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BART’s board of directors Thursday unanimously appointed Deputy General Manager Robert Powers as the transit agency’s new general manager, tapping a veteran insider to confront challenges of expansion, modernization and declining passenger satisfaction.
Powers began his seven-year career at BART as assistant general manager in planning, development and construction and has been deputy general manager since 2017. He succeeds Grace Crunican, who in April announced her unexpected retirement effective July 6 from the agency with a nearly $2.4 billion annual budget that she had led for eight years.
Powers takes the helm at a critical juncture for the transit agency that has seen ridership slip amid rising crime and is in the midst of replacing its train fleet and preparing for major expansion in the South Bay.
Though he said he would “build on the success of my predecessor,” Powers was blunt about BART’s troubles.
“We have a problem,” Powers said. “Our low customer satisfaction levels are unacceptable. We can do better, must do better and will do better.”
And in the coming months, the new GM pledged to hear directly from BART riders on a listening tour — in stations and aboard BART trains.
“I want to hear directly from our riders and employees,” Powers said. “I want to hear what they have to say and take the right steps. We all have a stake in the success of BART.”
Board President Bevan Dufty said “the board selected Bob because of his track record of accountability and working through challenges in a creative and collaborative way.”
“He has a tremendous understanding of the district’s operations, workforce, and aspirational vision for the future and will provide a smooth transition keeping BART focused on the work ahead,” Dufty said in a statement.
Crunican, hired from Seattle’s transportation department, had a rocky tenure overseeing the district with 48 stations in four counties and 3,600 employees serving 407,000 weekday riders. A 2013 strike under her watch shut the entire system for days during which an employee and contractor were struck and killed while a supervisor learned how to operate a train.
While ridership rose a staggering 24 percent from 2011 to 2016 as the region’s economy recovered from the downturn spawned by the 2008 mortgage meltdown, it has dropped 6 percent since. Ride-hailing alternatives like Uber and Lyft have siphoned away BART passengers frustrated with filthy stations, murders, assaults, robberies and fare cheats.
But directors credited Crunican with pushing the successful campaign for the $3.5 billion Measure RR bonds voters approved in 2016 to repair and upgrade BART’s aging trains and tracks. She oversaw the $2.6 billion procurement of 775 new train cars to replace and expand the entire existing fleet of 669, the first of which began carrying passengers last year.
BART is meanwhile continuing its long-planned push into the South Bay, with the first Santa Clara County stations — Milpitas and Berryessa — expected to open by the end of this year, and eventual service into downtown San Jose and Santa Clara to be built by 2026.
Crunican was paid a yearly salary of $395,000, which did not include her health and retirement benefits.
The board announced that Powers will be paid a salary of $385,000 year, a boost from his $285,775 base pay last year as deputy general manager, which did not include $62,580 worth of benefits.
Like Crunican, Powers came to BART from Seattle’s Department of Transportation. He is a licensed professional engineer with a master’s degree in structural engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
As deputy general manager, the board said he oversaw implementation of Measure RR projects, which they said improved BART’s on-time performance to 92 percent.
Powers said his main commitment “is to ensure that our customers come first and our employees have the tools and support to do the job and do the job safely.”