Tag: MATA Memphis

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Interim MATA Leadership Focused on ‘Stabilizing’ Agency

Photo: Justin Fox Burks

The Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) said their primary goals are to improve the agency’s operational and financial viability as interim leadership continues efforts to transform the agency.

Today the interim leadership team, comprised of TransPro consultants, gave a monthly update to Memphis City Council’s transportation committee.

John Lewis, interim CEO, said the leadership team has reviewed all non-employee spending to identify “unnecessary and redundant” charges while also stopping “non-safety certification-related travels” for MATA personnel. They have also changed the employee expense reimbursement policies.

“The majority of spending has got to be focused on putting transit service on the street and not towards supporting unnecessary or redundant administrative funding, as has been the practice in the past,” Lewis said. 

Officials also said they have gained access to the agency’s American Express account to suspend usage and look into the previous spending. Lewis said this is to stop future misappropriation of agency funds.

Aaron Headley, interim CFO, said MATA is also working to optimize the city’s investment. They are currently working on minimizing the amount of past-due payments with a target of less than 10 percent.  

Councilwoman Michalyn Easter-Thomas questioned whether the agency had the data to show optimization of the city’s investment, to which officials said this is an intended outcome.

The presentation showed that the amount of past due payables was at 94 percent as of March 7th, and it stayed the same as of March 26th. Headley said this is because they are “laser-focused” on getting more buses on the road and making sure they don’t run out of money.

Lewis said they are working to finalize their FY26 budget with extra focus on “eliminating wasteful spending” from both administration and vendor services.

Councilman Jeff Warren questioned whether or not the agency could switch to smaller buses on routes that aren’t as full. He suggested that this may be a better spend than to continue purchasing larger buses as they could improve cost-saving measures, efficiency, and timeliness.

Lewis explained there are opportunities for smaller vehicles; however, their main concern is stabilizing the agency.

“Getting into service design is further down the road for us,” Lewis said.

Warren responded that stabilizing the agency may be difficult if only a percentage of buses are available to complete routes.

Thomas asked if they are able to receive the data that the agency is using to complete their monthly reports even though officials said they are “ongoing.” Board chair Edmund Ford Sr. said that questions such as these could not be discussed in regular session, but rather in attorney-client session.

Councilwoman Yolanda Cooper-Sutton asked how MATA plans to rebuild the community’s trust in terms of reliability and on-time performance. She said the current model is a “failing” one and advised MATA to not ask for more money if they plan to do the same thing.

“I understand that getting the money is most important, but getting the trust back — what does your model look like?” Sutton asked. “More service on the street, but you don’t have the people to ride. They’ve made other means because they were forced into a place where they had to find other means.”

Anna McQuiston, vice chair of MATA’s board of commissioners, said the interim leadership team realizes that community trust is broken, yet she didn’t think the model was broken; rather, the agency did not deliver on their promises.

“Our number-one priority right now is to deliver on the service that we tell people we’re going to provide,” McQuiston said. “We’re not doing that right now. We’ve got to deliver on time. We need the buses to show up, and that to me is the first step of many that we need to make to build back that community trust. That has been one of the priorities the board has asked for considering all these things.”

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MATA Officials Reveal Reason For Missed Bus Routes

Photo: Justin Fox Burks

The Memphis Area Transit Authority’s leadership contributed to a majority of missed trips last year by removing routes from its published schedule. Interim CEO and TransPro consultant John Lewis called the move a “deliberate” decision by previous management to “mask service cuts from the public.”

This information was revealed during the Interim CEO report at the March 7th Board of Commissioners meeting. Officials said the schedule deletions had been going on “as far back as April of last year (2024).”

“We knew we weren’t delivering 20 percent of the published schedule,” an official said during the meeting.

With customer satisfaction being touted as a priority, officials are now working to improve their on-time performance (OTP). They reported 64 percent of buses arrived “between one minute early and 5 minutes late” in January 2025. 

Those numbers exclude the 29 percent of missed trips — which the agency said are trips that were never completed. Leadership went on to say in order for the schedule to be “executed,” drivers are able to pick their routes, but MATA leadership took 20 percent of the rides off of the published schedule.

“Even in a universe where we have buses and spares and operators we know are ready and willing to drive, we could not have delivered that because those weren’t available routes to drive,” the official said. “We never had a chance to perform them.

Lewis added that any schedule changes are subject to board approval.

“I’m mad as hell after hearing this,” Commissioner Cynthia Bailey said. “So, all this time they was violating and had the customers acting [a] ass here, it was their fault, or it never came out? So they was giving false information to the customers? I’m mad as hell.”

Lewis said they are “pursuing consequences” to the individuals who had knowledge of the schedule changes, and they are further investigating the issue.

“I have long stated that MATA had a priority problem and MATA was [more] concerned about the administration than the ridership,” said Johnnie Mosley, founding chairman of Citizens for Better Service. “Memphis must demand that MATA do right by bus riders. Bus riders have suffered too long as a result of lack of leadership.”

One of the key points that officials have tried to improve is the city’s trust in MATA — specifically as stewards of public funds. Leadership pointed to a September 2024 survey of 388 Memphians in which only 26 percent of responders said they deemed the agency trustworthy of taxpayer’s dollars.

“Over time, and with proper financial governance and transparency, the team will strive to improve the community’s faith in MATA,” officials said during a presentation at the meeting.

Lewis said TransPro performed a “preliminary review of FY24 General Administrative expenses,” which showed that out of $9.9 million, $848,000 was spent in discretionary spending. This included $603,000 in sponsorship of the Memphis Grizzlies and $144,000 in “other AMEX purchases.” 

Officials said this did not include charges for travel and meetings.

“We asked for detailed statements of that, had to do some digging with American Express — the agency at the time did not have itemized monthly bills, which was not a best practice to say the least,” Lewis said. “After we received itemized statements going back the last couple of years, we found within those purchases, seemingly non-business-related purchases.”

Lewis said these included $5,000 in payments via PayPal and Venmo, $7,000 in purchases at BestBuy, $10,000 in party equipment rental, $30,000 in customizable purchases, and $1,200 in Montblanc purchases to name a few. 

“These don’t seem to be necessarily transit related,” Lewis said.

He went on to say they brought this to the attention of the city auditor, and as a result the state comptroller has been notified. Lewis and his team has been advised to seek outside counsel for a more thorough investigation. 

The former leadership that had possession of the AMEX card has been placed on administrative leave, officials said.

The agency’s Board of Commissioners in conjunction with leadership have established that their main expectations are to enhance customer service, provide financial transparency, develop “public facing metrics,” and increase bus route coverage and frequency. 

MATA hopes these outcomes will result in improved trust in the community and satisfied customers, and optimization of the city’s investment. In terms of financials, the agency hopes to provide a balanced budget with “operating expenses [being] less than or equal to available revenue.”

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MATA Moves Forward With TransPro Consultants in Leadership

Photo: Memphis Area Transit Authority

The Memphis Area Transit Authority’s (MATA) Board of Commissioners voted to enter an agreement to let TransPro consultants assume interim leadership roles.

A resolution was passed 7-1 during today’s special board meeting despite open concerns from citizens. In December MATA’s board of commissioners voted 5-4 in favor of working with the city and TransPro on a contract initiating the change.

As proposed, TransPro employees would take over as interim CEO (John Lewis), interim COO (Steve Hamelin), and interim CFO (Aaron Headley). TransPro said this would be to “enhance the reliability, timeliness, and customer satisfaction of mobility services offered by MATA.”

The resolution indicated that TransPro submitted their “Phase 2 Proposal” to the city of Memphis which outlines a “comprehensive plan” for MATA addressing accountability, service quality, safety, and operational efficiency. This includes reviewing current bus routes, schedules, ridership, and more.

Prior to being approved, the resolution has prompted concerns from riders for multiple reasons such as the cost for their consulting. At the agency’s last board meeting, a board member noted that the “interim part-time CEO” would be making $400K.

TransPro’s oversight will last for eight months, will cost the city $1,298,023, and will be paid in “non-federal funds.” The bulk of the costs stem from labor, totaling $1,018,989. The firm promises their oversight will benefit MATA in many ways including accountability and financial compliance and management.

Community members agree that the agency is in need of new leadership, but believe these funds would better be allocated towards helping ridership directly.

“We have long said that MATA was more concerned about spending money on the leadership than the ridership,” Citizens for Better Service said in a statement. “We need a leadership that will put the ridership first. MATA is in need of new leadership which must begin the process of transforming MATA into a first-class public transportation system.”

Citizens also voiced their concerns during the special meeting, asking the board to consider their well-being in their decision making, while also citing their skepticism for entering a contract with TransPro.

Many also voiced their support for interim CEO Bacarra Mauldin, with some asking that the board give her more time to act in her capacity to help fix the agency’s woes.

Organizations such as Better Transit for A Better Memphis asked that MATA collaborate with them and other advocacy groups in conversations with TransPro moving forward as well.

Prior to the vote — after hearing comments from both citizens and operators — the board stated that this was a “crisis management” move and that the board was responsible for holding TransPro accountable.

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MATA Provides Safety and Security Updates at Board Meeting

Photo: Memphis Area Transit Authority via Facebook

The Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) is working to improve the safety experience for both passengers and drivers, while also working to engage with local law enforcement on safety preventions.

Keith Watson, chief safety and security officer, presented his first safety assessment at the agency’s recent board of commissioners meeting, and said upon his presentation he looked at several areas within MATA such as the safety risk management combined with their “best practices.”

Watson said the organization is split into two categories: fixed route operations and rail operations. Fixed route operations are those that occur on the “surface” on roadways of the city, while rail operations are “more regulated” than the fixed routes.

When looking at the rail operations, Watson concluded there were 31 corrective action plans (CAPS) from 2020 to 2023 for MATA. He said these are plans to address risk factors identified as a result of accidents or other safety incidents. Watson and his team were able to address these plans and reduce the number to 11 for August 2024.

In terms of fixed route operations, some of the areas that MATA identified for extra inspection were the GPS reporting and radio systems that are on each bus called “EQUANS.” Watson said these provide location reporting and time point placement.

“We talk about on-time performance, and I’ve heard many of my colleagues mention that some of the time points were not properly reporting to EQUAN. We’ve been working through that,” Watson said.

He added that they plan to invite EQUAN to their meeting so they can have a “grassroot understanding of the things that are happening for their overall safety and locating of [their] buses.”

Some other observations made to evaluate fixed route operations were facility and infrastructure inspections, route assessment, fire safety and evacuation practices, and safety prevention campaigns.

“We must remain consistent on those particular programs and engaging with our employees to have a safety culture over the overall system,” Watson said.

This ushered in a conversation on crime activity at their transit centers located on Main Street (William Hudson Transit Center), American Way, and Airways. Larceny and simple assault were the only crimes reported at all three locations and accounted for many of the offenses compared to disorderly conduct, robbery, and trespassing to name a few.

“Hudson Center, for the year, is reported with most incidents with Airways coming in at a close second,” Watson said.

He added that only some crimes make it to “paper” via their reporting center. Watson said he believed there were 94 reports made, with  operator and passenger disputes accounting for 40 of those.

“Those disputes usually stem from bus arrival/departure times, location of the bus pickups, and some personal preferences on where a passenger would like to get off outside of the revenue lane,” Watson said.

MATA has also been reviewing security footage to look for individuals that could pose a threat to the transit experience by committing crimes that are “punishable by state or federal law.” They’ve begun the process of placing “Be On The Look Out” flyers while also engaging with security contractors and local law enforcement.

The presentation closed with an overview of their safety performance in crashes where 51 percent were non-preventable, and 49 percent were preventable. A majority of these crashes involved fixed objects, with sideswiping coming in second.