Justin T. Augustine, III Honored with New Orleans CityBusiness Icon Award

Justin T. Augustine, III, vice president of Transdev, the private operating partner of the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority, is one of 20 business leaders honored with the New Orleans CityBusiness Icon Awards.

As a way of marking New Orleans’ 300th anniversary, CityBusiness honored business leaders who have had a lasting influence on the city’s economic development and made their mark on the city overall. These honorees, through their energy, innovative ideas, achievements and commitment to excellence, have moved our community forward.

Augustine’s contribution to the City of New Orleans began a decade ago. As a native New Orleanian, he jumped at the chance to return to his hometown in 2008 and help bring the transit agency back to life Post-Katrina.

The hurricane had flooded or destroyed nearly 80 percent of the RTA’s entire fleet. 202 buses, 20 paratransit vans, 51 support vehicles, and 30 streetcars were out of commission in one fell swoop. RTA employees lost loved ones, their homes, and their jobs. Many lost everything and were left in a flooded ghost-town where 80% of the city’s residents were gone. Many New Orleanian weren’t sure if they would come back or if New Orleans would even be rebuilt. Augustine wasn’t immune from any of this.

“My house and all of my relative’s homes were all destroyed, just like everybody else’s. So, I had dual responsibilities. I had to help rebuild both the lives and homes of my immediate family. At the same time, I had a significant community responsibility to help restore an entire transit system. It was very, very challenging. It involved a tremendous amount of work and time, but it was for a very defined purpose. The purpose was, both from a personal and professional perspective, that if you’re in the people business, you have to be willing to serve. You have to be willing to give up your personal needs and just be very selfless,” said Augustine.

With a reduced fleet (including donated buses) and 36 historic streetcars left for service, Augustine employed his remarkable leadership skills and lead the charge. It was his career-defining moment. By being extremely focused and resolute in his approach, he ensured the city would recover its transit agency. But, more importantly, he was determined to make the RTA bigger, bolder, and better than it had been.

Working with limited resources, Augustine convinced his workforce to become extremely dedicated and committed to the task at hand. He constantly credited and thanked his team for their heroic efforts and their perseverance through this trying period. Looking back, he likes to say that “literally through the ashes of a fire, a brand new phoenix appeared.”

Fast forward nearly 13 years Post-Katrina, the phoenix is flying high. 93 buses, 30 refurbished streetcars, 37 paratransit vehicles, three new streetcar lines (5.6 track miles), and a ferry service operation have been added to the agency. This year’s ridership is expected to be 19.8 million. From 2009-2017, ridership has gone up 59 percent from 11.6 million to 18.6 million. The RTA is in a growth period, thanks to Mr. Augustine.

He set the bar and the blue-print for how transit systems, world-wide, can recover from total devastation and received numerous accolades for his efforts. Here are just a few of his recognitions:

• In 2011, APTA honored Augustine with the Extraordinary Recovery Award for helping to rebuild the public transportation system in New Orleans. The award reads in part, “Your resilience, courage and accomplishments have made a major contribution to the renewal of the city and to the lives of passengers. Thank you!”
• In 2012, President Barack Obama tapped Augustine as one of 11 national leaders honored at the White House as Champions of Change for creating jobs in their communities and using innovative techniques to develop valuable projects to help improve America’s infrastructure. He received this honor for envisioning and creating the Loyola Avenue streetcar expansion. “This $45 million investment has attracted new investment along Loyola Avenue totaling $2.7 billion dollars. This expansion will contribute to a new, strong, livable neighborhood in the middle of the Central Business District,” according to the White House website.
• April 20, 2015, Augustine, III was knighted by the Republic of France. The Deputy Ambassador of France to the United States, Frederic Dore’ bestowed upon Augustine the prestigious honor of the Chevalier de L’Ordre National du Merite (Knight of the National Order of Merit) for his outstanding contributions to the field of public transit. Augustine was quoted as saying, “To receive this honor in my beloved hometown of New Orleans with my family and friends to witness is very meaningful. The work I have done here, in this city, has been more than a job. It has been a mission to restore and revitalize transit services for my community, family, friends, and neighbors after the devastating losses sustained in this community nearly 10 years ago.”

Currently, the RTA is in its revitalization phase, Post-Katrina. Augustine is looking to the future and working with his team on implementing the RTA’s Strategic Mobility Plan (SMP). It’s the agency’s roadmap for improving transportation in the New Orleans region over the next 20 years.

“We’ve spent a year engaging the public, and there are 129 action items the public is asking us to focus on. So this plan now sets the future vision of transit for the city of New Orleans,” said Augustine.

The SMP action items will bring the RTA well into the 21st century and will help the agency arm itself with new technologies, be efficient in its delivery process and its cost structure, as well as attract and retain customers. Under Augustine’s tenure, some of the SMP items have already been implemented such as the Computer Aided Dispatch / Auto Vehicle Locator (CAD-AVL), which provides dispatchers and supervisors with a clear, real-time picture of the location and status of every in-service vehicle and the ability to quickly react to service disruptions in real-time. The CAD-AVL also links to RTA’s new GoMobile 2.0 app, which provides riders with real-time time tracking of buses and streetcars to their stop.

On the employee side of the house, Augustine recognizes his employees are his most important assets. It’s the reason he goes beyond the boundaries of the transit world to recruit the most talented individuals, and he makes it a point to hire and promote women and minorities. Today, Mr. Augustine’s workforce totals 735. 678 are minorities and 242 of them are women.

“My motto is: ‘No employee is more important than the other. Collectively, we’re a team, and as a team, we will live and die as a team’.”

Teamwork helped the organization through Katrina, and it’s what recently helped Augustine’s team complete a $13.6 million expansion of the Canal streetcar line and Cemeteries Transit Center Project on time and under budget. Even more impressive, $10 million worth of construction was completed in only four months for this project. Prior to its completion, riders and pedestrians were forced to navigate a heavily trafficked intersection. Leaders touted the safety and regional connectivity benefits of the streetcar's extension.

“This regional approach to mobility and transit is a crown jewel for transit here in Louisiana,” said Shawn Wilson, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. “You have created what I believe is a national model for working together.”

That model includes excellence and accountability standards Mr. Augustine imposes on himself and his team. Case in point, with the implementation of FTA’s Safety Management Systems (SMS), Augustine mandated safety continue to be an ongoing top priority for the organization. His efforts in this arena are clear. Between 2016-2017, the RTA reduced fixed-route preventable accidents by 39% from 102 to 62. Total accidents were reduced from 528 to 448 or 15 percent, and total passenger injuries were reduced by 22 percent from 50 to 39. These numbers were achieved by reducing the ratio of operators to trainers from roughly 25 operators per instructor to 3 operators per instructor, conducting on-board driver evaluations and trail checks for all operators, and by providing classroom training for platform/cadet operators.

For all the reasons stated above, Justin T. Augustine, III, was chosen as one of New Orleans CityBusiness Icon Award honorees.