Insights from the NCPTA State Conference Amid Federal Transit Funding Uncertainty

00:00 Stop Requested.

00:01 Levi McCollum: Welcome to Stop Requested, the podcast where we discuss everything transit.

00:05 Levi McCollum: I’m your co host, Levi McCollum, director of operations at ETA Transit.

00:10 Christian Londono: And I’m your co host Christian Londono, Senior customer Success Manager at ETA Transit.

00:21 Levi McCollum: Welcome back to Stop Requested. My name is Levi McCollum and joining me as always is my co host, Christian

00:27 Levi McCollum: Londono. Christian, how are you doing today?

00:30 Christian Londono: Doing great, Levi. How about you, man?

00:32 Levi McCollum: I’m doing very well and I’m excited to learn about what happened at the North Carolina Public Transportation association conference.

00:40 Levi McCollum: I know you were there earlier this week, so give me all the details.

00:44 Levi McCollum: I want all the deets.

00:46 Christian Londono: Well, Levi, another great conference. As you know, we’ve done a few episodes of some of the takeaways from the

00:57 Christian Londono: conferences and some feedback and discussion after attending these.

01:01 Christian Londono: And I’ll tell you, this was another great one.

01:05 Christian Londono: Great agencies and one of those kind of like a, like all in one conference where you get a rodeo.

01:17 Christian Londono: You get a conference, of course, like with the sessions and stuff, and then you get an expo.

01:22 Christian Londono: So you get to talk to vendors, you get to see products, innovation, technology.

01:27 Christian Londono: And I would say for this one particularly maybe has a fourth which was at a casino.

01:32 Christian Londono: So I had. Oh, and it had a golf tournament.

01:36 Christian Londono: So pretty much all those things that you see at conferences, at transit conferences, they did it all at once.

01:43 Christian Londono: Definitely a phenomenal conference. It took place, as you said, it just happened.

01:49 Christian Londono: So it started on Friday, April 25, and went to Wednesday, this past Wednesday, April 30, end of the month.

02:00 Christian Londono: And it started with the rodeo, as many of these transit conference do, which had a great participation.

02:08 Christian Londono: A lot of systems came very excited and brought a lot of those frontline employees to not only enjoy the

02:16 Christian Londono: Cherokee Casino and be part of the transit conference, but but also to take pride in what they do and

02:22 Christian Londono: showcase their skills. So definitely, you know, kudos to all those that participated.

02:29 Christian Londono: And you know, like I said, it had a participation of all the major agencies in North Carolina and some

02:36 Christian Londono: of the rural agencies as well.

02:38 Christian Londono: And you know, altogether just, just great conference and I really enjoyed it.

02:43 Levi McCollum: So you have to be honest here.

02:45 Levi McCollum: You mentioned casino two times. How much did you lose?

02:48 Christian Londono: Honestly? Honestly, I lost about $400.

02:54 Levi McCollum: Ouch. Ouch. Well, hopefully the conference was well worth it.

02:59 Levi McCollum: And you know, I know you come home with maybe a bruised ego on losing the 400, but it sounds

03:06 Levi McCollum: like you had a good time.

03:08 Christian Londono: Yeah, I see it as my contribution to the community, to the local economy.

03:14 Levi McCollum: Local economy.

03:15 Christian Londono: There you go.

03:18 Levi McCollum: Oh, very nice. So let’s talk about some of those takeaways.

03:22 Levi McCollum: We did that in the last episode where we talked about apptimmobility.

03:26 Levi McCollum: And I feel like we got a lot of really good nuggets from that.

03:30 Levi McCollum: Some folks are not able to attend.

03:33 Levi McCollum: And hearing it from your perspective, someone with 10, 12 years working at transit agencies, going to conferences, I feel

03:42 Levi McCollum: like there’s a lot of insights there that you’re able to provide.

03:44 Levi McCollum: Christian. And you just, you love traveling.

03:47 Levi McCollum: You go to all these shows.

03:48 Levi McCollum: So let’s start with number one.

03:51 Levi McCollum: What do you feel like was the biggest takeaway from going to this show earlier the week?

03:57 Christian Londono: The big takeaway from, for me and I think maybe for a lot of the attendees as well, just because

04:03 Christian Londono: of where we are today in terms of politics and how those have the potential of impacting public transit.

04:12 Christian Londono: As a matter of fact, they already are.

04:15 Christian Londono: There’s a lot of grants that have been put on hold and there’s agencies, many agencies, that are taking steps

04:25 Christian Londono: towards changing a little bit their direction based on some of the different policies and initiatives and what’s happening in

04:33 Christian Londono: Washington today. But I would say one of my number one highlights was some of the information that was shared

04:40 Christian Londono: by Mr. Scott Bogren, President of CTAA, or Executive Director, I must say, Community Transportation association of America.

04:53 Christian Londono: And he was speaking, he was giving an update.

04:57 Christian Londono: He’s been part of CTAA and the transit industry for many years.

05:02 Christian Londono: I believe that, you know, he was part, he mentioned being part of CTAA or joining when in the 80s.

05:09 Christian Londono: So that’s, that’s quite a while.

05:11 Christian Londono: I was born in the 80s.

05:12 Christian Londono: So, you know, you.

05:13 Levi McCollum: Yeah, me too.

05:14 Christian Londono: So this guy’s been in transit and.

05:16 Levi McCollum: And as long as we’ve been alive.

05:18 Christian Londono: Yes, as long as we’ve been alive.

05:20 Christian Londono: And, and he’s seen, you know, firsthand a lot of the politics and changes and, and different administrations and the

05:28 Christian Londono: impact to Washington is he’s following very closely.

05:31 Christian Londono: And part of his comments and, and his observations first, some interpretations of what’s happening and what agencies should expect.

05:41 Christian Londono: And part of his comments were also his own, where he thinks things are going to go right.

05:53 Christian Londono: Like it’s not something that he knows for certain, but based on his experience, that’s kind of like what he’s

05:58 Christian Londono: predicting. But I think that was a great update because again, a lot of us, we don’t work in Washington.

06:05 Christian Londono: We don’t follow policy maybe to that level and to have the level of understanding of some of the folks

06:12 Christian Londono: that are more dedicated to that.

06:15 Christian Londono: But he talked about funding and that’s I think one of the most critical topics for transit agencies today, especially

06:23 Christian Londono: because they’re dependent on federal funding, particularly some systems more than others.

06:30 Christian Londono: But he did mention typically smaller systems in rural systems.

06:34 Christian Londono: They’re highly dependent on federal grants, meaning that, you know, if, let’s say the federal government was to cut drastically

06:43 Christian Londono: federal grants or even pull them, right, these agencies will be done.

06:49 Christian Londono: So he explained that there’s the competitive grants, right.

06:55 Christian Londono: And there’s the federal formula grants, which are different federal formula grants, right, like for rural, urban, and you know,

07:05 Christian Londono: all these different types of 50, you know, three or seven, and you know, all these different.

07:13 Christian Londono: 11, 53, 11. But he did say so formula funding is not expected to go away or to even to

07:22 Christian Londono: be reduced in level of funding.

07:25 Christian Londono: Those programs are projected to stay the way they are.

07:29 Christian Londono: So a lot of these agencies, especially those smaller agencies as well, they’re depending on formula funding.

07:34 Christian Londono: Is formula funding that what keeps them alive? So, you know, that’s, that’s one thing he started with that I

07:39 Christian Londono: think is positive, which is you should be okay.

07:44 Christian Londono: At least to stay where you are.

07:45 Christian Londono: You should be okay. Now, he did say that for the competitive grants, there’s a projection of about $1 billion

07:58 Christian Londono: of funding that is going to go down from the budget and that’s from cutting a lot of the programs.

08:08 Christian Londono: So, you know, so that’s one thing that we do have to keep our eyes on is see what’s going

08:14 Christian Londono: to go away in terms of some of those competitive funds that are not going to go out there.

08:19 Christian Londono: And I think it was after, before he spoke.

08:24 Christian Londono: Dr. Taylor, Yvette Taylor, as you know, the FDA administrator, Region 4, she spoke and she pretty much made a

08:33 Christian Londono: joke saying that all grants applications, all grants are under review.

08:37 Christian Londono: She said, any of you with a, with a cup of water or, you know, bottle of water, every time

08:43 Christian Londono: I say under review, you take a sip.

08:45 Christian Londono: Because every time that we talk about different grants and different programs, that’s the word that’s under review.

08:52 Christian Londono: Everything is currently under review in the government side.

08:56 Christian Londono: So it’s funny because she did say that a few times that everybody at the same time would be taking

09:01 Christian Londono: a sip.

09:03 Levi McCollum: They actually followed through with it, huh?

09:06 Christian Londono: Then, yes, they made fun with that because it’s where we are today.

09:12 Christian Londono: It’s like some of those applications for competitive brands and even some of the ones that were already awarded for

09:21 Christian Londono: some of those programs, things might be changing.

09:25 Christian Londono: That was the under review is because things you have to be working very closely with your FDA region and

09:35 Christian Londono: the folks that are helping you with your competitive grants because, you know, you need to know the latest and

09:45 Christian Londono: greatest and what’s changing and what’s not.

09:49 Christian Londono: So I think that was very important, Levi, just to keep an eye on what’s happening with federal funding and

09:55 Christian Londono: then and some of these programs.

09:57 Christian Londono: There’s. There’s also one last thing regarding funding that I forgot to mention.

10:02 Christian Londono: So a lot of these funding that is coming to public transit has to do with the IJA bill, right?

10:09 Christian Londono: Yes. And that bill is sunsetting September 30, 2026.

10:17 Christian Londono: And he said a lot of these times when there’s policy and there’s government changes, yes, there’s challenges and there’s

10:26 Christian Londono: reasons to also be alarmed about certain things.

10:29 Christian Londono: But also a lot of times that translates into opportunities.

10:34 Christian Londono: And the opportunity is that, as I just mentioned, this current bill that is funding in record levels, public transit,

10:45 Christian Londono: is sunsetting. What that means is that new one has to come in place.

10:50 Christian Londono: Typically, that’s what happens. And they’re writing on it and they’re preparing it.

10:55 Christian Londono: That’s what Scott was pretty much saying.

10:58 Christian Londono: And what’s going to happen is this.

11:00 Christian Londono: If there’s no bill ready and Approved by then, September 30, 2026, what typically happens is that they extend that

11:09 Christian Londono: current bill. So that bill has a level of funding and a structure.

11:14 Christian Londono: It would pretty much extend that bill and that level of funding until the new transportation bill comes in place.

11:23 Christian Londono: And what’s important about that is that there’s opportunities to talk about priorities, to talk about needs, and to work

11:30 Christian Londono: with those elected officials, even from the local level.

11:34 Christian Londono: And some of those, you know, your congressman and all those folks that have the opportunity to impact this, to

11:41 Christian Londono: let them know what we need and to potentially put those things in a new build that will create those

11:48 Christian Londono: opportunities that, you know, are coming up with a new transportation bill.

11:53 Christian Londono: So I thought that was very important.

11:55 Christian Londono: That got me thinking. And he also said there’s a lot of new people in Washington.

12:01 Christian Londono: There’s a lot of new people, and they don’t know about you and what you do in your communities, you

12:05 Christian Londono: know, as transit agencies. So it’s so important during this time that those leaders at the different transit agencies are

12:13 Christian Londono: working on letting them know what they’re all about.

12:18 Levi McCollum: Yeah. You really have to be vocal.

12:21 Levi McCollum: You need to be able to share what it is that you’re helping your community with.

12:25 Levi McCollum: Right. Why transit is so vital, why it’s important to the economic prosperity of our communities.

12:33 Levi McCollum: And that’s also good to hear, too, that even though the IJA is sunsetting that there’s that possibility that it

12:43 Levi McCollum: would be extended so it’s not flipping a light switch where all of a sudden it just goes away completely.

12:51 Levi McCollum: I guess that is possible. Right.

12:52 Levi McCollum: But as you mentioned, it is fairly customary to have a new bill in place to be able to find

13:01 Levi McCollum: public transportation, and that would require the extension of the current one.

13:06 Christian Londono: Yeah. And under a new bill.

13:09 Christian Londono: One more thing that, that I want to highlight about some of these comments is that some of the proposals

13:19 Christian Londono: are giving more autonomy to transit agencies.

13:22 Christian Londono: It’s what they’re expecting to see in a new bill.

13:26 Christian Londono: The federal government under this new administration has been working on reducing federal level government and then just giving more

13:34 Christian Londono: autonomy to the different states and different jurisdictions.

13:37 Christian Londono: And I think for transit agencies, they want to start doing the same with things like what type of vehicle

13:46 Christian Londono: should you purchase and even the type of propulsion.

13:50 Christian Londono: And if you are an agency that started doing electrification and it’s working out for you phenomenal that they’re supported

13:57 Christian Londono: to continue electrifying until the last bus and that’s the best propulsion and type of vehicle, then go ahead and

14:06 Christian Londono: do it. But if a different community, rather to choose a different set of vehicles because it just operates better

14:14 Christian Londono: for their community that they have the autonomy to do so.

14:17 Christian Londono: So that was kind of like one thing that was mentioned that’s an example of things that could be in

14:23 Christian Londono: this new bill for transportation.

14:29 Levi McCollum: Yeah, that’s interesting. And it also fits with the theme of the administration, as you mentioned.

14:35 Levi McCollum: Did, did Scott Beaucran give any indication as to which of those discretionary grants would be cut potentially? I mean,

14:44 Levi McCollum: I don’t want to make any assumptions here or conjecture, but just curious if he mentioned any specific.

14:51 Christian Londono: No, nothing. Nothing specifically. And I guess that’s where they continue the joke of like, everything is under review.

15:00 Christian Londono: So it could be anything. I mean, or surprisingly some of those programs that you might think potentially could go

15:08 Christian Londono: away, they might remain. So they’re under review.

15:12 Christian Londono: That’s. Those are the two words.

15:18 Levi McCollum: All right, so that’s a good first takeaway.

15:20 Levi McCollum: Christian, what are the next couple that you have here? Can you give me number two?

15:24 Christian Londono: Yes. So number two is very much connected to number one, and it was very much Scott himself, who also

15:33 Christian Londono: gave me one in a sense, and a lot of us attendees, which is letting those elected officials and everybody

15:40 Christian Londono: in your community know about the value of public transit and what it does, you know, let those elected officials

15:49 Christian Londono: know about Mrs. Jones and you know, she’s homebound and because you provide that door to door Transportation.

15:55 Christian Londono: She’s able to go and live her life and be able to get food and do all these things.

15:59 Christian Londono: So the importance of those programs, not only the value that it has to the economy, because it creates.

16:06 Christian Londono: It generates jobs. It. It has, of course, a lot of value in terms of the economy.

16:11 Christian Londono: You’re moving employees, you’re helping people be able to get to businesses and purchase goods and services.

16:21 Christian Londono: So it helps. And Scott actually made also told a story about a system he was working with where a

16:33 Christian Londono: business owner wanted to remove the bus stop.

16:36 Christian Londono: It was one of those where the bus comes inside the shopping plaza, and there was a designated bus stop

16:43 Christian Londono: in the plaza. And then they wanted to pretty much kick the bus to the curb.

16:47 Christian Londono: So before they did that, the transit agency did something where they gave every person.

16:54 Christian Londono: They asked the drivers to give this little card to every person getting off the bus at that shopping center

17:02 Christian Londono: that said, I spend this much money today? And then they would have a blank space, and the agencies, I

17:09 Christian Londono: mean, the writers would write down how much they spend and then leave it at the card.

17:14 Christian Londono: So a week after they did that, or maybe a couple of weeks after they started doing that initiative, they

17:20 Christian Londono: went into the. They went to the transit agency, went to talk to the, you know, the owner of the

17:27 Christian Londono: store. They wanted them kick out to the curb.

17:30 Christian Londono: And then they asked the guy, have you seen this little card? And the guy said, yeah, what about those

17:34 Christian Londono: cards? I see a bunch of these cars being dropped off here by people.

17:38 Christian Londono: And then they said, well, we started doing that.

17:41 Christian Londono: Those are people that we brought to shop at your shopping plaza.

17:44 Christian Londono: And they were writing down how much money they’re spending.

17:47 Christian Londono: And then the guy gave him a number and say, do you know that every day we’re dropping off here

17:53 Christian Londono: this many people? And then ask him how much money your average shopper spends? And then the guy answered with

18:00 Christian Londono: a number. He said, multiply that by the time of people I’m bringing here, that’s how much value we’re bringing

18:05 Christian Londono: to your business. A long story short, the guy said, I didn’t know that, and I don’t want you guys

18:12 Christian Londono: to go away. And they pulled back from wanting the system to pull out of the shopping plaza.

18:18 Christian Londono: So it’s because people are ignorant about the value of public transit.

18:23 Christian Londono: And then again, that second takeaway is the importance of telling the stories, talking to those elected officials during this

18:29 Christian Londono: time, and just highlighting the value of your public transit service in the community.

18:35 Christian Londono: So that’s. That’s the second takeaway.

18:38 Levi McCollum: Wow, that’s really powerful. Just I love that story a lot.

18:44 Levi McCollum: What’s the third one? What do you.

18:45 Levi McCollum: What do you got for the third takeaway?

18:47 Christian Londono: So my third takeaway is the importance of public transportation and emergency response.

18:55 Christian Londono: Levi, you and I, we work as part of the emergency response team for our transit agencies, where we had

19:04 Christian Londono: to go to the EOC emergency operations center and help coordinate transportation activities during an emergency natural disaster.

19:14 Christian Londono: And typically in. In the Southeast, we have a lot of hurricanes, and that’s one of the many different types

19:24 Christian Londono: of emergencies that transit agencies participate in.

19:26 Christian Londono: So my third takeaway is that one, because Haileen is a hurricane that took place in 2024 that affected North

19:36 Christian Londono: Carolina, and that was spoken about at the conference.

19:39 Christian Londono: There was actually a session related to how the agencies responded the hurricane, all the different efforts.

19:47 Christian Londono: And at the end of the conference, as they’re doing awards and recognition, many of the agencies that struggle but

19:57 Christian Londono: also responded and contributed to the community during that hurricane were recognized.

20:03 Christian Londono: And just to me, that was.

20:04 Christian Londono: That’s a takeaway because I take it personal.

20:06 Christian Londono: I’ve responded to many hurricanes when I work upon trend, and I was very proud of that work every single

20:14 Christian Londono: time because, you know, you’re saving lives, you’re taking people to safety, and, man, and I would do it every

20:23 Christian Londono: single time. That was so exciting and so proud.

20:27 Christian Londono: So just, again, you know, kudos to all those agencies in North Carolina and all those people that work the

20:33 Christian Londono: extra hour to keep the community safe and just highlight the value of public transit.

20:37 Christian Londono: So that’s definitely that third takeaway for me, Levi.

20:43 Levi McCollum: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

20:44 Levi McCollum: And I can also say that in my time at Li Tran and at Palm Tran, you know, many hurricanes

20:51 Levi McCollum: happened, and some folks just don’t have another opportunity to be able to get to a place of safety.

20:59 Levi McCollum: And public transit is that way for you to be able to get people to a safe location and ride

21:06 Levi McCollum: out the storm. So it matters not only in the economic sense, but in individual safety.

21:15 Levi McCollum: Public transit is there to support our communities and make sure that people make it out of these horrific events

21:23 Levi McCollum: alive. Well, Christian, this has been a really good episode.

21:29 Levi McCollum: Unfortunately, I didn’t get to go with you to this one.

21:31 Levi McCollum: I think I say that every time.

21:33 Christian Londono: Next year, we’ll be at the same place.

21:36 Levi McCollum: Yes. We’ll go to the casinos.

21:39 Christian Londono: Yes. Maybe we’ll win next time.

21:42 Levi McCollum: Yeah. Hey, you know, you never know.

21:45 Levi McCollum: You take me with you and you might win.

21:47 Christian Londono: Yes.

21:47 Levi McCollum: Maybe I’m the missing ingredient there, but this is a really good conversation.

21:52 Levi McCollum: Glad to get those three takeaways.

21:54 Levi McCollum: And I hope our listeners find those valuable as well.

21:59 Christian Londono: Thank you for listening. Appreciate it.

22:01 Christian Londono: I’ll see you during the next episode.