APTA Member Profile: Ben Stupka

Executive Director
Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan
Detroit, MI

Please describe the scope of your agency.

The Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan (RTA) plays a critical role in improving the transit landscape in a four-county region with more than 4 million residents. We were formed in 2012 through a public act to bring our system together, and we have the mission of creating new and better ways to move and connect people. To do so, we partner with transit providers, communities, companies, and citizens to develop a vision for what public transit in our region can be and what it can do. Some of our core roles are creating new strategies for eliminating gaps, improving coordination, securing and overseeing funding, and increasing accessibility.

How is the RTA improving public transportation in Southeast Michigan?

We say we have three roles: We’re drivers and doers, we’re transit subject matter experts, and we’re community connectors. Within those, we have specific actions. We create and maintain the Regional Transit Master Plan, which is a transit blueprint for the four-county region. We deliver express bus and streetcar services. We lead and coordinate studies on mobility and corridors. We’re the designated recipient for administering state and federal funds and grants coming to our region. We maintain regional advisory bodies, and craft transit policies. So, we do a lot!

What programs and services is the RTA responsible for?

Most visibly, we operate three main services. That includes the QLINE—a free 3.3-mile streetcar on Detroit’s most recognizable corridor, Woodward Avenue. We were part of a coalition to get it going, but we took ownership of the service just last year. We also operate two express bus pilots out of Downtown Detroit. D2A2 is a pilot express bus service connecting Detroit and Ann Arbor. We get a lot of university students, commuters, and visitors—nearly 10,000 -riders per month. Our sister service is the Detroit Air Xpress, or DAX. It’s the first direct -transit link to the airport in our region, so it has received a lot of positive attention, and we’ve seen both travelers and airport workers hop on.

We also support programs that make mobility enhancements. For example, our Mobility 4 All (M4A) program is a regional initiative for people with disabilities, older adults, and individuals with limited incomes. Through M4A, we manage 5310 funds as a federal recipient, and we just distributed $11 -million in grants. Those support cutaway replacements and mobility management services—like the MyRide2 service we fund—where seniors, low-income individuals, and people with disabilities can call and be connected to a ride that fits their needs.

What trends are you seeing in the public transit industry?

Across the nation, transit agencies are balancing strong ridership recovery with the fiscal headwinds of expiring federal relief funds. Agencies have to be bold in their approaches to service delivery and seek out new partnerships to chart a course for the future.

I’d break down three major trends I’ve seen in this regard:

Agencies are working hard to meet riders where they are. Transit is no longer defined by the 9-to-5 commute. Riders increasingly rely on steady service throughout the day and on weekends. They are also looking for more flexible options to travel locally and faster options to travel regionally. In Southeast Michigan, we have several providers, like SMART and AAATA, deploying flex-zone services. We also have the largest network—more than 50—community-based services in the nation for seniors and people with disabilities. In addition, the RTA operates point-to-point express bus services that make use of the existing freeway network to get people where they need to go quickly.

Agencies are deploying pilots to test new services and new technologies. The RTA has had a lot of success in this arena. We developed the D2A2 and DAX express bus pilots after great public demand, and we’ve found that ridership has continually expanded on both services. We also own and operate the QLINE streetcar, which is the first fixed-rail project in Detroit in almost 40 years. The rider-ship trends, economic development returns, and cultural impact of that service have allowed the region to open up to new ideas and other larger investment concepts. Additionally, we are looking at regional real-time service apps and piloting a mobility wallet. All these projects show how bold pilots can spark confidence and set the stage for bigger investments ahead.

Agencies are increasingly working to extend their value beyond mobility. This year, the RTA invested $11 million directly into local community services, strengthening the connections between transit, human services, and everyday quality of life. At the same time, we are collaborating with workforce development boards to link residents to training and jobs, and with affordable housing providers to ensure new developments are transit-accessible. These partnerships demonstrate that transit is not only a service, but a catalyst for economic growth, equity, and regional prosperity.

How long have you been with the RTA? What’s your background?

I’ve been with the RTA in various capacities since 2015. January 2024, I began my role as the executive director of the agency. I’m originally from the Southeast Michigan region, but after graduate school, I worked as a transportation planner in the Bay Area, where I worked in many roles including managing funding and capital planning.

It’s been rewarding to come home. Just in the past two years since I’ve been executive director, we’ve had a lot of change. We’ve gone from one pilot to operating three services. Integrating the QLINE streetcar system increased our workforce five-fold. So, we’ve been busy, and we’ve seen a lot of the work that was planted a decade earlier grow and bear fruit.

I’ll just say, it’s a fun time to be in Southeast Michigan. Detroit, and our region more broadly, has the reputation as one that was stagnated and fell behind—and we now see the narrative change -positively on a national stage. We hosted the NFL Draft, the Lions and Tigers are killing it, downtown Detroit is a destination, and businesses and tourism is thriving across the region. And transit is, of course, a major part of this. That’s been a fun part of my job.