Whether a transit measure is placed on the ballot by a city or brought forward through a citizen initiative, voter support depends on how clearly an agency demonstrates its value and responds to community priorities. Drawing on experiences from agencies across California, this session explores the work that shapes public support before, during, and after a ballot measure. Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit's (SMART) experience offers one example: After voters rejected a sales tax measure in 2020, the agency focused on rebuilding confidence and demonstrating its value. Six years later, approximately 75% of voters supported a 30-year sales tax extension. The session will also consider the Connect Bay Area Transit Initiative across five Bay Area counties, other ballot measures throughout California, and what these efforts suggest for agencies looking ahead to future funding initiatives. Panelists will discuss how agencies show measurable results, communicate benefits beyond transit services, address public concerns, and maintain support over time. Attendees will leave with practical insights to help guide their agencies' planning and community engagement efforts.

This is a must-attend session for CA transit bus operators. Discussion topics will focus on how the Zero Emission Bus (ZEB) transition programs that have been progressing across the state these last seven years. Since the passage of the ICT rule in 2019, transit agencies across CA have developed and begun implementation of ZEB transition plans. Specific topics of this session will include detailed updates on the quantities and types of transit equipment agencies are purchasing, and how progress is being made building out facilities to support these ZE vehicles. In addition to vehicles, this session will look at related issues like funding, staff training, and expanding ZE rules into other transportation sectors (rail, trucking, school bus). The session will also provide an update on the ongoing work of the Interagency ICT ZEB Task Force, which brings together transit agencies and state entities to identify and advance solutions to barriers affecting the ZEB transition. The Task Force's work focused on issues such as ZEB transition funding, electricity and hydrogen costs and availability, infrastructure models, and technical assistance for small and rural operators. Against that backdrop, panelists will discuss the future of the ICT regulation itself and the California Transit Association's ongoing efforts to secure additional relief and flexibility for transit agencies as implementation requirements increase.

Transit agencies across California are navigating a serious fiscal cliff while also weighing major investments in AI, zero-emission fleets, and automation. This session makes the case that the greatest opportunity for transit right now isn't the next breakthrough technology -- it's recommitting to the fundamentals: reliable service, exceptional customer experience, growing ridership, operational excellence, and long-term financial sustainability. Drawing on lessons learned from agencies across North America, this panel explores how the industry's highest-performing organizations are balancing innovation with disciplined execution. Rather than chasing technology for technology's sake, these agencies are investing in solutions that improve service quality, strengthen public confidence, increase productivity, and deliver measurable results. Attendees will explore practical strategies for setting priorities in an era of constrained resources, making smarter investment decisions, and ensuring that innovation supports -- not distracts from -- the core mission of public transit. Participants will leave with a practical framework for evaluating priorities, aligning innovation with organizational goals, and building transit systems that are resilient, customer-focused, financially sustainable, and prepared for whatever comes next. Sometimes, the next big thing in transit is simply doing the basics brilliantly.

An effective communications campaign builds an institution into a trusted messenger of the community. Hear from transit agency communications professionals who are earning public buy-in for infrastructure investments, improving community sentiment toward local transit options, and inviting new riders to the system with thoughtfully executed campaigns.

Transit agencies are navigating rapid changes in technology, funding, customer expectations, and mobility needs. Success increasingly depends on the ability to connect people, systems, and partnerships in ways that create seamless and accessible transportation experiences. This panel brings together industry leaders to discuss how collaborative approaches are driving innovation across the transit industry. Panelists will share real-world examples of integrating new fare technologies, expanding mobility access through strategic partnerships, leveraging data to improve decision-making, and creating customer-focused solutions that make transit easier to use. Attendees will learn how agencies are moving beyond isolated projects to build connected ecosystems that improve rider experience, strengthen community relationships, and maximize the value of public investment. Discussions will highlight lessons learned, implementation strategies, and practical approaches that transit professionals can apply within organizations of any size.

Transit leaders are navigating financial uncertainty, changing travel patterns, aging infrastructure, workforce challenges, and rising customer expectations while delivering major capital projects. In this conversation, agency leaders will discuss how their roles and leadership styles have evolved and share approaches to leading through uncertainty, building strong organizational cultures, establishing local and regional partnerships, and pursuing innovation while maintaining core service. The discussion will also look ahead to what agencies need to prepare for in the next decade.

Transit agencies are being asked to manage increasingly complex fleets while confronting declining and uncertain funding, aging assets, long procurement timelines, new propulsion technologies, and growing expectations for reliability. This session examines how agencies can use better data, analytics, scenario planning, and artificial intelligence to make smarter decisions across the entire fleet lifecycle—from long-range fleet strategy, inventory management, asset management, and replacement decisions to maintenance interventions, charging, dispatch, and daily vehicle readiness.

Public transit's driver shortage has become a structural crisis, and traditional workforce and scheduling approaches have run out of road. This session makes the case that solving it requires a fundamentally new perspective on workforce management and schedule design -- one that improves the operator experience, serves riders better, and remains financially sustainable. Bringing together a transit executive, a transit labor representative, and an international scheduling expert, this panel confronts the real constraints facing agencies and unions, and challenges three persistent myths: that there's no financial capacity to improve the workplace, that unions will never support meaningful change, and that management will never embrace it. In reality, the status quo already carries hidden costs through overtime, turnover, service unreliability, and lost ridership. The session will explore bold but practical approaches that leverage advanced scheduling practices and modern software capabilities, supported by real-world examples from across the United States. Participants will discover how labor and management can align around solutions that improve predictability and fairness while protecting service and budget outcomes. The objective is not incremental improvement, but a credible path to “different and better” -- built on shared metrics, controlled pilots, and a common vision for a more attractive, resilient, and sustainable transit workforce.

Host Agency, Monterey-Salinas Transit, redesigned their network in the fall of 2022, early in the post-COVID recovery. The redesign changed almost every route, introduced new timed-transfer connections, and also dramatically rebalanced service in a way that improved both equity and ridership. The result was spectacular ridership growth. Productivity rose from 9.4 to 12.4 boardings/revenue hour from 2022 to 2025, a 32% increase vs a 21% increase nationally, although a fare reduction at the same time makes it difficult to sort out all the causes. This panel is an opportunity to hear the entire story of how this was done, what was hard, and what was achieved. The discussion will cover the planning and outreach process, implementation experience, and lessons learned. This is a great chance to explore how the host agency's transit network came to be what it is.

In the past year, California has hosted major international sporting events, including the Super Bowl LX and the FIFA World Cup, that put its transit systems in the global spotlight. With Super Bowl LXI and the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games on the horizon, transit agencies across the state have an opportunity to apply those lessons and prepare on an even larger scale. This panel brings together leaders from Northern and Southern California to discuss what California transit agencies learned from recent major events and how those experiences are shaping preparations for the next two years. Panelists will offer perspectives from agencies serving different geographies, operating environments, and customer bases, highlighting what worked, what proved challenging, and what they would do differently next time. The conversation will explore major-event planning and operations, including ridership surges, service and capacity planning, fare integration, event funding, interagency coordination, security, communications, customer experience, staffing, and maintaining reliable service for everyday riders. The panel will also consider how agencies can turn temporary major-event efforts into lasting improvements in regional coordination, operational resilience, and the transit experience.

AI can help transit leaders tackle everyday challenges, from developing staff and communicating clearly to making better use of employee feedback. This interactive workshop focuses on those practical applications. Participants will try prompts for creating training materials, preparing for difficult conversations, developing coaching questions, improving presentations, and analyzing feedback. They will also discuss privacy, accuracy, and where human judgement and knowledge of their agency must guide the result. Through hands-on exercises and discussion with peers, attendees will leave with tools they can adapt to their agency's workforce, culture, and operations. No prior AI experience necessary.

Buying zero-emission buses is the easy part. Building the charging and fueling infrastructure needed to put those buses into service, and keeping the infrastructure operating safely and reliably over time, is where transit agencies face the most difficult challenges. This panel will cover the fundamentals of successful deployment, including site assessment, utility coordination, electrical upgrades, hydrogen fueling infrastructure, depot design, charger and fueling-equipment selection, permitting, construction, commissioning, safety training, maintenance needs and approaches, and integration with existing operations. Panelists will explore where timelines and budgets most commonly break down, how agencies can better anticipate infrastructure constraints, and what questions should be asked before buses or supporting equipment are procured. Just as importantly, this panel will look beyond the initial deployment to the realities of sustaining zero-emission service once the fleet is operating. For battery-electric fleets, that may include constrained electrical capacity, lengthy utility timelines, demand charges, charger reliability, software integration, and changing relationships with electric utilities. For hydrogen fleets, agencies may face fuel availability and delivery disruptions, supplier concentration, volatile fuel costs, station reliability, and challenges securing a dependable long-term fuel supply. Panelists will share practical lessons on how agencies are adapting when infrastructure, fuel supply, vehicles, or vendor relationships do not perform as expected; how they are building redundancy and resiliency into their fleets; and how procurement, contracting, maintenance, safety, and operating practices can better protect service reliability.

Artificial Intelligence is rapidly changing how transit agencies manage operations, yet many organizations are still figuring out where AI delivers real value amid growing pressure to make data-driven decisions in the face of changing ridership patterns, workforce transitions, and constrained resources. This session makes the case that AI's biggest payoff isn't a distant, futuristic capability -- it's turning the operational data agencies already have into decisions they can act on today. This session will examine how AI-powered tools are enhancing operational performance and safety, improving service reliability, and strengthening workforce management. Panelists will share real-world applications including predictive analytics, workforce recruitment and retention, operational decision support, transit planning, and AI-supported safety systems like driver fatigue detection. Attendees will leave with practical strategies for identifying high-value AI applications, scaling initiatives across their organizations, how agencies move from pilot projects to measurable outcomes, and using data to make faster, more confident operational decisions -- whether they're just starting their AI journey or looking to expand existing efforts.

Across the transportation industry, professional and workforce organizations are playing an increasingly important role in connecting people, developing leaders, expanding access to career opportunities, and strengthening the communities that support the industry’s success. This session will bring together leaders from organizations including the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO), Asian American Leaders in Mobility (AALM), BuildIT, Latinos In Transit, and Women's Transportation Seminar to highlight the distinct missions and communities they serve. Panelists will provide an inside look at how their organizations are structured, the programs they offer, and the different ways transportation professionals can engage with their work. The conversation will highlight educational programs, professional development and mentorship opportunities, networking and convening activities, workforce initiatives, and other resources designed to help people of all backgrounds build lasting careers in transportation.

It has been a decade since the California Legislature passed, and Governor Brown signed, Senate Bill 1 (Beall and Frazier), the state's last major, sustainable investment in transit and transportation. Transit agencies across California face fiscal cliffs as pandemic-era ridership losses continue to affect fare revenue, while changes to the Cap-and-Invest expenditure plan, declining fuel tax revenue, and the next federal surface transportation reauthorization create further uncertainty. Additionally, the state's transportation system universally is seeing state funding stretched to its limits as Caltrans and local agencies work to operate, maintain, and expand California's local streets & roads, state highways, and bicycle & pedestrian infrastructure. Panelists will discuss near-term responses and the case for a new statewide investment in our state's transportation systems.

Transit agencies face retirements, recruitment challenges, and growing demands on employees and managers. Developing talent from within can help agencies retain experienced staff, prepare future leaders, and maintain reliable services. This session examines practical approaches to mentorship, apprenticeships, employee engagement, and labor-management collaboration. Drawing on a maintenance apprenticeship program and coach operator mentorship initiative, presenters will share what worked, what proved difficult, and the results they observed. Attendees will leave with ideas they can adapt to their own agencies to strengthen retention, give frontline employees opportunities to grow, and build a stronger pipeline.

Putting zero-emission buses into service is only the beginning. As battery-electric and hydrogen fuel-cell fleets move beyond pilots and into regular operations, transit agencies are confronting a new set of challenges centered on a fundamental question: how do you keep enough buses reliable, available, and ready for service every day? This session panel will focus on the vehicle side of sustaining zero-emission bus operations, examining the practical lessons agencies are learning as fleets mature and accumulate real-world mileage. Panelists will discuss vehicle reliability and availability, recurring component failures, workforce development and training, parts and supply-chain constraints, performance indicators, warranty administration, OEM and dealer support, and the operational impacts that occur when buses remain out of service longer than expected. Panelists will share lessons on managing manufacturer relationships when vehicle performance or service support falls short of expectations; establishing meaningful reliability and availability metrics; using fleet data to identify recurring problems; and adapting workforce development, training, and maintenance practices as agencies gain experience with new propulsion technologies.

California transit agencies are modernizing rapidly: connected fleets, fare systems, video, CAD/AVL, real-time passenger information, charging infrastructure, vendor remote access, and integrated operations systems. These investments improve service reliability, but they also expand the cyber-physical attack surface, and a single incident can disrupt service delivery, degrade operational decision-making, and erode public confidence. This panel brings together transit agency leaders, cybersecurity professionals, and technology partners to give transit operations leaders a practical, non-commercial framework for building cyber resilience. Drawing on real-world incidents, panelists will discuss how agencies can reduce operational disruption risk across their highest-risk cyber-physical dependencies -- operations centers, connected fleets, depots, fare and payment systems, passenger information systems, video, and vendor remote access -- by improving asset visibility, segmenting critical systems, securing remote access, protecting legacy and connected field systems, and strengthening incident response and recovery. Attendees will leave with a framework they can apply without disrupting legacy systems or straining already-constrained operational and maintenance resources, along with language for translating cybersecurity requirements into the procurement, funding, and governance conversations that resonate with boards, GMs, and operations leaders.

For nearly three decades, California public agencies have operated under Proposition 209, developing durable, race- and gender-neutral approaches to expand opportunity in public contracting. Today, as transit agencies confront rising costs, fewer bidders, and ambitious capital programs, that experience offers lessons for the rest of the country. This session brings together California transit agency signatories of the Equity in Infrastructure Project (EIP), a coalition of more than 100 public agencies and partners committed to expanding competition and delivering better value through infrastructure investment. Panelists will share how they are moving beyond traditional outreach to make public contracting more accessible to small and historically underutilized businesses and more competitive for everyone. The discussion will explore practical strategies California agencies are using to strengthen the vendor ecosystem: providing greater visibility into upcoming opportunities, simplifying solicitations and evaluation practices, improving small business certification and reciprocity, accelerating payment, and investing in firms’ capacity to compete and grow. Panelists will also address the organizational work behind these reforms, including executive leadership, cross-departmental coordination, data collection, and sustained implementation. Attendees will leave with a menu of field-tested strategies that can be adapted to their own agencies. The session will demonstrate how removing barriers to entry and helping more capable firms compete can deepen bidder pools, strengthen project delivery, and create greater value for riders, taxpayers, and communities.

Artificial Intelligence is rapidly changing how transit agencies and service providers manage operations, yet many organizations are still exploring where AI can deliver meaningful value. This panel discussion will examine how leveraging AI-powered tools and data-driven technologies can enhance operational performance, improve service reliability, strengthen workforce management, and optimize mobility services. Panelists will share real-world examples of AI applications across transit operations, including predictive analytics, workforce recruitment and retention, operational decision support, enhance transit planning, and improve passenger experience. The discussion will focus on lessons learned from implementing AI in complex operating environments, how agencies can move from pilot projects to measurable outcomes, and the governance considerations necessary to deploy AI responsibly. Attendees will gain practical insights into how AI is helping transit organizations improve efficiency, support frontline employees, enhance the rider experience, and make faster, more informed operational decisions. Whether agencies are just beginning their AI journey or seeking to expand existing initiatives, this session will provide actionable strategies and proven approaches for turning emerging technology into operational results. Identify practical AI applications delivering measurable results in transit operations today. Learn how AI can improve workforce management, service delivery, and operational efficiency. Explore methods for ensuring passengers are better enabled by technologies as opposed to hindered by them and promote adoption. Understand implementation challenges, governance considerations, and lessons learned from deployments. Explore strategies for scaling AI innovations across transportation organizations.