Tom Hingson knows transit inside and out. Learn how the City of Everett, WA tackling battery-electric range issues with inductive charging. And announcing Paul's newest book--Comfort Food.

We return to Snohomish County this week to the City of Everett (and county seat) to learn about this network within a network from Everett Transit Director Tom Hingson. With a transit career spanning 40 years, Tom has seen it all, from behind the wheel to behind the scenes as a transit leader. Everett is one of the larger cities between the Canadian border and Seattle and is part of Snohomish County--learn more about that transit system from Ric Ilgenfritz--which means Tom needs to help his community not only get around the city but also connect with Community Transit, Sound Transit, and King County Transit. Like all transit systems, Tom is transitioning to a zero-emissions fleet. Everett Transit is using grid-powered battery electric buses for the backbone of his green fleet. Unlike larger systems (like Community Transit surrounding his service area), he doesn't have long runs to manage. He doesn't have to work about range as much as being able to charge buses throughout the day.

Tom is opting for inductive charging below the buses at key transit hubs so buses can run all day and just switch out drivers. This is a big transition for Everett Transit which has traditionally operated with drivers assigned to a bus rather than a route. So the driver returns to the depot at the end of their shift, and another bus goes out. As Everett Transit moves to zero emissions buses, this will move to the more typical model of drivers switching buses mid-route.

But the biggest thing on Tom's mind is growth. Pressed for space, Tom and his team are looking at how or if they could merge with Community Transit to fund growth and grow the network overall. There are a lot of moving pieces, and Tom explains all of them in his conversation with Paul.

Also on the show...

Paul's newest book Comfort Food is out and available on Amazon! Paul talks about how this cookbook came to be--thanks to contributor Mike Bismeyer--and just a few of the recipes from all-star public transportation celebrities from around the world. Paul will be signing his books at conferences all over North America. We'll let you know where he'll be on the show.

We hear from Mike Bismeyer talking about Tom's dedication to doing more than just moving people, but how he works within the larger community and government to make it all happen.

Next week we have two great guests. Aaron Weinstein from Transit CX talks about improving your customer experience (CX) by building a customer experience mindset in your agency. Then Brandon Bartneck talks about how small-scale manufacturing is essential to the experiments and innovation we need in transit today.

If you have a question or would like to be a guest on Transit Unplugged, email us at [email protected].

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(00:00) Tom Hingson and Comfort Food Cookbook (00:21) Interview with Tom Hingson, Director of Everett Transit (21:36) Mike's Minute with Mike Bismeyer (23:20) Announcing Comfort Food (30:25) Coming up next week on Transit Unplugged News and Views (32:00) Subscribe to Transit Unplugged TV on YouTube

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