Reflecting on 2024’s Top Transit Stories

00:00 Stop Requested.

00:02 Levi McCollum: Welcome to Stop Requested, the podcast where we discuss everything transit. I’m your co host, Levi McCollum, product manager at ETA Transit.

00:11 Christian Londono: And I’m your co host, Christian Londano, Senior Customer Success Manager at ETA Transit. Hey, Levi. Good afternoon. Happy New Year.

00:23 Levi McCollum: Hey, Christian. How’s it going? Happy New Year.

00:25 Christian Londono: It’s going good. It’s going good. And even better when I get to hear you back on stop requested in 2025. And it’s been a lot of fun recording all these podcast episodes with you and I look forward to many more in 2025.

00:42 Levi McCollum: Absolutely. Let’s keep it going.

00:45 Christian Londono: Oh, yeah, and I think today’s episode, it’s going to be a great way to start our 2025. And that’s by review in 2024. Mass Transit magazine just released on January 1st an article about their Mass Transit magazines, top 10 stories in 2024, which I share with you. And I was hoping today that we get the opportunity to discuss some of those top stories and what’s happening in the transit industry. What do you think?

01:19 Levi McCollum: Absolutely. I think that’s a great topic and it’s good to have the rearview mirror up a little bit here. Check out what transpired in 2024. It feels like it went so fast, so I’d like to spend the next few minutes talking about it. I know that there were a couple that really stood out for me. So you probably felt the same way.

01:39 Christian Londono: Oh, yeah, 100%. And as a transit nerd, and I know for you might be the same case, I’m always looking at the articles and the news that come out from all different publications, but I like to, or I try to be up to speed with what’s happening in the industry. So I’m constantly, almost daily, you know, I get my emails with notifications of news and I pick one or two to read. So I don’t know if you do the same, but I really like to stay or try to stay up to speed with the industry.

02:12 Levi McCollum: Yeah, me too. I think I’m signed up for all the newsletters possible and, and I try to at least glance through them every day. You know, if you get a little bit busy, it’s hard to read all the articles in there, but at least getting a glimpse of the headline and maybe diving into one of those a day or a couple of those, depending on how many there are. But absolutely, I’m in the same position.

02:35 Christian Londono: Yeah. And so again, I wanted to first recognize the author of this article and of course we’ll share the information about the articles, you can find it yourself. The author is Megan Pereiro and I know Megan. We know Megan through Latinos in Transit, of which ETA Transit is a member of and I’m personally a member of as well. Great organization. So shout out to her for putting together this article. Yes. So how about we start discussing some of these stories, Levi?

03:12 Levi McCollum: Let’s do it.

03:15 Christian Londono: So I, I’ll go first and out of the 10 different stories and you know, again, it’s, it’s very difficult when you choose which one to high, I mean you choose one to highlight because there’s so many things that are happening in the transit world, you know, nationwide, but one that I found very interesting. It’s about you. A, a Amtrak mta, New Jersey Transit, coming together to explore in a feasibility study the possibility or, or how feasible it is to increase double up the capacity at Penn Station and New York. You know, New York Penn Station is one of those transit stations that have long history that, you know, provides transportation, I mean, to millions of people annually. And you know, for a transit agency or these different transit providers to come together and analyze how they can go about increasing operational capacity within the same footprint of the transit center. I thought that was very interesting. I’ll give you the conclusion that is in the article of that feasibility study and they look at four different concepts to do this and ultimately they came to the conclusion that it is not feasible that in this case they do have to look at the physical footprint of the transit station and see how they can modify it to increase the capacity. So first recognizing the mobility, the demand and the need to increase service in the station. But then the second one is navigating those constraints at a very historical station. So what do you think about that story, Levi?

05:08 Levi McCollum: Yeah, I think that’s a good one to select and it, it was one that I highlighted as well. But to talk about it here, you know, I, I, I like to see the three agencies or three organizations working together. It’s definitely going to require multiple heads at the table because this affects so many people. That particular area of the country just is packed with people. I also think that the feasibility study is interesting too. In some cases the public might say, why are you studying so much? Just get on with building. But in a case like this where you really need to understand the physical constraints of the building and its potential historic nature, then having a better understanding along with multiple presentations of what could be done is an apt way of going about it. So I like it. This is a good one. I can see why it was one of the top reads for Mass Transit magazine.

06:19 Christian Londono: Yeah. And I think that also something that is typical or I bet it is common for agents around the country looking at their transit hubs. You know, a lot of agencies have a main transit hub and then trying to make that decision between expanding at some point because of growth or just trying to find operational efficiencies. So that’s definitely, you know, an interesting one. So now let me pass it to you and let you take your turn to highlighting one of these top stories. What’s the one that comes to your mind right now?

06:54 Levi McCollum: Yeah, the one that stood out the most to me was the one on San Diego Metro, so Metropolitan Transit System or MTS in San Diego where they had a partnership with elected officials and law enforcement to launch a campaign about wildcatting. Are you familiar with wildcatting, Christian?

07:16 Christian Londono: I was not until I read the article. But no.

07:19 Levi McCollum: Yeah, same position. I hadn’t heard that particular terminology before. It’s interesting. I understand the concept now, but the way that the article describes wildcatting for our listeners who may not know is unregulated and unpermitted ride sharing services. So you can think of Uber and Lyft, but it’s just, you know, John Smith or Jane Doe with their own car not connected to an Uber and Lyft type network. So you’re just doing this to get a few bucks in your pocket and meet the demand that’s there that you might not that the agency or other services might not be able to meet. I think this one’s interesting and one of the reasons why it’s in my take on this is that it probably was one of the most read is because it used that term wildcatting. Maybe people weren’t familiar with that or it could be an and as well. Maybe this is happening in more locations other than just San Diego. Christian, I know you and I are familiar with unregulated type services in Latin America. You being from Latin America and I’m traveling there quite often, it happens pretty frequently. But I have to say that I wasn’t aware that this was happening so much here in the U.S. were you?

08:38 Christian Londono: Yeah, I was. I was not aware neither. And, and yes, in, in South America it’s kind of common. It’s interesting because they do this a lot in motorcycles. So people just ride in the back and, and you know, they know people because this is a business of daily commuters. And then now you know, this guy is. And you have their number and then they pick you up always at a given place and take you to your destination. Right. It’s kind of like for those daily commuters. And a lot of times you do this because it’s cheaper. Right. Because how much they charge your versus actually they can Uber or lift. Also the travel time, the directness and then maybe the transit system, you know, the travel time is not competitive enough, whereas convenient for those folks. But altogether there’s 100% risks associated with safety. And you know, a lot of departments of transportations, you know, they have requirements for the drivers, there’s background checks and all these things that have to take place for, you know, rides to be safe. And when it’s informal and unregulated, they might be happening. But other times you, you don’t know. Right. So there’s, there’s not something that, you know, is typical. But to your point, if this was a top read article, I’m imagining that other agencies are having similar problems. So we look forward to, to read more about this in 2025 and learn how San Diego MTS is making progress, you know, to decrease wildcatting.

10:16 Levi McCollum: Yeah, and I think we have a new term to add to our transit glossary on the ETA transit website as well.

10:24 Christian Londono: Definitely. Yeah, that, that’s 100 new for me.

10:28 Levi McCollum: All right, what’s next up?

10:30 Christian Londono: Well, my next one that I wanted to highlight, it’s another, you know, large transit system. So my first one was pretty much MTA, NJ Transit, Amtrak, you know, you know, big operators on the East Coast. And this, this next article is actually on the west coast and this is SFMTA to upgrade Muni Metro. So that’s the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency beginning the upgrade of the light rail system for Muni Metro. And I think that’s very important as a major system and is making headway in 2024 and continuing this year in replacing aging vehicles, upgrading train control systems, extending modern systems to street level Muni operations just to make the system faster and more efficient altogether. I think for a system that transports so many people every year, to be giving it a facelift and just improving the vehicles and driving operational efficiency is going to translate into a lot of, you know, benefits for that rider’s experience. So that, that’s definitely a story that stood out for me. And, and I think that I seen this strength a lot in our systems around the country. So what, what do you think about that?

12:06 Levi McCollum: Yeah, I think putting more money into these systems that obviously have the ridership, the demand is there. You know, you’re putting some gasoline on the fire so to speak. I like it. I can’t really see any downside to this. And I know that there are some folks who are quibbling in San Francisco just based on some the news articles that I’ve read with Jeffrey Tumlin, the I guess now former leader at the Muni out in San Francisco, that they’ve had some issues with, you know, transit taking more of a priority in our in their city streets. Yeah, I think this is a good thing overall. I think this benefits more people than prioritizing automobiles. And this is just one of those other levers that you can pull as an agency to say, hey, we’re here to stay, we’re making our mark and we’re going to build that ridership.

13:06 Christian Londono: Yeah, that’s definitely a great article. Great trend, right. We want to see all these successful transit systems staying up to date with technology and just keeping their vehicles in good working conditions. And so let me ask you, what’s the next article that you want to highlight that stood out for you from this list?

13:29 Levi McCollum: Yeah, the next one for me is the Mass Transit magazine 2024, 40 under 40s, 40 under 40 rather. And the reason why I wanted to highlight this one is because, well, you and I are both former recipients of the 40 under 40 award, but we also had a very close friend of ours, Yash Nagel, who was awarded this year and well, I guess now last year 2024, 40 under 40. So congrats to Yash. And I know someone else that you wanted to shout out was also awarded this year, is that right?

14:06 Christian Londono: Yes. And this is, you know, one of my friends from Miami. His name is Schneider Temperu. And Schneider works as a general superintendent for Miami Dade County Department of Transportation and Public Works. And you know, well, another well deserved top 40 and the 40 awardee in 2024 as well as, you know, the rest of our these in the list. But these are two that are very close to us that we wanted to give a shout out and you know, very well deserved recognitions in 2024.

14:42 Levi McCollum: Yeah, absolutely. So congrats to Schneider and to Yash. Looking forward to seeing what the next year 2025 brings in terms of 40 under 40. I’m sure there are going to be a lot of standouts.

14:55 Christian Londono: Oh yeah, I look forward to the same. I, I still invite our listeners to check out that article and you know, look at some of those top stories and maybe you’ll find one that you want to read and you can learn something from and you know, all together it just remind us to stay up to speed with the industry. Those that are listening to our podcast, I bet some of them also come to, you know, learn a thing or two or just be up to speed with the conversations that are taking place in our industry. So, you know, look at the article and see if you find some something that you’re, you know, that interests you. And if there’s one article that you want to share with us, by all means, please go ahead and send it to us. My email is clondanatransit.com and Levi’s is lmacolumta transit.com so if you have any article, any top story in the country that you want to share with us, please feel free to send it to us. We would love to hear from you.

15:55 Levi McCollum: Yeah, that’s right. Excellent. Well, this is a great talk and glad we got to do it again this week. Looking forward to 51 more episodes coming out throughout the rest of 2025 listeners. We will catch you again next week. Thank you for listening.