A good ride

When Joe Calabrese joined the Greater
Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
in 2000, his goal was to re-engineer public transportation for the commuters of
Northeast Ohio by improving customer service.

GCRTA operates 108 rail cars on 34 miles of
track and 654 buses on 1,666 route miles. On
average, 180,000 people ride GCRTA daily.

When Calabrese assumed control, GCRTA
was a large system riddled
with a record of poor reliability, safety concerns and
low customer satisfaction.

He went right to work.

Through the purchase of
hundreds of clean-air buses, he went from
having one of the oldest fleets in the nation to
one of the newest. He simplified the rider’s
commute by expanding GCRTA’s network of
transit centers and Park-N-Rides. And by
investing nearly $2 million into a state-of-theart communications center using global positioning technology, the transit authority can
now pinpoint the exact location of every bus
and train, information that is relayed to riders
at stops and stations through electronic monitors.

As a result of these changes and an expansive advertising campaign in 2005, ridership
steadily increased. Helping fill the seats was
GCRTA’s expanded participation in its
Commuter Advantage program, which
allows people to purchase passes through a
work-sponsored, pre-tax option.

Every quarter, Calabrese and his team
speak with customers and generate a report
card to see how they’re doing. Based on the
results, GCRTA offers incentives to employees for meeting performance criteria including on-time performance, safety, customer
service and reliability.

As a result, GCRTA has experienced four
consecutive years of ridership gains, with
nearly 5 million riders added. And over the
past five years, customer satisfaction surveys
have consistently risen by double-digit percentages year-over-year.

HOW TO REACH: Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, (216) 566-5100 or www.gcrta.org