Research: Recruitment and Retention

The entire recruiting environment has changed greatly since the COVID-19 outbreak therefore many metros have experienced new issues in recruitment and retention. In addition to the pandemic impacts, other factors, such as rising cost of living, expectations of younger generation, and aging workforce, make recruitment and retention more challenging than ever before. The study looked at the extent of recruitment and retention issues that are experienced by metros, identifying reginal difference, key drivers, and most affected roles. It also reviewed staff turnover rate and average time to fill in vacancies in recent years, and the COVID impact on both indicators.

Regional difference in recruitment issues faced by metros

The report outlined implemented improvements and initiatives, with a summary of the emerging trends in improving recruitment and retention performance. Metros’ long-term plans for recruitment and retention and their advice based on their own experience are also covered in the report.

Research: Drivers of Metro Ridership

Ridership has taken on dramatically more importance at metros since the early pandemic, when public transport demand collapsed in an unparalleled way. Metro operators have observed notable changes to travel patterns since the COVID-19 outbreak and therefore have been closely monitoring ridership trends, adding ridership-related KPIs to strategic scorecards, and proactively marketing and promoting their services in new ways.

The study summarises the main enablers and barriers of ridership, metro expectations for long-term demand forecasts, and metro initiatives to drive ridership growth. The initiatives taken by metros before and during the pandemic to promote ridership growth were explored in the six key categories as shown below.

Community of Metros News: Virtual Events from January to July 2023

In addition to the resumption of in-person meetings, COMET continued to run the full virtual events programme in 2023. The virtual events held from January to July include:

  • Case Study Webinar on Drivers of Metro Ridership, Data Governance, and Energy Efficiency. Members heard presentations from TSC on the key findings of the studies, and from metro highlight presentations delivered by specific metros who have advanced development in the areas.
  • General Meeting occurred in February and July for members to share the latest development and challenges. TSC presented the latest findings from case studies and data benchmarking, as well as the recent activities and work programme of COMET.

Research: Data Governance

Transforming the large volumes of raw data that metro operators collect into actionable intelligence is a challenging task, yet critical to enhance operations, improve customer service, and develop effective future strategies. To overcome these challenges, good data governance is needed to support data management, enable informed decision-making, and ultimately improve overall performance.

Data governance mainly focuses on data-driven decision making and provides a framework for managing data throughout its lifecycle, ensuring its quality, security, privacy, and effective utilisation. It aims to assist organisations in deriving maximum value from their data assets while minimising risks and complying with legal and regulatory requirements.

The study details three main aspects of data governance (organisation, technical, and business) and presents a data governance roadmap along with metros’ best practices.

Three main aspects of data governance

Community of Metros News: CBTC Workshop in New York, 10-13 July

An expert workshop on Communication-Based Train Control (CBTC) took place in July, hosted by New York NYCT. The workshop was hosted jointly with the International Suburban Rail Benchmarking Group (ISBeRG) of TSC. Over the course of three days, forty attendees joined from sixteen metros and one railway who were planning, installing, or had already implemented CBTC.

TSC and members presented on three key themes: challenges when migrating to CBTC, how to prepare for implementation of CBTC, and how to best leverage CBTC to benefit metro operations. The delegates had in-depth discussions around these topics and exchanged ideas based on their own experience.

Members also took part in technical visits to the NYCT Rail Control Center as well as the Corona Maintenance Yard to view signalling infrastructure. Additionally, New York PATH welcomed delegates to their operational control center based in New Jersey. Very positive feedback was received after the event and members are looking forward to the next in-person CBTC workshop.

Research: Combatting Crime and Disorder on Metro Networks

Managing security – and perception of security – is a growing challenge for many metro operators. In North America and Europe where crime and disorder is a significant concern for metros, perception of security in public spaces has been influenced by wider quality-of-life issues that pre-dated COVID-19 related to homelessness, drug and alcohol use and mental health. The pandemic also raised new challenges of staff unavailability and lower ridership which reduced the presence of ‘active bystanders’ on metro networks.

Factors influencing crime in metros

As such, the study aims to understand changes in crime and anti-social behaviour since the pandemic began, and to share initiatives implemented by metros to reduce incident rates and to improve customer perceptions of personal safety. This report contains data compiled from twenty-seven COMET members, including an in-depth interview with the Deputy Chief of Police at San Francisco BART. It reviews factors impacting crime in metros, key barriers to improving security, incident rates during pandemic, as well as opportunities and actions to combat crime and disorder.

Community of Metros News: COMET 2023 Eastern Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, 23-26 May

After the successful in-person 2023 Western Meeting in San Francisco, the Transport Strategy Centre (TSC) had the pleasure of welcoming COMET members during the 2023 Eastern Meeting, which was hosted by Kuala Lumpur Rapid Rail. Despite being a smaller group with seven metros, the intimate setting allowed for in-depth discussion on various topics, including financial performance and future funding, station staffing and recruitment, metro demand, energy efficiency, and reliability performance.

During the technical visits, members visited the Sungai Buloh Depot and the Operational Control Center, as well as experienced a ride on the new Putrajaya Line. The line was officially launched in 2021 with an extension through the city centre reaching south near the airport in March 2023.

Research: Sustainability and Environmental, Social, and Governance Factors in Metros

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) is an approach to sustainability that reflects social responsibility and care of employees in addition to environmental impacts. It is a concept that is influencing companies around the world, who are motivated by climate change and changing societal expectations.

The first and foremost motivation for studying ESG across COMET members is the intensifying climate change crisis. As transport is a major contributor to carbon emissions, there are discussions on how to decarbonise all forms of transport. From the societal perspective, there are shifting attitudes and expectations about inclusivity, transparency, and transport as a social good, to which the information age has brought greater awareness.

The study are compiles metros’ ESG policies and strategies and explores the measurement and monitoring tools used by member metros as well as the challenges and lessons learned from implementation. It reviews policies, initiatives, and data in selected areas of focus such as energy, environment, diversity, and public engagement.

Community of Metros News: COMET 2023 Western Meeting in San Francisco, 19-21 April

COMET fully resumed in-person meetings in 2023, with the first successful meeting held by San Francisco BART in April. It brought together 22 metros discussing topics of fare evasion, recruitment and retention, crime and disorder, and energy efficiency.

The delegates visited BART Powell Street station and Hayward Maintenance Yard. The technical visits also included a tour of fare gate prototypes installed at the Rockridge station and a visit to San Francisco Central Subway.

During the meeting sessions, metros shared the latest development of their own systems, and heard detailed information from the metro spotlight presentations, including San Francisco BART’s presentation on the new rolling stock project, and Berlin BVG’s presentation on their measures of combating crime and disorder.

Community of Metros News: Atlanta MARTA Joins COMET

Transport Strategy Centre (TSC) is delighted to announce that MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) has recently joined COMET becoming the newest member. MARTA, serving the city of Atlanta, Georgia (USA), has been providing public transportation services since 1979. The rapid transit system has 77km of network and 38 stations located on four lines – Red, Gold, Blue and Green Line. The headway at weekday peak hours is currently 15 minutes. Increase of the peak hour frequency to every 12 minutes is planned to launch later this year.

Source: MARTA

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