Abstract:
Staff plans and practices are vital to the success of any light rail operation. In Buffalo, the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority's Metro Rail system began its efforts to get the right people in the right place at the right time in 1981 with a nationwide search for a rail operations leader with a background in research and development. With this superintendent aboard two years before the system began revenue service start-up tasks such as developing a rule book and standard operating procedures began. Management personnel were recruited next and sent to the Port Authority Transit Corporation's facilities in New Jersey to learn from an operating light rail system. Filling the rest of Metro Rail's positions then began. Screening for nonunion employees was extensive and systematic. Union employees recruited from Metro's bus operations, however, could only be ranked by seniority. Training became the next consideration and was at times complicated by the fact that, although equipment had been delivered, not all of it was operational when expected. The success of the recruitment and training process shows up in Metro Rail's low turnover rate.
Supplemental Notes:
This paper appears in Transportation Research Board Special Report No. 221, Light Rail Transit: New System Successes at Affordable Prices - Papers presented at the National Conference on Light Rail Transit, May 8-11, 1988, San Jose, California, Conducted by the Transportation Research Board. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved
