“You’re caught between trying to do things for the public good – trying to create economic development – but you’re also trying to be a private business.” 

Jeff Knueppel is a structural engineer by trade. He worked at the frontlines of Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) tackling aging infrastructure before working his way up the ranks at SEPTA before finally becoming General Manager. In this episode, Knueppel discusses the exciting nature of running a transit system with many different modes – trollies, elevated subway service, commuter rail, and bus, just to name a few – the complexity of the Northeast Corridor, and how he is a “not-so-undercover boss” as he spends time with his employees.

The discussion also gets into the five areas of focus for SEPTA: Customer Experience, Employee Development, Reliability/Rebuilding the System, SEPTA as a Business, and Safety and Security. Finally, Paul and Jeff discuss the future of SEPTA, how they are pushing to into all-electric buses, where the benefit of ridesharing is, and how the biggest value of autonomous vehicles is to improve safety – there is likely to be a human element for quite some time.  

If you want to know more about SEPTA, you can check out their website.

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