Katharine Eagan Kelleman came to Port Authority of Allegheny County in 2018 with a strong background in transportation planning and goals that included rebranding the transit agency externally to make it easier to use while setting internal benchmarks for how that service would be delivered.
After spending more than a year assembling a new leadership team, the agency was ready to move forward with those programs but was hit by a series of crises: flooding along light rail tracks in the South Hills, a Norfolk Southern train that derailed and fell onto light rail tracks near Station Square, and then a global pandemic that sharply cut ridership initially and changed riding patterns as passengers returned.
Now, more than four years later, the agency has completed a 25-year plan last summer known as NexTransit, rebranded last month as Pittsburgh Regional Transit and announced last week that it had completed a five-year internal strategic plan to implement those programs.
“We didn’t know survival would be the [initial] excitement,” Ms. Kelleman said last week as she and Chief Strategy Officer Donny Hamilton Jr. outlined the strategic plan for the agency’s Performance Oversight Committee.
“Our team has never quit. We’re fully committed… that we can do some amazing things for this county and this region.”
Mr. Hamilton said the agency developed its strategic plan through a series of workshops and staff meetings over the past six months. The plan not only sets core values — such as providing clean, efficient and courteous service and expanding it to meet the needs of riders — but it also sets goals for reaching certain benchmarks and will provide training so employees are equipped to meet those goals.
“The goals support our five-year vision of maintaining safe and reliable transit while expanding our investment in people and the communities in which we operate,” the 43-page document says. “We understand we can further the success of the region through collaborative partnerships that align services with economic development opportunities and enhanced mobility initiatives.”
One of the key goals is accountability, Mr. Hamilton said.
“We’re going to do what we say we’re going to do,” he said. “By 2027-28, we’ll be trying to show results.”
Ms. Kelleman said this kind of plan is important for the agency. It wants to be a national leader without losing its focus on what’s best for this region.
“If you don’t know where you’re going, how do you know you’re heading in the right direction?” she said. “What we heard was we need to be the best for Pittsburgh, the best for Allegheny County.”
The agency also wants to keep its focus on equity, both in terms of the service it provides and the role it plays in the community as a major employer that has more than 2,700 employees and spends more than $600 million a year in capital and operating expenses. Employee turnover is low at the agency, but it has to do a better job diversifying its workforce, Ms. Kelleman said.
“It’s time to walk that walk,” she said. “We can’t tell people to ‘trust us.’”
Ed Blazina: eblazina@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1470 or on Twitter @EdBlazina.
First Published: July 25, 2022, 10:00 a.m.
Updated: July 25, 2022, 12:39 p.m.
