By Steve Hymon, January 6, 2015
Here is the news release from Metro:
Art Leahy, CEO of the Los Angeles County
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro), today announced his last
day of service will be April 5, 2015, when his current contract
expires. Leahy, 65, who started his transportation career as a bus
operator and became one of the nation’s leading transit officials, has
headed Metro for six years. During that time he guided implementation of
one of the largest public works programs in United States history and
helped secure billions of dollars in federal and state funding to match
local transit sales taxes to finance construction of dozens of transit
and highway projects.
“It has a been a privilege, honor and
pleasure to serve as Metro’s chief executive officer the past six
years,” Leahy said. “My time at Metro has been filled with enormous
successes, intense challenges and opportunities that have and continue
to shape mobility for Los Angeles County’s 10 million residents.”
Against a backdrop of the worst economic recession since
the Great Depression, Leahy kept Metro solvent while he focused on
fulfilling the mandate of Los Angeles County voters in carrying out the
Measure R building program and ensuring quality service on the Metro
system that has nearly 500 million annual boardings.
Today Metro has transit and highway projects and programs
valued at more than $14 billion, eclipsing that of any other
transportation agency in the nation.
This includes an unprecedented five new
rail projects under construction including the Expo line extension to
Santa Monica and the Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension to Azusa, both
scheduled to open next year, plus the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Project, the
Regional Connector that will connect the Expo, Blue and Gold Lines in
downtown Los Angeles, and the first phase of the Westside Purple Line
subway extension to Wilshire and La Cienega. Just last week, Metro also
received federal approval to start the engineering phase for extending
the Purple Line to Century City.
Minorities and disadvantaged workers are
enjoying opportunities for construction jobs and apprenticeships for
these projects thanks to the nation’s first federally-approved Project
Labor Agreement and Construction Careers Program that begun under
Leahy’s tenure.
Having started his transit career as a bus operator 44
years ago, at Metro Leahy focused on improving bus on time performance,
cleanliness and ADA compliance. The agency is taking delivery of 550 new
buses and a new state-of-the-art bus maintenance facility will open
later this year. The popular Silver Line express bus service from El
Monte to Artesia was one of Leahy’s projects along with the Orange Line
extension to Chatsworth.
Leahy also launched a $1.2-billion
overhaul of the Metro Blue Line and guided the purchase of a new fleet
of rail cars. And he helped turn Union Station into the hub of the
region’s expanding bus and rail transit network and led the agency’s
acquisition of the 75-year-old iconic facility.
Major highway projects such as the I-5
widening to Orange County have broken ground under Leahy’s watch and the
new 10-mile northbound carpool lane on the I-405 freeway through the
Sepulveda Pass has opened. Leahy led the successful Carmageddon I &
II weekend closures for bridge work as part of that effort.
Prior to his tenure as Metro CEO, Leahy served as the
Chief Executive Officer at the Orange County Transportation Authority
and General Manager of the transit agency in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
During his leadership, both agencies garnered national transit industry
honors as did Leahy.
Leahy grew up in Highland Park. Both his
parents worked in transit and he followed in their footsteps. He started
as a bus operator for the Southern California Rapid Transit District
(SCRTD) in Los Angeles in 1971 and rose through the ranks to become
Chief Operations Officer before taking leadership positions at other
transit agencies.