Lean Times: At the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System Ridership is Booming

In this article, the CEO of the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System describes ways to cut costs after five or six years of previous cuts, and at a time when ridership is growing. The San Diego MTS CEO Paul Jablonski would like to take advantage of ridership increases, but has been forced to restructure about 95 percent of bus service using a market-based approach. Some 22 management positions were eliminated in just one month. In addition, Jablonski has reworked shelter advertising contracts, expanded advertising on buses, charged local casinos for parking their charter vehicles at MTS transit centers, and established a preventative maintenance program for its vehicles. The article describes labor issues and how they have played out; changing fares on the popular trolley; and reliance on compressed natural gas for 75 percent of their fleet so that high gas costs have been less problematic.