Business In Motion

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Table Of Contents

Message from the Chairman

The Plot Thickens on TEA 21 Reauthorization

Business Members Have Growing Opportunity to Address Today’s Tough Fiscal Challenges

Bohlinger Finds Her Niche

Clair a Hands-On Kind of Guy

Business Members Take on Expanded Role in APTA Governance

Message from the Chair By Bill Lochte, Bombardier The BMBG Tactical Plan … A Road Map to the Future As you may know, one of the major initiatives undertaken this year by your Business Member Board of Governors is the development of a Five-Year Tactical Plan. Its purpose is to serve two main goals: To identify and respond to the needs and goals of business members in order to enhance the benefits, involvement and satisfaction derived from APTA membership. To better define and, where possible, escalate business members' contributions and support to our public sector partners and to APTA as a whole for the ultimate purpose of assuring the long-term strength and prosperity of public transportation in North America. We began these efforts in fall 2002, when we surveyed more than 1,200 APTA business members. We followed that up with several in-depth interviews concentrating on maintaining a broad perspective on the issues of member satisfaction and expectation. You told us that: Reauthorization is a top priority. Expanding business opportunities is why you are associated with APTA. Business members have more value to add in their relationships with transit agencies through their participation in APTA. Increased opportunities to network with your customers is important. Business members want to be full partners in APTA and a distinct part of the association's governance. With this feedback in hand, we organized our first strategic planning session in January at the BMBG annual meeting. More than 75 business members participated in an interactive exchange to further identify, confirm and challenge where we are and where we should be in our contribution to APTA and our industry. I believe everyone involved in this first session was awestruck by the high level of enthusiasm and quality of perspective that came out of this session. At the end of almost a full day session, we divided our efforts and attention into four global categories: Education, communication and access to information. Legislation, public policy and the business case for public transportation. Governance, membership and finance. Procurement. Task force groups were formed (everyone volunteered) to further flesh out ideas and strategies. At the Legislative Conference in March we met to share the outcome and recommendations of each group. The outcome of this impressive "shared" effort was the identification of 10 key action items which, when implemented, will impressively improve the value proposition for both the private sector and public sector members of APTA. Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to share this vision and plan with some of our colleagues at a "listening session" at the Bus Conference in Milwaukee. I intend to do the same at a listening session at the upcoming APTA Rail Conference. If you can't attend our session in San Jose, I welcome you to view our preliminary plan and, specifically, the targeted 10 action items on APTA's Website (www.apta.com). Your feedback is needed and appreciated. Our goal from the outset is to reach a broad consensus and achieve buyin of the Tactical Plan as well as to be bold but appropriate in our future goals and assertions in its implementation. I owe a large debt of gratitude to the many people involved in this effort to date … the quality and energy expended has been remarkable. We expect to compile final draft recommendations to be voted on and adopted at our annual conference in Utah. We are working vigorously to chart our future course. We need your valuable input as we draw the road map and your unselfish help as we implement our plan. Step up and help us along the road...ensure a positive R.O.I. by getting active in APTA.

The Plot Thickens on TEA 21 Reauthorization

Since the last issue of Business in Motion, there has been a steady crescendo of reauthorization activity, including more than a dozen Congressional hearings on TEA 21 and related issues, and the release of new reports and legislative proposals. Indeed, consideration of TEA 21 clearly has entered a new, heightened phase of activity.

On May 14, the Bush Administration put forward its reauthorization proposal, the "Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2003," or SAFETEA. The administration bill falls far short of the investment needs as identified by APTA and other transportation organizations. In fact, under the administration’s proposal, the General Fund component of the federal transit program would be excluded from the funding guarantees. That would immediately threaten 20% of federal transit funds. This would also regress to past practice, when funds authorized for public transportation investment frequently were not appropriated, making receipt of funds unpredictable and thus driving away private sector investments.

Overall, the administration’s proposal — including both Trust Funds and non-guaranteed General Funds — would grow the federal transit program over six years from the current level of $7.2 billion to a FY 2009 level of $8 billion. APTA’s highway partners feel similarly underfunded by the administration’s proposal, and we are working together to bring this message to Capitol Hill.

The transit industry enters this new phase of the reauthorization debate armed with several important new tools. A recent poll by Wirthlin Worldwide showed that 72% of Americans support increased investment in public transportation. Significantly, 64% of respondents would be more likely to support a Congressional candidate who supports improving public transportation options. Perhaps most interesting of all is that these findings cut across all geographic locations — urban, suburban, small town and rural.

On May 13, APTA, the American Road and Transportation Builders Association and the Transportation Construction Coalition unveiled a new economic analysis quantifying the favorable economic impacts of the "user fee indexing" proposal being promoted by the leadership of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. That plan would index federal gas tax rates to account for inflation going back to 1992 — the date of the last increase. Small increases in the gas tax can help take the pressure off cash strapped states and local governments.

APTA Business Members continue to be a vital part of APTA’s advocacy efforts. Transit Reborn, an exciting new advocacy tool sponsored by APTA Business Members, was previewed at the APTA Legislative Conference and the Bus and Paratransit Conference, and will soon be available for general use. This project transforms transit facts and statistics into an illustrated guide to the challenges public transportation has faced and overcome to assume its critical place in 21st Century America.

At the March 2003 Legislative Conference, APTA Business Members hosted a jampacked breakfast session titled: TEA 21 Advocacy: The Business Perspective. The breakfast featured a discussion of how businesses can be effective advocates for TEA 21 reauthorization. The Business Member Government Affairs Sub-committee and APTA's (PT)2 program has taken advocacy a step further. A new Web-based tool will soon be available to provide APTA members and transit unions with information, messages, suggested activities and calls to action to get employees to contact their Congressional leaders in support of a bold TEA 21. APTA Business Members are urged to step up their already impressive level of activity in the coming critical months.

Business Members Have Growing Opportunity to Address Today’s Tough Fiscal Challenges

By Cliff Henke, North American Bus Industries

Although there have been some signs that state budgets are beginning to show recovery, the crisis is far from over. Rather than wring their hands in despair, however, many APTA business members are helping their public sector clients overcome budget challenges with innovative financing packages and other tools common in the private sector.

A survey of APTA operating members conducted late last year showed that the economic recession has softened demand for public transportation equipment and services. Indeed, 42% of systems in the survey have had to delay their capital programs and more than half have reduced administrative expenses. Even 11% have deferred maintenance, always considered a last resort in transit.

The APTA study also said the funding crisis has hit harder large agencies, which comprise the majority of rolling stock purchases and other major capital projects. More large systems reported ridership declines and shortfalls in local funding than the rest of the industry.

Since then, the funding picture has brightened somewhat, but not by much, according to a survey by the National Conference of State Legislatures. The report, issued in April, found that 41 states face a cumulative budget gap of $78.4 billion for fiscal year 2003-2004 (which begins July 1, 2003). Thirty-seven of those states reported a gap in excess of 5% of their general fund, while 19 of these face deficits that exceed 10%. Virtually all states must show a balanced budget, which means the tough decisions about cutting programs or raising revenues through extra taxes or bonding cannot be put off for another day.

Fortunately, there are a variety of techniques that private sector companies in public transportation can offer to help address the fiscal crisis. They range from rolling stock sale-and-leaseback arrangements to turnkey infrastructure project delivery methods that can also include innovative financing as part of the package.

For example, several heavy-duty bus manufacturers work with such financing companies as Municipal Services Group (MSG), which has a rich history of experience in offering vehicle financing tailored to the needs of transit and other public sector industries. MSG provided installment financing to the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation in Detroit for the agency’s purchase of Gillig low-floor 40-foot buses.

A far more ambitious example of private sector know-how is the Las Vegas monorail project. To say that America’s fastest growing large city has had a fast-growing transportation congestion challenge is a vast understatement. To address it, a tax-exempt nonprofit corporation, the Las Vegas Monorail Co., comprising Bombardier, was formed. Nevada’s Clark County government granted this organization a 50-year franchise to upgrade and extend to a total of four miles an existing Bombardier monorail system. The $650 million project is financed by revenue-back bonds and the casinos served by the system, which Bombardier is building and later will operate under a 15-year turnkey contract. The result, when it is opened for service next year, will be the first urban fixed guideway in America that is totally financed, designed, constructed and operated by the private sector.

Although this is the furthest venture into privatization in the U.S. since the 1960s, public transportation and the private sector are old friends. Even today, according to APTA statistics, about 12% of the country’s transit service is provided by private operators through contracts.

In the 1970s and early 1980s this practice was largely confined to paratransit service. However, today it extends to virtually all modes, including fixed-route bus, commuter rail operations and maintenance and soon even heavy rail service when San Juan's Tren Urbano opens in the fall. In short, a growing number of public transportation agencies have turned to private companies to make tight budgets stretch, and provide innovative solutions. These qualities are even more attractive to our public partners in challenging times, the kind our industry faces today.

BMBG Strategic Plan Listening Session at APTA's Rail Conference in San Jose Tuesday, June 10 8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. All APTA Business Members are invited to learn more about the strategic plan and to provide their thoughts and ideas on how APTA’s programs can be enhanced to better serve the interests of private sector members.

Bohlinger Finds Her Niche

"You can come from a variety of backgrounds and still have an impact on the industry," says Linda Bohlinger, vice president of HNTB Corp.’s national management consulting office.

Prior to her career in transportation, Bohlinger was a teacher. Growing up in Southern California, Bohlinger developed an interest in the Spanish and Mexican influences in California history, leading her to study in Spain and Mexico. Fluent in Spanish, Bohlinger taught English as a second language to migrant farm workers in Salt Lake City. After teaching, Bohlinger became an academic administrator, which led to a position with the Southern California Association of Governments. "I really started to find my niche in state and federal legislation and funding strategies. That is what really caught my interest," she says of this early position.

Career highlights include securing three full-funding grant agreements, two totaling more than $2.4 billion for Los Angeles’ Metrorail Red Line, during her tenure with the Los Angeles County MTA. Another accomplishment included being on the capital planning, funding side of Metrolink.

Bohlinger formed her own office within HNTB that focuses on funding strategy plans, strategic planning and implementation and business productivity. "It combines my experience and interest in transit, but also broadens into other modes — highways, bridges and eventually aviation," she says.

A 25-year plus veteran of the transportation industry, Bohlinger has been an APTA member for as many years. This year, she was appointed to the TCRP Oversight and Project Selection Committee. Through HNTB, Bohlinger is also a leadership level contributor to (PT)2. "The BMBG offers support and encouragement to all components of the transportation industry," she says.

Bohlinger lives in Orange, Calif., with her husband John Sohn and their 19-year-old cat Big Guy. "I'm an animal lover. I grew up with horses and sheep," she says of her childhood in Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez, California. She also enjoys playing golf on the weekends.

Clair a Hands-On Kind of Guy

"It’s really quite a thrill," says Richard Clair of his job as president and general manager of First Transit Inc., where balancing the needs of customers, employees and shareholders is a daily challenge. "The people who work for our company are the ones who make our business happen."

Relishing the hands-on aspect of his work, Clair likes being in touch with his customers and with the people providing services. Born and raised in Worcester, Mass., Clair first developed an interest in the transportation industry after attending an MIT seminar on public transit, prompting him to change his career path in graduate school from city to transit management. "Being somebody who is interested in land use and the structural side of the urban environment, I saw this as a great way for a young person out of school to be able to make his mark in a business that was getting ready to fly."

During his 23-year tenure with First Transit, Clair included a two-year stint in Saudi Arabia, where the company started a transportation network that grew from zero buses to seven depots and more than 1,100 buses carrying over a half million passengers a day. "It was an incredibly heady experience for a 30-year-old manager. It was great fun," he says.

Clair became a BMBG member in 1997, and has held positions on several committees, including the APTA liaison, bylaws, technology and meetings committees. His role as chair of the latter involved putting together business member forums at various APTA conferences. "Once you get into the position of being in the BMBG, people basically understand that you are very serious about our industry and moving it forward," he says. "Joining the BMBG is the way to become known within our industry and also a way to make significant contributions to the industry."

Clair, who lives in Cincinnati, spends most of his free time with his four teenage children. "I have 16-year-old twins who have recently taken up golf, challenging me to do the same." He also is an avid reader, poring over historical or biographical books when he can.

Business Members Take on Expanded Role in APTA Governance

By Stephanie Pinson,
Gilbert Tweed Associates Inc.

In October 1997, APTA’s Associate Members were renamed Business Members. With that bylaws change began a significant and exciting new era in the way in which public transit members and business members came together to conduct the affairs of APTA. Many of us on both sides of the aisle had worked for months to discuss, negotiate and hammer out a new relationship among us.

The partnership between the business and public members was recognized in the change of the bylaws to open further opportunities for business members to serve on the APTA Executive Committee in all vice chair slots except chair, first vice chair and vice chairs of bus and rail operations. Disappointingly however, until last year, no business member has ever run for any of the chairs outside the traditional business member seats: vice chair-business members, business member -at-large and research and technology.

Today, as we enter into re-examining APTA’s five-year strategic plan, we are also reviewing the business members’ goals, objectives and performance to be ready to fully participate in the ongoing APTA strategic planning process. In conducting this review and adopting our own Business Member’s Tactical Plan, we have re-committed to certain goals and re-emphasized others.

One of those goals, as stated in the 2003 Draft Tactical Plan, will be "to respond to the needs and goals of business members in order to enhance the benefits, involvement and satisfaction they derive from APTA membership; and to make a significant contribution to business members’ public sector partners, to APTA as a whole and … to the strength and longterm future of public transportation in America."

In order to assure that we meet these goals, it is necessary to respond and contribute as much at the core of APTA as on the street where business is conducted. This means that as full members, we must do a better job of stepping up to the plate of governance where governance begins: with the executive committee. While we are able to serve in many seats, we have not taken advantage of the opportunity.

Moreover, business members believe that, in 2003, as our partnership has matured and provided many benefits, we are equally qualified with public transit agency members and authority board members to serve in any APTA Executive Committee role. Given the newly understood emphasis on the role of transportation in the economy and in the creation of valuable jobs and services, it becomes increasingly important that there be a greater representation of private sector experience on the executive committee. In this millennium, where APTA means business, business members ought to be eligible to serve in any seat where they can advance the mission and the purpose of APTA and its members.

That process begins in June with the announcement of the APTA Nominating Committee. APTA Chair Celia Kupersmith selects this key entity with an eye to the proportionality and diversity of experience across the APTA membership and geography.

By proposing and supporting the candidacy of well known and widely respected industry business members, the BMBG is announcing its desire to continue its involvement and commitment to good governance and strong support for APTA. APTA is a stronger organization when its leadership includes individuals who understand and support the needs of both the public and private sectors. By encouraging credible candidates who can advance private sector issues at all levels in APTA, we will undoubtedly receive strong support from the public sector as we broaden APTA's perspective on business needs and capabilities in the public transit industry.

The official newsletter of the American Public Transportation Association's Business Members Chair William Lochte, Bombardier Chair, Outreach Committee/Publisher Kim Green, GFI Genfare Associate Publisher Frank Di Giacomo, METRO Magazine Editors Leslie Davis, METRO Magazine; Cliff Henke, NABI Graphic Designer Helen Cunningham, Bobit Publishing APTA Staff Advisor Fran Hooper The official newsletter of the American Public Transportation Association's Business Members Ensure a positive R.O.I. … Get active in APTA.

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