APTA President and CEO Champions Industry Investment, Messaging at Virginia Summit

APTA President and CEO Paul P. Skoutelas was the keynote speaker at The State of Transit: Sustaining the Future summit at the Hampton Roads Convention Center, Oct. 21, sponsored by three Virginia public transportation agencies.

Before an audience of more than 200 transit professionals and federal, state, and local lawmakers, business leaders, and community partners, Skoutelas recognized the challenging job of being a public transit leader today, citing the successful work of Hampton Roads Transit President and CEO William Harrell; Williamsburg Area Transit Authority Executive Director Matt Scalia; and Suffolk Transit Manager Maria Ptakowski.

In particular, he praised the region’s agencies for increasing ridership by double digits since the pandemic, adding that this is “a good barometer of what’s happening in the industry.”

In addition to bringing back riders, Skoutelas said that the historic funding in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) has enabled public transit systems to innovate, modernize, and grow. “Everything from the replacement of bus fleet and rolling stock to improvements in stations and operations, we’ve seen investment accompanied by innovation,” he said.

Skoutelas encouraged the audience to be aggressive about communicating advances in transit—such as high-tech vehicles and the use of AI in safety and predictive maintenance—as well as the benefits that transit provides to communities and the economy.

With only 11 months remaining in the current Surface Transportation law, he urged attendees to help advocate for the next multi-year authorization. “We have compelling stories to tell with messages about economic development and business growth.” As an example, he said APTA has found that 77 percent of federal funding goes to the U.S. private sector—in the form of designing and building transit equipment and projects—all of which create more American jobs.

In closing, he said he was optimistic about public transportation’s future, calling the industry “resilient.”

“In my 40 plus year career, we’ve always had challenging times,” he said, but we have always benefited from what he called “a great partnership, the three-legged stool” among local, state, and federal governments.

“It’s a winning formula, and we’ve got to keep at it.”