hiring issues, and we had very little ridership,
so lots of other things going on as well.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
So I came into an eyes wide open. I knew
it was going to be a big challenge.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
That's actually why I want up the opportunity. To me,
it's arguably the most complex transit system in the country.
We have, like my board is made up of three
states and the federal government, so and everyone has a
jurisdictional veto so it's very complex governance, very complex fund
funding model, but a big, huge workforce. And obviously we
(03:51):
were part of the National Security framework at the same time,
so that's what got me really interested.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I had the opportunity.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
I'm really appreciative I had the opportun been here two
and a half years and feel really proud of what
this team has been able to accomplish for the region.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Right, that's the end the DEA. We're here to serve
the readier.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Well, thanks for that context. And there is, as I mentioned,
a ton to talk to you about writership, your customers.
I'm one of them, I know you are too. Also,
fairs and all the different budgets, new trains coming on,
new lines coming on.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Why do we do this?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Let's start because you mentioned the pandemic, and it's not
new news that everybody got affected by that, including the
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, especially when it came to
Metro rail. But when it comes to that, as you
adopted that after COVID and you saw maybe issues and challenges,
where are we today two and a half years after
that when it comes to ridership.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
Yeah, ridership just decimated. You know, probably the three industries
that got the most impact of by COVID are the
medical field. Obviously, right that was the number one healthcare,
But after that, I would say schools and transit are
probably the next two on the list. Most people don't
want to be on buses and during the bed where
(05:02):
people are worried about.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Spreading disease and dying for obvious reasons.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Then this work work from home phenomena kicked into a
much higher level. So all of those things kind of
all built together. So when you look at ridership, we've
done an incredible job of recovering, especially to a lot
of our peers in the country. So right now we
actually carried more people on the bus system than we
did before the pandemic. So we are leading all large
(05:28):
bus operators in the country on recovery, and that speaks
to the frequency network we built and the kind of
quality of service that we're trying to get out there.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
On the street.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
To do that, you need to staff up, and we
had a big staffing problem, so we really got straight
and I got here on staffing to deliver that service.
On the rail side, last year, I believe we were
the highest percent growth, and this year through the end
of September is the most recent data, we're leading again
all large United States transit rail operators in growth. So
(06:03):
we now carry more people on the weekends than we
used to before the pandemic.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
And you know, so our big big days now we've
a lot of days we're in a little bit of
a holiday lull. Now DC area kind of empties out
a little bit.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Most people listening would know that are kicks back in
in January.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
But our bigger days now are you know, nine fifteen,
nine hundred and twenty thousand a day.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
So we expect in the spring to probably get back
closer to a million, depending on how things are moving,
you know, we expect obviously the federal workforce. It sounds
like there might be some more return to office in
play coming in January as well. So we built up
really high frequent network. Though you may.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Recall living here for a while, I used to live
here mentor.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Used to run a very what we would call it
tight peak, so a lot of trains in peak service,
but at night in the weekends, there's a lot more,
if you will, gaps between trains. So now we run
a better frequency all day, all week and the idea
is to serve everyone in the region, not necessarily just
people working in offices. So midday if you're going to
(07:04):
a healthcare appointment, at night you're going to a game
or a concert. Weekends you're going to the mall, this
a museum or an event. The frequency is much higher,
and that's what's really inducing a lot of people using.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
The service well, and I noticed there's a difference to
Randy because I'm the one that takes the Georgia Avenue
Petworth all the way to Gallery Place for all the
Caps and Wizards games and Concertstown there. It's easy and
I love it, and there's a lot of frequency, especially
with the masses that you have during an event that's
down in Chinatown.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
So I'm very appreciative.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
You know.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
One of the other things I want to talk to
you about the many different topics is the new trains.
And you mentioned the seven thousands and issues that we're
had with them, but I've been on them several times,
by the way, as you know as a regular writer,
it is a beautiful train air condition, especially during the summertime.
I imagine you're getting great feedback from it. I know
that newer trains are coming down the line, and don't
(07:51):
know if you can talk about that today, but let's
just talk about the seven thousands and about the integration
of those and are we going to still see the
older trains for quite a long time for some years
as you continue to make the changes.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Yeah, I think that's that's a great topic talk about Dennis.
So we finally retired our two thousand series trains.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
About forty forty years old.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
So you know, people like you know sometimes if you
have a train issue, I think some people can get
rightfully frustrated.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
But it'd be equivalent of driving.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
A car from like nineteen eighty two. You drive it
seventeen to twenty hours a day, and a lot of
other people get to drive it during the day too, right,
And that's the kind of workload these things take. So
right now we have we got all of our seven
thousand series trains back. We had we did a preventive
(08:38):
maintenance issue with the wheels just to ensure that there's
this really technic technicality thing about derailment that happened before
I got here. No one got hurt, none of that,
but but obviously you know, a risk problem that we
had to manage. So we brought in some expert people
when I got here. We solved that problem. All of
the wheels have been repressed, just mitigated any chance of
(09:01):
it even happening. I think the chance is incredibly low,
but you know, safety verse, we took care of that.
So now the fleat availability means we got rid of
the two thousands. We have a new eight thousand series
train and by the way, the seven thousands a great train. Yes,
it is very very reliable train. Last year we had
the highest reliability of any heavy rail fleet in the country,
(09:23):
so basically how long between a breakdown on the train.
We have one little issue on a brake system that
we've identified and we're putting a fix in on that,
so we think that number is even going to go
higher next year. But overall, just a really rock solid
good train and incredibly sophisticated with data, a lot of
video on there, data analytics that we're going to start
using AI for previctive maintenance.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
So really good train. We have a new train though,
the eight thousand series.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
It's actually being built by our Haitachi is the name
of the manufacturer, and they are building.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
They just built a.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
New factory in Hagerstown, Maryland, and they'll be building an
assembling there.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
So the first part gets done in.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
Italy and then they'll be done over in Hagerstown. So
our first batch of trains will start around twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Very complex systems to get this.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
Done and those will allow us to replace the three
thousand series, So the oldest trains from there. We do
have options that we could replace six thousand or grow
the fleet from there, because at some point we'll need
more trains to run more frequent services this region. We're
predicted to gain a million people over the next twenty
thirty years here, so obviously we'll need service more at
(10:34):
some point.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
And then and then Randy, those those eight thousands just
for a second, I think I saw you kind of
debut it in the pr Thing is, are those the
trains that you can actually walk through from train to train?
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Yeah, exactly mentioned so that in our business we call
that open gangway kind of maybe a geeky transit term,
but the idea is you could walk between railcars and
it creates a more seamless So we're going to do
that as two car sets, so not the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
So it allows us for better maintenance and optionality around it.
But basically, beat.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
People could spread So you say, coming after a Caps game,
so I went to the I went to the Wizards
game the other night. Right, as soon as people get off,
trains get packed, and if we could spread people out,
poor it ends up more space. It's also better for
people with grocery cards. Luggage to the airports or union
station bikes that type of thing as well. So we're
(11:23):
creating more space and it's just a better user system.
So that's how that train will come from Hitachi. So
we're looking forward. Then we'll have all the doors, we'll
line up with the seven thousand, so we'll have a
little bit more closer to a homogeneous feeling and maintenance fleet,
which will lead to more efficiency long term as well.
So yeah, we're really excited to work with our partner
(11:43):
for that delivered.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Do you have a do date about when you hold
to plan to start to integrate them.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Yeah, in twenty twenty seven, we'll have our pilot cards
and then from there, the way our business works, you
get a couple of cars, you test them out. I
think we get four to four in the pilot, go
through very rigorous testing, and from there they start delivery,
usually a couple every week, or two or four every
week or every other week across probably a year and
a half cycle.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Well, really exciting. I didn't want to talk to about
all the lines because it seems like exponentially thing has
been growing in the last decade. There's been extensions, of course,
you know the Silver Line and all the way out
to Dallas, which a lot of people that are from
Washington that are traveling to Dulles and being an international airport,
that's got to be huge for you guys. But also
the Purple lines being built right now too. So I
(12:28):
don't know what you want to tackle about the different
lines and the extensions, but I'll leave it for you
because you're the expert and you know everything about it.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
But did you want to expound on any of that.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
For us well and give some insight tell your listeners
on a couple of So one, the Silver Line is great,
so this time of year, holiday season, very busy of
TA Dallas specifically National is arguably the best rail connected
airport in the United States.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
I use both.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
We work very closely with our airport partners on a
lot of things there, so we definitely encourage people to
use the system.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
It's very frequent and it's very well in grades of
the airports.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
So that was a good extension that that part on
the Silver Line is actually growing faster than the rest
of the system. So it's again a good example of
kind of transit development builds. So it's kind of like
if you were in the balls in the Courthouse area.
You know, twenty five years ago, it does not look
like it looks today. And so where Metro goes, the
community kind of tends to grow, and that concentrated development,
(13:25):
it's an enormous amount of economic development along that corridor.
You know, overall, the way this region works is about
three percent of our land is around half a mile
within a Metro station.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
So think about that, only three percent, but it makes.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Up almost a third of our regional tax space. So
that's how much development and actual tax space and economic
you know, jobs and activity happens around Metro. It's almost
a third within three percent of our land. It's amazing.
On the Purple Line, just your listeners, edification, that's actually
(14:02):
not a Metro project. That's that project is being done
by Maryland Dot.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Okay, So it's.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
It's not our project. We've it's never been our project.
We're working with them best we can, obviously, to help
them facilitate getting that project done, completed, and online. So
a good example would be at Silver Spring that's going
to integrate to our station, the Red Line station, same
as Bethesda, kind of connect into New Carrollton and over
(14:29):
the College Park. The college parks are not exactly aligned
with the station, but the idea is we are trying
to be the best partner to make it as seamless
possible when that line is up and running, because a
lot of customers will obviously transfer between the lines.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Right, no doubt. Okay, well, let's do this.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
I want to talk about some safety initiatives because I've
noticed them as a customer, and I know you have
to and I do want to hear about, you know,
customers talking to you regularly because you ride it regularly.
But with that said, the new sharegates are up, and
they're certainly up at my Georgia Avenue Petworth station, and
I welcome it like everybody else who's a paying customer.
But also I've noticed that the Metro Transit Police Department
(15:06):
has got a regular role now that I see more
often and listen, I'm a big guy, but I still
love to feel safe, and I love it that these
initiatives are going on. Talk a little bit about those
and some other safety initiatives, because I think they're all
really welcome to Rannie.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah, well thanks, I gotta tell you that's probably the thing.
Maybe I'm most proud of the team for the work
on because when I.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Got here in the summer of twenty two, I mean,
I think it was fair to say the system was
not as safe as we wanted it to be.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
You know, it was not as many people.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
So we're also, I should not like a transit system
is like a park, the more people are on it,
the safer it is. Yeah, And so you know, eight
o'clock at night, two people to park, you might not
feel as safe walking through it. Same as on a
train if there's three people on there, you're like, if
there's eighty people on there, obviously it feels much more normal.
And you know that's what community's about, right, So the
(16:00):
previous gates you could kind of just walk over. It
was the number one thing I heard complaints about.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
So we retrofitted every station.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
Eighty two percent production of fair of asion on the
rail side, which has not only helped us significantly from
our revenue side and revenue at our place.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
You know, there's no profit center here, We're not.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
We're a service oriented organization pays for service, so that
is a big deal for the balance sheet.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Secondarily, it's allowed us to really.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
To weed out some people that are doing disruptive behavior
on the system. So not everyone that would fairravate commits
other activities on the system.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
I think that's clear.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
But universally, if you do bad things on the system,
you've also fair at it, you know.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
And so we're a microcosmic society.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
If we move nine hundred thousand people a day, we
believe we're the safest part of the entire region where
that happens. But like every place, crime could make its
way onto Metro. Like I always say, we're not a
community are We move the community right, So if there's
crime in an area could leed into Metro that way.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
So we've really worked hard the last quarter year.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
Overy year, crime is down forty percent than it was
last year across every category, serious prime to a less
serious prime. Our trans and police department has done a
fantastic job.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
We brought in a lot of special police officers.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
We have people that walk the trains literally up and
down the trains, checking in with people harder. On the
bus system, we're actually ramping up very significantly in a
couple of weeks of big fair enforcement activity on the
bus side.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
We hear it from people that are paying customers.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
They want people to pay their fair share because their
fairs pay per service. We also did something pretty unique here.
We hired what we call crisis intervention specialists. So we
have a group of ten people kind of mental health experts,
if you will, and they go around the system and
try to help people that may be experiencing mental health issues,
experiencing homelessness, and try to connect people with services. And
(17:59):
our thing is is, you know, we don't do those services,
So we're getting people off the system and try to
connect them with the services, whether it's in DC, Maryland
or Virginia that are better able to deal with that.
So we've helped they've interacted with a thousand plus people.
Those individuals either get help or we help them try
to connect with something else. But you put all those
(18:20):
efforts together, we have over thirty thousand cameras in our
system that we've really.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Upgraded and made them much more real time use.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
So when you put all that together, you know, we've
really taken on the safety piece very heavenly.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
You know, you said, I.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
Use the system every day, my wife uses the system.
There's nothing I care more about than the safety of
the people to use the system or my employees. You know, Unfortunately,
from time to time we'll have an employee that might
get assaulted. Unfortunately, there's crime in the world, and there's
illness in the world, and we are trying to make
our system as safe as possible, so people feel that
way and use it. I think the fact that our
(18:58):
ridership has increased so much shows that. To give you
another stat you know, quite frankly, I think this proves
where we've done well to us The number one stat
that matters is customer satisfaction, and that is basically what
people think of us.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
So we were two years ago in the mid.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
To high sixties on what people thought about, and one
of the big categories that pushed down on that was
perception of safety. Last quarter we just announced last week,
actually the last quarter results on rail side ninety two
percent and on bus eighty three percent. Now bus, because
we don't control the roadway, it's always a little less
because it takes the trip a little bit longer depending
(19:35):
where you are. Those are both the highest we've ever
had in the history of the organization, so literally since
the shovel has been put in the ground here to
build the system. Those are the highest people have said
they rate the quality they're getting out of Metro.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
So we you know, perfect, No, every day is not
going to be perfect. We have nine hundred.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Thousand thousand people, we have thirteen thousand customers, a lot
of equipment. We're never going to be perfect, but we're
pretty proud of where we are right now and moving
this region.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
I appreciate you sharing all that, and I can tell
folks unequivocally and to be honest, and I've noticed a
big difference, especially when it comes to the fairgates and
the police presence. And I also think, you know, having
those people on the ten Metro Ambassadors is so brilliant
because listen, it's an issue, man, I mean, we talk
(20:20):
about this all the time in every urban area. There's
just a lot of people with mental health issues and
also the homelessness. So I'm glad that you're addressing that,
Randy with your team. I think it's a wonderful idea.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yeah, no, thanks.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
At the end of the day, orderliness is important, you know,
I'm not interested in having it. You know, like quite frankly,
we never gave a citation and an arrest, we would
be very happy. We're we're not looking to do that.
But right people deserve to be able to use the
public transportation system safely to get to where they're going right.
And the people that I hear the most that actually
(20:53):
appreciate our efforts are usually elderly people or people that
might feel more vulnerable.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
You know that you're a big guy.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
I'm not necessari a big guy, but I can look
after myself. But you know, people women, unfortunately in our society,
get a disproportionate amount of harassment in public places. So
you know, elderly people have to see bad behavior. So
we really try to crack that down, not as a
you know, a strong police thing, as much as it
(21:20):
is a respectful society should be able to use public
transit in a respectful way.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
And that's the way we've I've got about it.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
So cleverliness matters, our resculator, I'll lator matter.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Our trains being on time and not breaking down matter.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
So you know what I tell people all the time
is the little stuff is what matters, because if you
do enough of the little stuff right in totality, the
good stuff, it's the big thing. Don't worry about the
big splashy thing. Do all the basics. Well, when that happens,
you can do a lot of good government well and then.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
For me, and I'm sure you two and your team
proofs in the pudding. Right, you're getting the customer satisfaction,
you're hearing the feedback that everybody is better, and those
numbers are.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Dramatically down, which is huge.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
I did want to talk to you about fears and
budget and I know this is its own category. I've
always been a firm believer in no matter if it's
a restaurant or a department store, a big box or
on Amazon, that you get what you pay for. That's
just how I roll. And I know fares have gone
up a little bit. I've been one of those people
that said, oh, here goes another fairy increase. But listen,
with all these additions that you've been making, when the
(22:19):
faregates and the transit police and the crisis intervis specialists
and you know, the maintenance that goes on that people
don't know about but you might follow you on X.
I do want to address that before we get out here,
because I think you guys are wonderful communicator to the
public when things are going on. But let's talk a
little bit about fares and budgets right now. If you
could for me just expound in those categories.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
Yeah, so obviously listen, I think you hit the nail ahead.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
You do get what you pay for now. Our job
is to be efficient.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
I'm a taxpayer like everyone else, so we want to
be efficient. Since I've been here, we've identified just over
five hundred million dollars of savings between the operating and
capital budget, which is an enormous amount of money. Some
of that last year and this year, A little bit
is for the next three years in the upcoming capital budget,
but all distinct savings around how we do business and
(23:05):
how we were able to work through things. Myself and
the whole staff took a zero merit increase, so no
one got to raise this year to help balance our budget,
which is very hard in a very expensive region, in
a region.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
With very low unemployment and inflation.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
So that was a big sacrifice by the team, but
we thought it was the right thing to do to
show our customers and our jurisdictional partners, because our bill
is really paid by DC, Maryland and Virginia in a
lot of ways, and then the customers pay the other.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Part, you know. On that we did raise fares.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
We raised them thow to make up for the rate
of inflation since they were raised last years ago.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
So you know, it wasn't like every year we're just
raising them.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
It was really to get back up to inflationary level,
and we've seen that that is.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Actually people have not left the system.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
Some people get worried about you know, elasticity, but people
have stuck with the system because they realized generally speaking,
it's still much cheaper than ever owning a car or
getting around in a car.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
It's a very affordable way to get around. And we
cover a vast area of the DMV, so overall our budget,
we've really tried to pull that in. I will say
the big challenge we have, and we have this initiative
called DMV Moves we have our partners of the Council
of Governments and all the elected officials around the region,
is we have a long term capital problem here.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
So the money.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Needed to do state of good repair we call it,
which is maintenance of equipment, maintenance of track and power
systems and vehicles and you know all of that kind
of stuff.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
It's an expensive business to run.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
It's sophisticated, it's complex, it's been very safety critical stuff
so there's there's not a room for error.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
So that stuff.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
There was a bill done back in twenty eighteen in
this region to kind of fill that gap, but that
gap was never indexed, so kind of like Social Security
was never index right, and unfortunately, you know, what seemed
like five hundred million dollars back then was a lot
of money and it is wrong, but I'm not indexing it.
We've already lost twenty five to thirty percent of the
(25:05):
purchasing power because of inflation since twenty eighteen. So basically,
like everything in life, if you don't have an index fund,
you're going to eventually burn through that money. So that's
one thing we're working with all the partners. How do
we rebalance the capital account? Index it and then this
place has to be that sustainable dedicated funding. But then
(25:25):
Metro also owns the responsibility to run the system with
that dedicated money, and it can't keep putting its hand out.
So there's a gift from our region that's going to
have to come together and say this one hundred plus
billion dollar asset that clearly moves the region based on
like I said, three percent of land drives the economy.
But at the same time Metro needs to say, hey,
we got to live within our means as well. So
(25:45):
I think that's a really good, healthy, transparent conversation going
on in the community.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Agreed. I appreciate you being candid about that.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
We've only got about three nap minutes left and I
do want to tackle very quickly, just for about a
minute or two, the strategic transformation plan, because I know
that's a big deal. Well, and then we'll get some
final thoughts with you, but can you talk about that
because there are kind of four buckets that are pretty interesting.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
Yeah, So we put this in together and I got here.
I felt like we needed a real, a true strategy
plan with our board based on all of our stakeholder input.
And you're really focusing about orienting the place. If it's
if it's not about strategy moving forward, what's it about?
And you know this is why we're becoming much more
of a digital organization.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Right it's twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
We have an AI team already set up, and how
we're thinking through things and now we're moving all of
our digital assets, how we invest in our people.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Right at the end of.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
The day, they're not just to do the job that
they did twenty years ago. How is it the job
of the future, and how are we going to train them?
And we hold them accountable, but we empower them to
be better, you know, so driving everything through transparency and
data metrics. So really granted the whole organization, and so
everything we do, our capital plan, I attend personally, monthly
and other meetings that are all driven by our data
(26:55):
and performance. And you know, that's how we really see
this organization. So we built a plan based on performance
and accountability.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
So, Randon, we got about two minutes left.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
We will give the website to everybody, because a lot
of things we've talked about are on your gorgeous, easy
to navigate websites, So we'll give that in just a second.
But sir, just some final thoughts from you. You and
I could talk for hours about this. I know I could,
because I love everything that you're doing with Metro and
I know you have such a hard working team. But
just some final thoughts the floors here, sir.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Yeah, well, I appreciate that, and good. I really enjoyed
the conversation.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
And you know, I do encourage people to follow us.
You know, we got a lot of social media that
we do our website.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
We want engagement.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
You know.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
My whole thing to people is simple.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
We are working very hard to deliver the best system
possible for this region. We're here to serve the region.
We are never going to be perfect every day. We
are thirteen thousand of us. Listen, I've been married for
a long time. I make a lot of mistakes. Since
my wife would tell me it's okay to make a mistake.
The key is to learn from it and continually get better.
We encourage people to use the system. It is this
(27:59):
community system. People pay for it, they use their tax
dollars to fund it.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
It's there.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
Let us know how we can be better, but get
out and use the thing that is valuable to this region. So,
you know, encourage people the next time they're thinking about
driving and parking, say they're coming downtown for like you
mentioned a caskame, take the train and give it a try,
and if you haven't done it in years, we hope
that you'll be pleasantly surprised that you know it's clean.
We believe with the cleanest system in the country, the
safe at sists in the country. We have great frequency
(28:26):
and we hope people are willing to if they haven't
been on give us try. And the people they do
use all the time, we thank them for choosing Metri.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
So Randy, let's give the website to everybody.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
Yeah, wellmana dot com. You can hit us on all
the socials too. We're on Twitter, Willmai follow me, wimana
GM let me know how.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Things are going.
Speaker 4 (28:42):
We're on blue Sky, We're on Instagram, TikTok, if it's
shaken out there.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
We're on it.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Well, And I wanted to tell you because I mentioned
this a few moments ago. I'd be remiss if I
didn't say that. I follow you on a lot of
different social media and the people that you have working
on they're do an excellent job. It's in real time.
They're also updates and it's it's all the time. So
the people that you have working on that, I just
give them kudos because they really it's hard. It's hard
to update up people in real time and all the
(29:10):
things that are going, but they do a great job.
Speaker 4 (29:12):
I will thank you, thank you for manchall that it's
you know, Colums, is very hard because everyone is instantaneous.
But we're trying to get real good, transparent awful information.
At the same time, have a little fun on there too,
because the world once in a while, just you know,
we get too serious.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Sometimes it's okay to have a little fun.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
I'd standing well Rannie, listen continued success. It's just fantastic
of what you and your team are doing. And I
know it takes a whole community to people to do
all the different things, especially when you're working with all
the different agencies and states in the district.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
But thank you for all that you do.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
We really appreciate it, and thank you so much for
joining us on community DC great.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Thanks for having me donus have you there.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
I killed so much theotions and make good world the
better say.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Learn more at she Can Stemps. A message brought to
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