Capital Area Transit System CEO Bob Mirabito is countering criticism of his record with statistics that show improvement in the bus system’s performance over the past year. Last week, CATS board member and Metro Councilwoman C. Denise Marcelle held a press conference at which she lambasted Mirabito’s leadership and called for his resignation.
Today, Mirabito released statistics intended to prove his critics wrong. The figures show significant improvement in system operations in January over the same month of 2014, including:
— Ridership was up 34% to 230,556 total trips.
— Fare box collections rose 29% to $145,000.
— On-time route performance improved 70% — its best showing since Mirabito came to the agency in June 2013.
“There’s a lot of stuff that we’ve accomplished,” Mirabito says. “I don’t think that happens with a weak leader. I’ll let the results speak for themselves.”
Mirabito says he believes Marcelle and some union workers are unhappy with him because he has stiffened accountability measures for CATS employees. Union workers make up less than 40% of the CATS workforce, he says.
“Change is difficult for people,” he says. “The vast majority of people believe in what we’re doing and are not threatened by it … but there are some people struggling with the change because what we’re trying to introduce here is accountability.”
Mirabito concedes the system’s aging bus fleet has serious maintenance problems. An average of 6.5 bus breakdowns per day was reported during the third quarter of 2014. But Mirabito says fresh resources allocated to the maintenance department helped decrease the breakdown average to 4.5 per day by late 2014.
Mirabito also says construction of much-needed bus shelters has improved service for riders. Since a tax to support CATS was passed in 2012, Mirabito says 31 shelters have been built. An additional nine are expected to be up by the end of March. Additionally, the state recently freed $900,000 to set up 40 more shelters along three state roadways—Florida Boulevard, Harding Boulevard and Scenic Highway. Construction of those shelters should be completed by the end of 2015.
—Stephanie Riegel
