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DENVER RTD WASHINGTON DRAWS FROM MILITARY PAST TO LEAD RTD PHILLIP A. WASHINGTON • GM Phil Washington was unanimously selected as RTD's GM in December 2009 by RTD's board of directors. He served as the interim GM for six months, and prior to that was RTD's Assistant GM of Administration for nearly 10 years. Prior to Washington's transportation industry experience, he had a storied 24year military career, retiring as a decorated active-duty U.S. Army soldier, having attained the rank of Command Sergeant Major (E-9). He commutes to work by bus and light rail each day from his home in Aurora, Colo. You ride your system every day to get to work. How important is this? I do ride every day. What I've always said is, 'I don't want anybody telling me about the system, I want to know about the system.' I learned so much by riding the bus or the rail. I learn a great deal about what's happening with our fare enforcement. Do I see our security out there? What's the condition of our facilities and our buses? Are we running on time? It is of great value to me [to ride the system]. I require my senior leadership team to ride as well. Growing up, what career path did you see yourself following? I left home at 17 years old and joined the military for what I thought would be maybe a two- to three-year hitch and ended up staying for 25 years. I was fortunate enough to have been promoted to the top of the rank structure. [After that] I saw an ad in the newspaper to apply for one of the assistant GM positions at RTD and the rest is history. It was not a conscious career decision to get in transit. What are some pivotal moments in your life that helped you get to where you are today? The first one was in my military unit. I was in an air defense artillery unit and after being there for about six months, my platoon sergeant called me in and said, 'I should be able to put you in any job in this unit and you should be able to perform that job within 90 days.' He proceeded to put me in nine or 10 different functions in that unit that I was not school trained for and I became pretty proficient. To be put in a situation where it's a new job or skill that you are trying to learn, you should be able to get into that job and master that particular thing within a reasonable amount of time. That stuck with me. That is one of the biggest things that helped me get to where I am today; that, and understanding that leadership is transferrable. The concern of any soldier getting out of the military is whether their skills will be transferrable in civilian life. What I came to realize long ago was leadership is the thing that's transferable. What is your greatest challenge on a day-to-day basis? My greatest challenge is getting everybody home safely. When I talk to my operations guy at the end of the day and he says, 'Hey Phil, you got everybody home safely,' that is good day for me. If you weren't in transit you would be… leading something else. What do you like to do in your spare time? I'm a big work-out guy. I enjoy reading and riding public transit. 20 < mETRO mAGAZINE MAY 2013 transit, as well as seasonal bus service to sporting events. The agency uses a feet of nearly 1,000 buses and 172 light rail vehicles to serve 40 municipalities in six counties plus two city/county jurisdictions within a 2,300-square-mile service area. RTD is funded with a combination of farebox recovery (20%) and collected sales tax, advertising, grants and interest income revenues (80%). Currently, the agency receives 0.6% from sales tax for its base system operations and 0.4% of sales tax for its capital program. Like many transit systems in the U.S., RTD has seen their sales tax revenues fall due to the economy. During these fiscally challenging times, the agency froze salaries, locked in fuel prices, restricted travel and deferred projects. "We bit the bullet last year and cut service by eight to nine percent," Washington says. "It was tough, but as a result we stabilized our budget." Washington says he doesn't anticipate significant service reductions or fare increases for the next few years. Additionally, RTD just negotiated a fiveyear collective bargaining agreement. "That length of time is really unprecedented in this industry," he says. "To do that within the parameters of the budget was really signifcant." The precarious economic outlook also made it a challenge to continue moving the agency's mass transit expansion program — FasTracks — forward. To prevent any delays on this front, RTD developed innovative ways to generate additional funding. CREATIVE FUNDING One of the first of several initiatives the agency pursued was a public-private partnership to help fund its East and Gold Line commuter rail projects (Eagle P3). Other FasTrack projects, such as the North Metro Commuter Rail Line and RTD's bus rapid transit project, will beneft from creative funding in the form of the FasTracks Internal Savings Account. Tis account would pool together funds from several internal actions such as pursuing additional sales tax revenue. metro-magazine.com