A new face has joined Metro’s leadership:
David Feeley joined Metro’s executive staff March 9. The 62-year-old, who recently returned from working in Iraq and was planning to sail across the Atlantic Ocean before being lured to Houston, brings decades of experience in transit maintenance, operations, labor relations, engineering and expansion planning. He’ll oversee Metro’s largest department with about 2,900 employees, including bus and rail operators and mechanics.
Feeley is replacing Jeff Arndt, who apparently was asked to move along, oh excuse me, find some new opportunities:
The sudden departure of Arndt took many transit authority employees by surprise when they received a March 8 memo from Wilson stating, “Jeff and I had been discussing required changes at Metro, and he felt it was the right time for him to pursue new opportunities outside of Metro.” A second memo went out the same day to Metro executives announcing Feeley had been hired and would start the next day.
“Required changes” sounds intriguing.
And what kind of experience does Feeley bring to his new role?
Most recently, Feeley worked in Iraq and London for DMJM and Harris, a transportation and engineering consulting firm that’s part of AECOM Enterprises. Metro President and CEO Frank Wilson served as AECOM president before accepting the job here last year. Wilson and Feeley also worked together in Philadelphia and New York.
Feeley also brings experience from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in Boston and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
That sounds impressive. I see MBTA’s website lists a Customer Bill of Rights. One of the rights is “Your right to be heard”:
We promise to make your issues count. Convenient and prominently located bus, train and station posters will get you the information you need to “Write to the Top.” Top level management will respond to your concerns.
That would certainly be an improvement over Laurence Simon’s experience with Metro’s hotline.
So, what will Feeley being doing first?
His first task is to submit recommendations for operational changes to Wilson within 90 days. Riders can expect more elimination of lightly used bus routes.
“The service we have out there, we want to be first rate and to satisfy demand,” Feeley said. “Service that doesn’t make any sense shouldn’t be there.”
What swell news for Acres Home residents. Oddly, cutting bus and trolley service does seem to be Metro’s preferred method for increasing ridership and better serving Houston-area residents.
Which makes the headline to Lucas Wall’s story humorous: “New Metro official wants to get people to where they want to go.” That would be as long as people want to ride the 7.5 miles of MetroRail. If you need a bus, you could be out of luck.
