Providing transportation service to more than 10.4 million people that call L.A. home, Metro (formerly branded as MTA or LACMTA) operates the third-largest public transportation system in the United States by ridership, and is one of the region's largest employers. Thanks to the generous sponsorship of AECOM and Professor James Moore, 10 USC students were attended this month’s WTS Breakfast in Downtown L.A. that featured Phillip Washington, the new Metro CEO.  The students expressed exceptional expectations to learning something new about Metro from Mr. Washington: “I look forward to the leadership of Phil Washington and am always interested in hearing about his vision”, said Cassandra Gogreve, an MPL student and Entry Level Trainee at Metro; “I’ve been hearing about Metro’s goal of becoming the world’s (if not the universe’s) best transit agency since I started interning there,” said MPL student Ling Feng, who is interning at Metro, “and I’m so excited to have the chance to learn from the new CEO how Metro is going to ‘provide excellence in service and support.’”

Washington weaved in his personal history to give the audience an overview of how he understood the importance of transportation since his childhood, how he got into the transportation industry and ultimately came to Metro. He also expressed particular support for organizations like WTS and advocated for women’s involvement in the professional field, referencing his experiences as the only son in a family with six children. During his speech, he covered several crucial strategic plans that might change the transportation scene the Los Angeles in the next two decades: the rebuilding of infrastructure, the establishment of Office of Innovations, the revision of the Unsolicited Proposal policy, and the introduction of a new approach to promote transit-oriented communities.

Many of our students liked his idea of the Office of Innovation, and found the Unsolicited Proposal policy “very compelling and one that could really propel Metro and Los Angeles forward” (Cassandra Gogreve, MPL). "I think Mr. Washington has a clear and bold vision for the future of Metro and Los Angeles, and he presented some fresh new ideas in his speech. As a researcher, I found his new office of innovation to be unique. I hope that the office will promote research to analyze and explore ways to improve regional transit service and traffic performance,” commented Sandip Chakrabarti, a newly minted Ph.D. student from the USC Price School. “I also found his proposal to accept unsolicited research and project proposals to be useful. This will encourage research institutes and the private sector to think and innovate, rather than simply react and respond to a given proposal,” he added.

As always, our students found the networking opportunities at WTS extremely valuable and helpful.  Kimberly McDowell, an Executive Master of Leadership student, also found that this event tied in well to her position as a senior project manager in a Public Works setting.  And MPL student Ben Frazier, who is currently interning at LADOT and Metro, had a lively conversation with some of his former supervisor and co-workers: “Professional events are a great way to both learn about new or interesting topics in addition to networking.  For example, I participated in the externship program and was placed at Foothill Transit. They ended up being one of the table sponsors and I got the chance to say hello and speak briefly to them again.”  Andy Hong, a Ph.D. student from Price School, also enjoyed this event: “I have a research project that needs coordination with Metro, so I figured it would be a great opportunity to network with some Metro folks. Thankfully I met some good people who helped me be introduced to other professionals,” he said. Cassandra Gogreve believed that she has “grown to thrive in the professional networking environment due to events like WTS” and she now has “a hard time finding a table to sit at of completely unfamiliar faces” because she has come to know so many WTS professionals, and stays in contact with them outside of the events. 

Transportation is a critical part of our built environment and a good, stable, and efficient transportation network is critical to the movement of people and goods.  We are looking forward to what Metro has in store to improving mobility for all and transforming L.A.'s transit system to world class.  We are expecting L.A. to continue to be a city of progress and sustainability, and Metro to be instrumental in those efforts.