“I don’t look at anything as a failure. I look at it as a learning experience.”

When the best-laid plans go a bit awry, what do you do? Stephen Bland, CEO of WeGo Public Transit, learns, reassesses, and keeps moving forward.

Stephen has spent his career in public transit. He’s run small agencies that have as few as eight buses. And now he is running the show in Nashville, Tennessee, where they carry 35,000 passengers each weekday. Nashville’s infrastructure was built around the personal automobile. The need for change and investment in public transit was recognized. In 2018, there was an ambitious referendum to provide $8-9 Billion towards a transit investment program. Unfortunately, it failed. The failure of the referendum wasn’t the outcome Nashville MTA (the agency name at the time) was looking for, but with the leadership of Bland, Nashville pushed forward.

In this episode of Transit Unplugged, Bland talks about why the referendum failed, but how their plans set them up for future success, and how that also led them to rebrand to WeGo Public Transit. Additionally, the referendum helped them establish future plans, and Bland talks about some of the things they are still able to move forward with – new transit centers, new account-based faring programs, and transit signal priority projects. He also dives into their Better Bus program that eliminates redundant routes and stops.

You won’t want to miss this one. And if you want to know more about WeGo, check out their website.

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