February 26, 2025 • 26 mins
After decades at transit agencies across the U.S., Tom Drozt decided at 56 to retire, spend time with his family, work on his yard, and find some new passions to put his energy into. Turns out transit is his passion, so before long he was out of retirement and at MARTA in Atlanta running bus operations. Now the CEO of Ben Franklin Transit in Southern Washington State, Tom is leading the agency with his people-first leadership style and helping people choose transit over cars.
Coming up next week we have Stephen Gardner, CEO of Amtrak, talking with Paul about the historic investments Amtrak is making to bring rail travel to the fore in the U.S.
And don’t forget to have your say in our Transit Unplugged listener survey. Just visit https://transitunplugged.com/survey/ to complete the short survey.
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:05 Interview with Tom Drozt, CEO of Ben Franklin Transit
00:23 Tom's Background and Early Career
03:13 Career Challenges and Transitions
07:50 Joining Ben Franklin Transit
17:20 Current Initiatives and Projects
21:43 Leadership Philosophy and Future Vision
24:52 Conclusion and thank you
25:07 Coming up next week on Transit Unplugged
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Great to have my good friend TomDrozt on the show with us today.
Tom, thanks for beinga part of the program.
Hey, good afternoon, Paul,and thanks for having me.
I really appreciate it.
Absolutely.
Tom, you are, you areon my LinkedIn profile.
You're the, you're the preeminent,comment when you commented
about us working together.
Tell people about our background together.
Yeah, absolutely.
So, Paul, I first met you back inBaltimore when there was that big
(00:29):
changeover from Democrats and Republicans,and Hogan came in, and we got a new CEO,
and what I remember the most, I mean,outside of the Jonas Snowstorm, we can
get into that, but was that, hey, youknow what, we're going to make some
changes around here, this is a publicagency, and we're going to do things a
little bit different, and you know what,anybody who has a position of authority
(00:54):
needs to start making some decisionsand we need to start making some change.
We're going to make it now.
That's what I felt.
I could feel the difference.
Yeah, that's great.
That's right.
That's the way I am.
And Tom, I'm so happy for you nowas CEO of Ben Franklin Transit.
They're the storied transit system inWashington State, southern Washington.
your background, you've had, my,let's, let's circle around this memory.
(01:16):
My recollection of you, Tom, is that, youwere committed to excellence at the MTA.
I mean, you were living still, I think,out West somewhere and, you know, going
home once a, once a month, maybe fora long weekend and being my director
of bus operations, we had one of thelargest bus operations in America.
It's 750 buses.
We actually rebooted the entirenetwork and you and I went
(01:38):
through some big storms together.
and, you were, you know,Mr. 24/7, always there.
And I always told you, I don'tknow if you remember this, but I
always said, Tom, you're bigger,you've, your mind is a CEO mind.
You think bigger than justday to day operations.
You think the whole thing.
And so, you've been aroundthe country in several bus
operations, running them directly.
(01:59):
So I'm so happy you finallygot to the CEO seat.
Yeah, no thanks Paul.
And you know what?
I actually do remember that . And sowe were in the Washington, facility,
or they call it the Washington Yard.
Yeah.
And we were walking down the corridorwhen we were having that, discussion.
And I know it was just, it was a littlebit after you got there and everything.
And I, and I could tell that you tookeverything in real fast and, I mean, you,
(02:22):
you, I mean, you hit a lot of the staff.
Got the information and then you wereable to go ahead and diagnose it and,
you know, give your comments back.
And, and that's when I knew, that'swhen I knew that we were going
to make some big changes and, youknow, for Baltimore MTA and such.
And we did, you know, I mean, it's theproof's in the pudding and also that,
you know, you know, in your career, Paul,there's just different things that happen,
(02:45):
you know, just, you know, out of the bluethat are turning points in your career
and just kind of open up your mind assuch, and definitely for me, that was one
of them, without a doubt, and that wasprobably the start of really taking that
transit private model and intertwiningit with the, you know, public agency,
you know, government model of transit.
(03:07):
Yeah.
And then, after I left, what did you do?
Tell us about your career pathand how you ended up there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, so, so after, afterI left Baltimore, I went back
to, I took a job in San Joaquin.
I wanted to get back to the WestCoast, for, you know, lessen the
travel And I went to San Joaquinto be the Chief Operating Officer.
(03:27):
It was definitely a smaller agency And Iwas only there for a short time, before,
you know, I learned that, my, my wifedeveloped cancer And so, in order to,
you know, once we found out, I endedup leaving my job in San Joaquin and
stayed home in Phoenix and took careof my family matters and, and so forth.
And, and after that, what happenedwas, when I was ready to get back in
(03:49):
the saddle I ended up taking a jobwith First Transit as the Assistant
General Manager there in Tempe, Arizona.
My home is Phoenix, Arizona.
And, and again, prettydecent sized agency, 600 bus
operators, you know, 350 buses
And, you know, just, you know, tryingto work the magic there and, you
know, conquer all the challengesthat any transit agency has.
(04:11):
And, uh, from there First Transit hada contract in, in L. A. that, we were
kind of struggling at, and they askedme to go out to LA and see if we can't,
you know, get some, you know, justtake that contract and, you know, bring
it alive and get it back, you know,rolling and, you know, on the right foot
So I was out there for about a year.
We did end up losing the contract to MV.
(04:34):
but what MV did was they said, Hey,Tom, can you stay on and be the
General Manager here and, and so forth.
And, and I, and I did.
And I was, out at the Carsonlocation, working for MV, one
of the LA Metro properties.
We ended up turning the division around.
Related to finances and KPIs, ourperformance went from, you know,
(04:57):
it was rough to we're hitting,you know, eight of nine KPIs every
month and did really well there.
And then after, after my Carsonstint, I got it to the point where
it was all turnkey and everything.
And I always had this dream of,55 and out, you know, right?
Hey, let's, let's retire.
(05:17):
So at that point, I was actually 56,you know, when that happened, I said,
you know, I think I'm going to retire.
And family's okay and everythingand kind of went back home and, kind
of, just kind of did all the housestuff and everything like that.
My wife's still working and, whathappened there about a year went by,
you know, I get the best yard andthe neighborhood and all one thing I
didn't think through was that at thatage, Everybody's still going to work.
(05:41):
So I was kind of home alone, and soit kind of got a little boring all
my, all my friends, they're stillworking So, you know, so there was a
little disconnect for myself there.
And, but, but it gave me a chance to justreevaluate myself, my life, where am I
going, what should I do with my career?
Of course, I've always kept up with allthe transit publications So I kind of
read what's going on and everything.
(06:02):
And out of the blue, a recruiter called meand said, Hey, I got this one client and
they're looking for somebody, you know,to, head up their operations division.
And you have a lot of skillsand experience related to it.
Would you be interested?
And of course I said, I'll always beinterested in listening and, you know,
and so I did and everything like that.
(06:22):
And she didn't quite tell me who it was.
And she said they were kindof far along in the process
and the recruitment process.
And, but she, she thought thatwould be a really good fit.
she went back to the client,which happened to be MARTA.
And
In Atlanta, the transit system in Atlanta.
Yep, exactly.
she, she went back to them andsaid, hey, I got this one guy,
Tom Drozt think he'd really fitwell with you all and everything.
(06:46):
And, and so they, they agreedto, uh, you know, give me a,
give me, give me an interview
And so, so we did and went thereand, went through that process.
And next thing you know,it's, I'm in Atlanta, right?
And Atlanta is a huge, huge animal.
I felt like I was back in Baltimore but,but there was definitely a difference.
I felt Atlanta had, great bones and,uh, just need the right different
(07:08):
players, but had a lot of things going on
And so I hung out in Atlanta fora little bit, before, you know,
this opportunity had Ben Franklincame up to be the, the CEO.
So at MARTA, I was a deputy, deputychief of bus operations there.
Okay.
And so
I remember we had
multiple conversations.
You were filling me in andit was a big operation.
(07:28):
And, I think you were makingsome real progress there.
Yep, yep, we certainly, I mean,a lot of projects going on.
A lot of movement, without a doubt, and,uh, I think even if I, I read today,
they hit a couple of milestones with
Yeah, congratulations toCollie and the team there.
Yeah.
Absolutely, and, and they gottheir, their Rapid is gonna be,
starting up here shortly andwe were working on those plans.
(07:50):
you know, just like everywhere, you know,manpower's somewhat of an issue, so that,
takes a little bit of a draw on, youknow, when you, when you're trying to
progress but, yeah, so when I saw the BenFranklin opportunity, you know, I just saw
as, you know, another opportunity to goahead and, you know, jump up a step and
run an entire organization my, by myselfon the, on the, on the government side.
(08:12):
Yeah, I've
done it on the private side.
And so I jumped at the opportunityand here I'm at in Washington.
And how long have youbeen there in this job?
So I've been here seven months now.
Okay.
That's a great story, Tom.
I mean, it's a great storyof a yeoman's kind of career.
And a lot of people in the, in ourindustry have a similar career of yours,
(08:33):
where you have to move around in orderto get these jobs, the bigger jobs.
You can't always just stayin the same location, right?
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
If you're eager and you want to move upand you also want to experience transit,
as I'll say, as a whole, and you wantto say as a whole, you know, on the
private side of the agency side, fromsmall operation to larger operation and
(08:54):
everything in between, I have to say,there are things here, now that I'm at
Ben Franklin, that I'm learning thatone would think that, you would know
already because, Tom you've been intransit 26 years and you've been, you
know, kind of around the country, buttransit here is a little bit different.
Yeah,
it's that old saying, right?
(09:15):
If you've seen one transit system,you've seen one transit system
because they're all so different.
thanks for sharing with us.
I love, I love a greatstory like that of a career.
Tell us some about your agencynow, you know, kind of give
us, scope it out for us.
Yeah, absolutely.
So, Ben Franklin is made up ofapproximately 420 employees.
We have, three modes of transit.
(09:35):
We have our fixed route, and our fleetsize there is about 75, vehicles.
We have our paratransit, and thatfleet size is at 81 vehicles.
And then we have ourrideshare slash vanpool.
And that fleet size is 200 vehicles.
So, actually, rideshareis our largest mode.
Oh, yeah,
of transportation.
(09:56):
We also have a microtransit, whichwe contract out, to help out with
our first and last mile, challengesour budget is, close to 100 million
dollars between operating and capital.
Our, uh, ridership, overall ridershipis, uh, just north of, uh, annually
it's north of, uh, 3 million a year.
And I, and I have to say that the, The layof the land here in Tri Cities is you can
(10:21):
get anywhere in a vehicle in 20 minutes.
So in transit that's our biggest enemy.
That's right.
and why I say that Paul is because, well,because our competition is the cars.
Right?
We want riders, but if we can't get youthere, if it's taking, you know, what's an
hour and 20 minutes to get you there on aroute, but you can do it in 20 minutes in
a car, you're going to opt for the car.
(10:43):
So that's one of our biggest challengeshere at Ben Franklin Transit.
And you're located, just over theOregon border, kind of in the central
part of Washington State, right?
Yep, absolutely.
We're approximately 31 milesnorth of the Oregon border and
we're three hours east of Seattle.
Okay.
And what's your governing structure there?
Do you work for a citygovernment, do you have your own
(11:03):
board, or how does that work?
So we're our own authority.
Yeah, I report out to a board ofnine and that would consist of, you
know, the different commissionersin Franklin County and Benton County
and then the City of Pasco, City ofKennewick, and, City of Richland.
A couple of those areas have, uh,two, two members as opposed to one.
(11:28):
Okay, so you've got multiple jurisdictionswhich are funding the agency.
Yeah.
And how's, how's ridership, is it, youknow, versus, I don't even want to say
the word pre pandemic, but you know, how'sridership doing and how's finances doing?
Yeah.
You know what, let mestart off with finances.
We just had an initiative, 21 17, amonth ago or so, maybe it's been two
(11:49):
months now, that they were tryingto repeal one of the taxes but the
voters overwhelmingly voted it down,so we didn't lose any funding there.
Overall, from a funding standpoint,we're in pretty decent shape.
I'll leave it at that.
There's no hard challenges And from theridership standpoint, I'll speak of,
you know, COVID, post pandemic, right?
(12:11):
And we've been on the growthpattern every single month, well,
every single year, then everysingle month of that year as well.
last year we, you know, hit thescales of that 3 million, and
this year we're looking to hit 3.
3, million.
Our population overall in the TriCities is 300, 000 individuals.
(12:31):
That's great.
So, yeah.
So, every month we're doing about,we're just doing about 300,000 a month
in, in, in, in ridership, you know,to give some kind of perspective.
And you operate all those servicesexcept for the microtransit
with your own employees?
Ye
s, absolutely.
Okay,
yeah.
I love your vision, Tom.
You know, when I was at MTA, I cameup with the four cornerstones of safe,
(12:53):
efficient, reliable, with world classcustomer service, and your vision
is to build a transit system that'sreliable, accessible, and future focused.
Tell us about that.
when we talk about the reliability,we're talking about two things here.
two immediate things, right?
The bus hall is showing up on time.
And the bus, you know, the schedule thatyou put out, you match it, and that's
(13:14):
the reliability piece, and that rightthere alone, right, is going to help us
kind of, go ahead and, I'll call it, youknow, defeat our enemy of the vehicles
I keep bringing that up because that istruly the challenge that we have, and so
we're looking at all of our routes to goahead, and any of those routes that are in
that hour, an hour and 10 minute window.
(13:37):
how do we reduce that toabout 40 to 45 minutes,
The headways?
Absolutely, you know, so,so that's huge in itself.
And then the future I'll tell you,Paul, most of my career has been on
the warm weather area and it definitelywas a little chilly in Baltimore.
(13:58):
Don't get me wrong.
I do remember that.
Yeah.
But our, our, our, our different amenitieshere, I'm focusing on our bus stops.
We need four season bus stops here.
You know, these people, here inTri Cities, you know, they're
very used to taking the bus and,you know, the bus stop is there.
We don't have any heat lamps and wehave certain, certain shelters, You
(14:22):
know, aimed at certain ways justfor the wind we need to put more
heat lamps in our, bus shelters.
I'm looking to really improve thepassenger amenities here because that's
where it really starts for the passenger.
Yeah, including for the bus.
So if you can make it, if youcan put in amenities that, can go
ahead and, you know, I'll say makeit comfortable and comfortable in
(14:43):
every way for the passenger, that'stheir first impression of transit.
Once they get on the bus.
You know, everybody's on their phone andget their 12 minutes on the bus, get to
their place, and it all happens, you know.
That's good.
I love that.
you know what else I love,Tom, is I've always loved your
leadership philosophy and approach.
Tell us about that some.
I mean, you're, you're, when Iremember us working together, for those
(15:05):
few years, you were collaborative,transparent, you were forward thinking.
Tell us about your approach to leadership.
Yeah, so what I've learned over all theyears of watching everybody watching, you
know, good leaders, watching, challenged,leaders to me the first thing that comes
to mind is the, the listening, you know,understanding the needs of employees,
(15:26):
your riders, your stakeholders, beforemaking any decision, I mean, absent
of listening, you know, you're justflying by the seat of your pants making
decisions that might not, you know, bein sync, with the area that you're in.
And then another thing that it took mea little while to learn was, you know,
(15:47):
empowering, empowering my team, lot oftimes I felt like, you know, I had to be
the one to do it, you know, in order forit to get done and done the right way.
but, you know, as a leader, youknow, trusting your employees,
to take the ownership, and todrive the solutions is key.
If you try to do it alone, you'regoing to bottleneck, right?
(16:08):
And slow down the entire, entire process.
And then also, you know, being datadriven, but being people focused as well.
I love that.
Yep, in combination is what you need,you know, using those metrics as only
as a guide, you know, but withoutlosing sight, you know, of your, of your
passenger and not always your passenger,but your internal customers as well,
(16:31):
you know, so that's very important aswell, so, and then as we, as we all know,
the only thing constant in transit ischange, right, so adapting to change,
whatever it may be, and whether it'sthe technology, whether it's a pandemic,
whatever You know, whether it's, youknow, you know, the different resources
and assets that you have, being ableto go ahead and take each one of those
(16:51):
things and how to, how do you create ascenario, you know, to, you know, to your
advantage, just overall in your system.
So, you know, so ultimately, leadershipis about, right, building a strong,
motivated team, you know, that shares thatsame commitment to service excellence.
Great philosophy.
I think putting people first, and I knowyou guys are very focused on community
(17:12):
engagement and workforce development,and you've, you're really focused on
expanding transit access, leveragingtechnology and strengthening partnerships.
But I wanna focus for a few minutes onyour current initiatives and projects.
you're working, you mentionedyou're doing some bus stop upgrades.
Tell us about, some of the othercurrent key initiatives that you're
working on with improving serviceenhancing infrastructure, getting
(17:33):
things ready for the future there.
Yes, without a doubt.
So, we have a Director of Facilities,and as mentioned to Shane, I
said, Shane, we need to put abrick in the ground this year.
And what I'm referring to isa new Facilities Building for
our Facilities Department.
We have a phenomenal Facilities team,just like a lot of other agencies,
(17:57):
and it's not just, you know, the,the, the administration building and
the ops building, but it's all thetransit centers, you know, it's all
the, It's all the bus stops and beinga four season, transit, agency, those
individuals are, are key, you know,just to, you know, keeping everything
up to snuff and things like that.
(18:17):
So we're looking to build a new,facilities for them right now.
They co share with Maintenance.
Okay.
Trying to get that off.
as you mentioned, our busstop upgrades, which are huge.
August of 2025, we will be gettingour first express routes, you know,
and so what's so important about that,of course, is while we'll still have
the Route One, and the Route one isone of our heavier ridership, routes.
(18:42):
it does take, you know, an hour and15 minutes to go from end to end.
So we'll have a one x. You know, withlimited stops from end to end, so those
individuals, you know, have that choice,to go ahead and jump on Express and, we
can compete with the local traffic andget to your, get to your destination.
I don't want to even say in 40 minutes,because 40 minutes is end to end, but
(19:04):
now you might be able to get, if you'rethe third stop in, you might actually
get to your destination in 30 minutes,you know, and, and that's where the
real value is getting that time back.
to the passenger, so they can goon about their business as opposed
to spending that time on the bus.
So that's going to be huge for us.
We'll have a big kickoffwith that express route.
The organizational restructuring, youknow, just Taking the organization as a
(19:27):
whole and looking at, overall, seeing ifwe have all the right pieces in place, we
put together our PMO office, our projectmanagement office, and it consists of
three project managers, as we have alot of different projects going on here.
I told this team here,we have all this money.
If we don't spend the money, somebody elsewill, and I know that folks that give us
(19:51):
the grants they don't want the money back.
Everybody allocated and giving it outso we need to do our part, and not only
that, if we're not, you know, usingthat resource, then we're not enhancing
our transit system for our community.
So that's huge in itself.
So we created that PMO office.
Our fleet modernization, we'reintroducing, four electric,
(20:12):
buses and exploring thehydrogen fuel tech, technology.
so it seems like hydrogen is, at leastin this area here, is coming more alive.
Yeah.
Especially with the weather and the thingsthat are going on with battery electric.
We don't want to, we don't want tohave one fleet, one fuel source.
We want it to diversified.
You know, so we're probably going toend up with, you know, we'll, the clean.
(20:35):
Clean burning diesel, someelectric, and tap into the
hydrogen aspect of it as well.
And being that our fleets are, like Isaid, a ride share of 200, we definitely
do something with that fleet to go aheadand that might become half hydrogen,
half electric, where I know a lot of theother agencies or bigger agencies, you
know, the big fleet is bus, you know,in our case, it's, It's the ride share.
(20:59):
And then also our fare structure.
So that'll be another oneof our initiatives that we
have going on this year.
Our fares are very reasonable.
It's 1.
50 with a transfer, so probably, that'sprobably unheard of in some places.
what we're, and whatwe're trying to do there.
Still got a lot of work with it.
(21:20):
We're trying to, doaway with the transfer.
So we'll say, Hey, how abouta $2, all day, you know?
And, it's kind of, if you're spending adollar 50 to go one way, you're probably
spending a dollar 50 to come back.
So it's $3, how about $2?
And you can ride as many timesas you want all day, you know?
Wow.
So I'm looking at someadoption there, you know?
Yeah.
That's great, Tom.
(21:40):
Very good.
Well, it sounds like youall have a lot going on.
I, I want to close this outwith some of your personal
reflections and closing thoughts.
I guess, what has been yourproudest moment so far as,
you're just under a year?
What's been your proudest moment as CEO?
I'd have to say it's the dedicationand passion, Paul, of our team,
as we work to transform publictransit in the Tri Cities.
(22:02):
The team here, being that a lot offolks come from this area, a lot
of our employees are, have beenwith Ben Franklin Transit one and
even two decades, there is a lot ofpassion, for the work that they do.
And so whether it's rolling out acritical infrastructure upgrade,
launching, you know, our first, expressroute, or expanding, access to cleaner
(22:26):
and more efficient, transportation,uh, options, I take great pride in the
progress that what we're doing, we're,we're making a difference together.
And in the end, the human capital isour big asset for any transit agency
and making a difference overall.
I agree with that.
(22:47):
And then maybe you could justgive us some final thoughts
about the future of transit.
you know, you've mentioned the onlychange, the only constant is change,
and we have to adapt and progress,but, what are your thoughts now as
transportation enters this, 2025year, the end of the first quarter
century and headed into the next?
You know, so, so my thought is we reallyhave to take a look at our industry as a
(23:10):
whole, from the, from the human capitalside of it, and us folks that, you know,
have two decades and three decades,in our industry, Start preparing our
younger generation, with the experienceand knowledge we've gained over the
years and handing it down to them sothat our industry doesn't go deficient,
(23:34):
in the human capital side of it.
That's, that's what I see.
Pickings are slim sometimes, and maybewe don't do a good enough job, us
as leaders in transit, to find thoseindividuals and really, you know, invest
and mentor them so that we can, youknow, strengthen our bench overall.
(23:55):
that's, that's what I see.
We could have talked about technologyand the buses and all these flying
ships and everything like that, but,but at the end of the day, on any of
those things, You still need the people.
So the people to me are the mostimportant asset overall, and we need
to continually invest, in our folks.
That's probably why you and Ialways click very well, because I
(24:17):
have the same philosophy, you know?
It's, it's not really about thebuses, or the technology, the trains,
it's about the people, isn't it?
Yeah, absolutely, yeah.
And whether you're providing it,or they're your passengers, we're
in the people business, And, youknow, back in the Ralph Kramden
days and all that and everything,point A to point B. Right, right.
But even today, you watch someof those old shows, there's the
(24:38):
people aspect to, that as well.
And maybe a little bit differentthan today, but it was definitely a
little bit more neighborly back then.
And, you know, in a place likeTri Cities here, we definitely
can capture that element.
Because we are kind of a small town
Well, thanks for sharing some ofyour journey with us, Tom, and,
and, your experiences there at BenFranklin Transit in Washington State.
(24:59):
We wish you the very best as you continueto modernize and serve the people.
Thank you, Paul.
Thank you for having me on.
Appreciate it.
Good luck to everybody.
Thank you for listening to thisweek's episode of Transit Unplugged
with our guest, Tom Drozt, CEO of BenFranklin Transit in Washington State.
Now coming up next week, we have someonewhose episode was one of our most popular
(25:22):
last year, Stephen Gardner, CEO of Amtrak.
Paul sat down with Stephen in hisoffice at Amtrak to learn what Stephen
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So until next week, ridesafe and ride happy.
Great to have my good friend TomDrozt on the show with us today.
Tom, thanks for beinga part of the program.
Hey, good afternoon, Paul,and thanks for having me.
I really appreciate it.
Absolutely.
Tom, you are, you areon my LinkedIn profile.
You're the, you're the preeminent,comment when you commented
about us working together.
Tell people about our background together.
Yeah, absolutely.
So, Paul, I first met you back inBaltimore when there was that big
(00:29):
changeover from Democrats and Republicans,and Hogan came in, and we got a new CEO,
and what I remember the most, I mean,outside of the Jonas Snowstorm, we can
get into that, but was that, hey, youknow what, we're going to make some
changes around here, this is a publicagency, and we're going to do things a
little bit different, and you know what,anybody who has a position of authority
(00:54):
needs to start making some decisionsand we need to start making some change.
We're going to make it now.
That's what I felt.
I could feel the difference.
Yeah, that's great.
That's right.
That's the way I am.
And Tom, I'm so happy for you nowas CEO of Ben Franklin Transit.
They're the storied transit system inWashington State, southern Washington.
your background, you've had, my,let's, let's circle around this memory.
(01:16):
My recollection of you, Tom, is that, youwere committed to excellence at the MTA.
I mean, you were living still, I think,out West somewhere and, you know, going
home once a, once a month, maybe fora long weekend and being my director
of bus operations, we had one of thelargest bus operations in America.
It's 750 buses.
We actually rebooted the entirenetwork and you and I went
(01:38):
through some big storms together.
and, you were, you know,Mr. 24/7, always there.
And I always told you, I don'tknow if you remember this, but I
always said, Tom, you're bigger,you've, your mind is a CEO mind.
You think bigger than justday to day operations.
You think the whole thing.
And so, you've been aroundthe country in several bus
operations, running them directly.
(01:59):
So I'm so happy you finallygot to the CEO seat.
Yeah, no thanks Paul.
And you know what?
I actually do remember that . And sowe were in the Washington, facility,
or they call it the Washington Yard.
Yeah.
And we were walking down the corridorwhen we were having that, discussion.
And I know it was just, it was a littlebit after you got there and everything.
And I, and I could tell that you tookeverything in real fast and, I mean, you,
(02:22):
you, I mean, you hit a lot of the staff.
Got the information and then you wereable to go ahead and diagnose it and,
you know, give your comments back.
And, and that's when I knew, that'swhen I knew that we were going
to make some big changes and, youknow, for Baltimore MTA and such.
And we did, you know, I mean, it's theproof's in the pudding and also that,
you know, you know, in your career, Paul,there's just different things that happen,
(02:45):
you know, just, you know, out of the bluethat are turning points in your career
and just kind of open up your mind assuch, and definitely for me, that was one
of them, without a doubt, and that wasprobably the start of really taking that
transit private model and intertwiningit with the, you know, public agency,
you know, government model of transit.
(03:07):
Yeah.
And then, after I left, what did you do?
Tell us about your career pathand how you ended up there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, so, so after, afterI left Baltimore, I went back
to, I took a job in San Joaquin.
I wanted to get back to the WestCoast, for, you know, lessen the
travel And I went to San Joaquinto be the Chief Operating Officer.
(03:27):
It was definitely a smaller agency And Iwas only there for a short time, before,
you know, I learned that, my, my wifedeveloped cancer And so, in order to,
you know, once we found out, I endedup leaving my job in San Joaquin and
stayed home in Phoenix and took careof my family matters and, and so forth.
And, and after that, what happenedwas, when I was ready to get back in
(03:49):
the saddle I ended up taking a jobwith First Transit as the Assistant
General Manager there in Tempe, Arizona.
My home is Phoenix, Arizona.
And, and again, prettydecent sized agency, 600 bus
operators, you know, 350 buses
And, you know, just, you know, tryingto work the magic there and, you
know, conquer all the challengesthat any transit agency has.
(04:11):
And, uh, from there First Transit hada contract in, in L. A. that, we were
kind of struggling at, and they askedme to go out to LA and see if we can't,
you know, get some, you know, justtake that contract and, you know, bring
it alive and get it back, you know,rolling and, you know, on the right foot
So I was out there for about a year.
We did end up losing the contract to MV.
(04:34):
but what MV did was they said, Hey,Tom, can you stay on and be the
General Manager here and, and so forth.
And, and I, and I did.
And I was, out at the Carsonlocation, working for MV, one
of the LA Metro properties.
We ended up turning the division around.
Related to finances and KPIs, ourperformance went from, you know,
(04:57):
it was rough to we're hitting,you know, eight of nine KPIs every
month and did really well there.
And then after, after my Carsonstint, I got it to the point where
it was all turnkey and everything.
And I always had this dream of,55 and out, you know, right?
Hey, let's, let's retire.
(05:17):
So at that point, I was actually 56,you know, when that happened, I said,
you know, I think I'm going to retire.
And family's okay and everythingand kind of went back home and, kind
of, just kind of did all the housestuff and everything like that.
My wife's still working and, whathappened there about a year went by,
you know, I get the best yard andthe neighborhood and all one thing I
didn't think through was that at thatage, Everybody's still going to work.
(05:41):
So I was kind of home alone, and soit kind of got a little boring all
my, all my friends, they're stillworking So, you know, so there was a
little disconnect for myself there.
And, but, but it gave me a chance to justreevaluate myself, my life, where am I
going, what should I do with my career?
Of course, I've always kept up with allthe transit publications So I kind of
read what's going on and everything.
(06:02):
And out of the blue, a recruiter called meand said, Hey, I got this one client and
they're looking for somebody, you know,to, head up their operations division.
And you have a lot of skillsand experience related to it.
Would you be interested?
And of course I said, I'll always beinterested in listening and, you know,
and so I did and everything like that.
(06:22):
And she didn't quite tell me who it was.
And she said they were kindof far along in the process
and the recruitment process.
And, but she, she thought thatwould be a really good fit.
she went back to the client,which happened to be MARTA.
And
In Atlanta, the transit system in Atlanta.
Yep, exactly.
she, she went back to them andsaid, hey, I got this one guy,
Tom Drozt think he'd really fitwell with you all and everything.
(06:46):
And, and so they, they agreedto, uh, you know, give me a,
give me, give me an interview
And so, so we did and went thereand, went through that process.
And next thing you know,it's, I'm in Atlanta, right?
And Atlanta is a huge, huge animal.
I felt like I was back in Baltimore but,but there was definitely a difference.
I felt Atlanta had, great bones and,uh, just need the right different
(07:08):
players, but had a lot of things going on
And so I hung out in Atlanta fora little bit, before, you know,
this opportunity had Ben Franklincame up to be the, the CEO.
So at MARTA, I was a deputy, deputychief of bus operations there.
Okay.
And so
I remember we had
multiple conversations.
You were filling me in andit was a big operation.
(07:28):
And, I think you were makingsome real progress there.
Yep, yep, we certainly, I mean,a lot of projects going on.
A lot of movement, without a doubt, and,uh, I think even if I, I read today,
they hit a couple of milestones with
Yeah, congratulations toCollie and the team there.
Yeah.
Absolutely, and, and they gottheir, their Rapid is gonna be,
starting up here shortly andwe were working on those plans.
(07:50):
you know, just like everywhere, you know,manpower's somewhat of an issue, so that,
takes a little bit of a draw on, youknow, when you, when you're trying to
progress but, yeah, so when I saw the BenFranklin opportunity, you know, I just saw
as, you know, another opportunity to goahead and, you know, jump up a step and
run an entire organization my, by myselfon the, on the, on the government side.
(08:12):
Yeah, I've
done it on the private side.
And so I jumped at the opportunityand here I'm at in Washington.
And how long have youbeen there in this job?
So I've been here seven months now.
Okay.
That's a great story, Tom.
I mean, it's a great storyof a yeoman's kind of career.
And a lot of people in the, in ourindustry have a similar career of yours,
(08:33):
where you have to move around in orderto get these jobs, the bigger jobs.
You can't always just stayin the same location, right?
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
If you're eager and you want to move upand you also want to experience transit,
as I'll say, as a whole, and you wantto say as a whole, you know, on the
private side of the agency side, fromsmall operation to larger operation and
(08:54):
everything in between, I have to say,there are things here, now that I'm at
Ben Franklin, that I'm learning thatone would think that, you would know
already because, Tom you've been intransit 26 years and you've been, you
know, kind of around the country, buttransit here is a little bit different.
Yeah,
it's that old saying, right?
(09:15):
If you've seen one transit system,you've seen one transit system
because they're all so different.
thanks for sharing with us.
I love, I love a greatstory like that of a career.
Tell us some about your agencynow, you know, kind of give
us, scope it out for us.
Yeah, absolutely.
So, Ben Franklin is made up ofapproximately 420 employees.
We have, three modes of transit.
(09:35):
We have our fixed route, and our fleetsize there is about 75, vehicles.
We have our paratransit, and thatfleet size is at 81 vehicles.
And then we have ourrideshare slash vanpool.
And that fleet size is 200 vehicles.
So, actually, rideshareis our largest mode.
Oh, yeah,
of transportation.
(09:56):
We also have a microtransit, whichwe contract out, to help out with
our first and last mile, challengesour budget is, close to 100 million
dollars between operating and capital.
Our, uh, ridership, overall ridershipis, uh, just north of, uh, annually
it's north of, uh, 3 million a year.
And I, and I have to say that the, The layof the land here in Tri Cities is you can
(10:21):
get anywhere in a vehicle in 20 minutes.
So in transit that's our biggest enemy.
That's right.
and why I say that Paul is because, well,because our competition is the cars.
Right?
We want riders, but if we can't get youthere, if it's taking, you know, what's an
hour and 20 minutes to get you there on aroute, but you can do it in 20 minutes in
a car, you're going to opt for the car.
(10:43):
So that's one of our biggest challengeshere at Ben Franklin Transit.
And you're located, just over theOregon border, kind of in the central
part of Washington State, right?
Yep, absolutely.
We're approximately 31 milesnorth of the Oregon border and
we're three hours east of Seattle.
Okay.
And what's your governing structure there?
Do you work for a citygovernment, do you have your own
(11:03):
board, or how does that work?
So we're our own authority.
Yeah, I report out to a board ofnine and that would consist of, you
know, the different commissionersin Franklin County and Benton County
and then the City of Pasco, City ofKennewick, and, City of Richland.
A couple of those areas have, uh,two, two members as opposed to one.
(11:28):
Okay, so you've got multiple jurisdictionswhich are funding the agency.
Yeah.
And how's, how's ridership, is it, youknow, versus, I don't even want to say
the word pre pandemic, but you know, how'sridership doing and how's finances doing?
Yeah.
You know what, let mestart off with finances.
We just had an initiative, 21 17, amonth ago or so, maybe it's been two
(11:49):
months now, that they were tryingto repeal one of the taxes but the
voters overwhelmingly voted it down,so we didn't lose any funding there.
Overall, from a funding standpoint,we're in pretty decent shape.
I'll leave it at that.
There's no hard challenges And from theridership standpoint, I'll speak of,
you know, COVID, post pandemic, right?
(12:11):
And we've been on the growthpattern every single month, well,
every single year, then everysingle month of that year as well.
last year we, you know, hit thescales of that 3 million, and
this year we're looking to hit 3.
3, million.
Our population overall in the TriCities is 300, 000 individuals.
(12:31):
That's great.
So, yeah.
So, every month we're doing about,we're just doing about 300,000 a month
in, in, in, in ridership, you know,to give some kind of perspective.
And you operate all those servicesexcept for the microtransit
with your own employees?
Ye
s, absolutely.
Okay,
yeah.
I love your vision, Tom.
You know, when I was at MTA, I cameup with the four cornerstones of safe,
(12:53):
efficient, reliable, with world classcustomer service, and your vision
is to build a transit system that'sreliable, accessible, and future focused.
Tell us about that.
when we talk about the reliability,we're talking about two things here.
two immediate things, right?
The bus hall is showing up on time.
And the bus, you know, the schedule thatyou put out, you match it, and that's
(13:14):
the reliability piece, and that rightthere alone, right, is going to help us
kind of, go ahead and, I'll call it, youknow, defeat our enemy of the vehicles
I keep bringing that up because that istruly the challenge that we have, and so
we're looking at all of our routes to goahead, and any of those routes that are in
that hour, an hour and 10 minute window.
(13:37):
how do we reduce that toabout 40 to 45 minutes,
The headways?
Absolutely, you know, so,so that's huge in itself.
And then the future I'll tell you,Paul, most of my career has been on
the warm weather area and it definitelywas a little chilly in Baltimore.
(13:58):
Don't get me wrong.
I do remember that.
Yeah.
But our, our, our, our different amenitieshere, I'm focusing on our bus stops.
We need four season bus stops here.
You know, these people, here inTri Cities, you know, they're
very used to taking the bus and,you know, the bus stop is there.
We don't have any heat lamps and wehave certain, certain shelters, You
(14:22):
know, aimed at certain ways justfor the wind we need to put more
heat lamps in our, bus shelters.
I'm looking to really improve thepassenger amenities here because that's
where it really starts for the passenger.
Yeah, including for the bus.
So if you can make it, if youcan put in amenities that, can go
ahead and, you know, I'll say makeit comfortable and comfortable in
(14:43):
every way for the passenger, that'stheir first impression of transit.
Once they get on the bus.
You know, everybody's on their phone andget their 12 minutes on the bus, get to
their place, and it all happens, you know.
That's good.
I love that.
you know what else I love,Tom, is I've always loved your
leadership philosophy and approach.
Tell us about that some.
I mean, you're, you're, when Iremember us working together, for those
(15:05):
few years, you were collaborative,transparent, you were forward thinking.
Tell us about your approach to leadership.
Yeah, so what I've learned over all theyears of watching everybody watching, you
know, good leaders, watching, challenged,leaders to me the first thing that comes
to mind is the, the listening, you know,understanding the needs of employees,
(15:26):
your riders, your stakeholders, beforemaking any decision, I mean, absent
of listening, you know, you're justflying by the seat of your pants making
decisions that might not, you know, bein sync, with the area that you're in.
And then another thing that it took mea little while to learn was, you know,
(15:47):
empowering, empowering my team, lot oftimes I felt like, you know, I had to be
the one to do it, you know, in order forit to get done and done the right way.
but, you know, as a leader, youknow, trusting your employees,
to take the ownership, and todrive the solutions is key.
If you try to do it alone, you'regoing to bottleneck, right?
(16:08):
And slow down the entire, entire process.
And then also, you know, being datadriven, but being people focused as well.
I love that.
Yep, in combination is what you need,you know, using those metrics as only
as a guide, you know, but withoutlosing sight, you know, of your, of your
passenger and not always your passenger,but your internal customers as well,
(16:31):
you know, so that's very important aswell, so, and then as we, as we all know,
the only thing constant in transit ischange, right, so adapting to change,
whatever it may be, and whether it'sthe technology, whether it's a pandemic,
whatever You know, whether it's, youknow, you know, the different resources
and assets that you have, being ableto go ahead and take each one of those
(16:51):
things and how to, how do you create ascenario, you know, to, you know, to your
advantage, just overall in your system.
So, you know, so ultimately, leadershipis about, right, building a strong,
motivated team, you know, that shares thatsame commitment to service excellence.
Great philosophy.
I think putting people first, and I knowyou guys are very focused on community
(17:12):
engagement and workforce development,and you've, you're really focused on
expanding transit access, leveragingtechnology and strengthening partnerships.
But I wanna focus for a few minutes onyour current initiatives and projects.
you're working, you mentionedyou're doing some bus stop upgrades.
Tell us about, some of the othercurrent key initiatives that you're
working on with improving serviceenhancing infrastructure, getting
(17:33):
things ready for the future there.
Yes, without a doubt.
So, we have a Director of Facilities,and as mentioned to Shane, I
said, Shane, we need to put abrick in the ground this year.
And what I'm referring to isa new Facilities Building for
our Facilities Department.
We have a phenomenal Facilities team,just like a lot of other agencies,
(17:57):
and it's not just, you know, the,the, the administration building and
the ops building, but it's all thetransit centers, you know, it's all
the, It's all the bus stops and beinga four season, transit, agency, those
individuals are, are key, you know,just to, you know, keeping everything
up to snuff and things like that.
(18:17):
So we're looking to build a new,facilities for them right now.
They co share with Maintenance.
Okay.
Trying to get that off.
as you mentioned, our busstop upgrades, which are huge.
August of 2025, we will be gettingour first express routes, you know,
and so what's so important about that,of course, is while we'll still have
the Route One, and the Route one isone of our heavier ridership, routes.
(18:42):
it does take, you know, an hour and15 minutes to go from end to end.
So we'll have a one x. You know, withlimited stops from end to end, so those
individuals, you know, have that choice,to go ahead and jump on Express and, we
can compete with the local traffic andget to your, get to your destination.
I don't want to even say in 40 minutes,because 40 minutes is end to end, but
(19:04):
now you might be able to get, if you'rethe third stop in, you might actually
get to your destination in 30 minutes,you know, and, and that's where the
real value is getting that time back.
to the passenger, so they can goon about their business as opposed
to spending that time on the bus.
So that's going to be huge for us.
We'll have a big kickoffwith that express route.
The organizational restructuring, youknow, just Taking the organization as a
(19:27):
whole and looking at, overall, seeing ifwe have all the right pieces in place, we
put together our PMO office, our projectmanagement office, and it consists of
three project managers, as we have alot of different projects going on here.
I told this team here,we have all this money.
If we don't spend the money, somebody elsewill, and I know that folks that give us
(19:51):
the grants they don't want the money back.
Everybody allocated and giving it outso we need to do our part, and not only
that, if we're not, you know, usingthat resource, then we're not enhancing
our transit system for our community.
So that's huge in itself.
So we created that PMO office.
Our fleet modernization, we'reintroducing, four electric,
(20:12):
buses and exploring thehydrogen fuel tech, technology.
so it seems like hydrogen is, at leastin this area here, is coming more alive.
Yeah.
Especially with the weather and the thingsthat are going on with battery electric.
We don't want to, we don't want tohave one fleet, one fuel source.
We want it to diversified.
You know, so we're probably going toend up with, you know, we'll, the clean.
(20:35):
Clean burning diesel, someelectric, and tap into the
hydrogen aspect of it as well.
And being that our fleets are, like Isaid, a ride share of 200, we definitely
do something with that fleet to go aheadand that might become half hydrogen,
half electric, where I know a lot of theother agencies or bigger agencies, you
know, the big fleet is bus, you know,in our case, it's, It's the ride share.
(20:59):
And then also our fare structure.
So that'll be another oneof our initiatives that we
have going on this year.
Our fares are very reasonable.
It's 1.
50 with a transfer, so probably, that'sprobably unheard of in some places.
what we're, and whatwe're trying to do there.
Still got a lot of work with it.
(21:20):
We're trying to, doaway with the transfer.
So we'll say, Hey, how abouta $2, all day, you know?
And, it's kind of, if you're spending adollar 50 to go one way, you're probably
spending a dollar 50 to come back.
So it's $3, how about $2?
And you can ride as many timesas you want all day, you know?
Wow.
So I'm looking at someadoption there, you know?
Yeah.
That's great, Tom.
(21:40):
Very good.
Well, it sounds like youall have a lot going on.
I, I want to close this outwith some of your personal
reflections and closing thoughts.
I guess, what has been yourproudest moment so far as,
you're just under a year?
What's been your proudest moment as CEO?
I'd have to say it's the dedicationand passion, Paul, of our team,
as we work to transform publictransit in the Tri Cities.
(22:02):
The team here, being that a lot offolks come from this area, a lot
of our employees are, have beenwith Ben Franklin Transit one and
even two decades, there is a lot ofpassion, for the work that they do.
And so whether it's rolling out acritical infrastructure upgrade,
launching, you know, our first, expressroute, or expanding, access to cleaner
(22:26):
and more efficient, transportation,uh, options, I take great pride in the
progress that what we're doing, we're,we're making a difference together.
And in the end, the human capital isour big asset for any transit agency
and making a difference overall.
I agree with that.
(22:47):
And then maybe you could justgive us some final thoughts
about the future of transit.
you know, you've mentioned the onlychange, the only constant is change,
and we have to adapt and progress,but, what are your thoughts now as
transportation enters this, 2025year, the end of the first quarter
century and headed into the next?
You know, so, so my thought is we reallyhave to take a look at our industry as a
(23:10):
whole, from the, from the human capitalside of it, and us folks that, you know,
have two decades and three decades,in our industry, Start preparing our
younger generation, with the experienceand knowledge we've gained over the
years and handing it down to them sothat our industry doesn't go deficient,
(23:34):
in the human capital side of it.
That's, that's what I see.
Pickings are slim sometimes, and maybewe don't do a good enough job, us
as leaders in transit, to find thoseindividuals and really, you know, invest
and mentor them so that we can, youknow, strengthen our bench overall.
(23:55):
that's, that's what I see.
We could have talked about technologyand the buses and all these flying
ships and everything like that, but,but at the end of the day, on any of
those things, You still need the people.
So the people to me are the mostimportant asset overall, and we need
to continually invest, in our folks.
That's probably why you and Ialways click very well, because I
(24:17):
have the same philosophy, you know?
It's, it's not really about thebuses, or the technology, the trains,
it's about the people, isn't it?
Yeah, absolutely, yeah.
And whether you're providing it,or they're your passengers, we're
in the people business, And, youknow, back in the Ralph Kramden
days and all that and everything,point A to point B. Right, right.
But even today, you watch someof those old shows, there's the
(24:38):
people aspect to, that as well.
And maybe a little bit differentthan today, but it was definitely a
little bit more neighborly back then.
And, you know, in a place likeTri Cities here, we definitely
can capture that element.
Because we are kind of a small town
Well, thanks for sharing some ofyour journey with us, Tom, and,
and, your experiences there at BenFranklin Transit in Washington State.
(24:59):
We wish you the very best as you continueto modernize and serve the people.
Thank you, Paul.
Thank you for having me on.
Appreciate it.
Good luck to everybody.
Thank you for listening to thisweek's episode of Transit Unplugged
with our guest, Tom Drozt, CEO of BenFranklin Transit in Washington State.
Now coming up next week, we have someonewhose episode was one of our most popular
(25:22):
last year, Stephen Gardner, CEO of Amtrak.
Paul sat down with Stephen in hisoffice at Amtrak to learn what Stephen
has planned to upgrade, improve, andexpand America's national rail carrier.
Our listener survey is in full swing.
Make sure you get your voiceheard and put your 2 cents in
on what we do on the show here.
(25:43):
Just visit transitunplugged.com/survey and have your say.
The link's also in the show notes.
Transit Unplugged isbrought to you by Modaxo.
at Modaxo, we're passionate aboutmoving the world's people and at
Transit Unplugged, we're passionateabout telling those stories.
So until next week, ridesafe and ride happy.
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Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.