- One word to describe yourself: Easygoing
- Alma Mater: Virginia Military Institute
- Favorite book: “The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century” by Thomas L. Friedman
- Favorite TV show: “The Wire”
- Favorite movie: “Coming to America”
- Favorite hobby(ies): Eating his wife’s Caribbean dishes, playing with his dog, traveling and watching basketball
- Fun fact about yourself: He was an NCAA Division 1 competitor in track & field; participated in the high jump and 400m hurdles.
- What is your favorite transit system (outside of the one you work for or have worked for!) and why?: Great Western Railway in the United Kingdom because it is extensive and customer service is great. The scenery and countryside in Bath is awesome.
Jeffrey Bennett was introduced to transportation by a recruiter from Norfolk Southern while he was in college. While at Norfolk Southern, there was a lot in the news about high-speed rail that caught his interest and he decided to go into passenger rail.
He went to Keolis and worked on commuter rail, where he said seeing the riders every day gave him a “down-home” feel.
Bennett was hired by the Denton County Transportation Authority in 2013 as assistant vice president of rail operations. Since that time, he has spearheaded significant rail operations innovation and changes and the DCTA has experienced many A-train commuter rail successes managed and led by Bennett, which included a new rail operations contract, positive train control implementation ahead of deadline, and enhanced operational efficiencies.
Bennett led DCTA’s new rail contract worth nearly $200 million with First Transit to provide operations and maintenance services for the A-train. He managed the entire process from meeting with prospective contractors, authoring the new RFP that emphasized innovation, such as a real-time key performance indicator dashboard, evaluating all proposals, managing contractor mobilization and demobilization activities, and ensuring operational cohesion.
The 9-year contract with an additional 5-year option went into effect October 1, 2016 — the largest contract in DCTA history and the first time for the agency to operate rail service with a rail provider without regional resources from other local transit agencies. DCTA will see a nearly $12 million dollar savings from the implementation of this contract.
DCTA is committed to rail safety and is working diligently to implement PTC by the Federal Railroad Administration deadline of December 31, 2018. Bennett serves as DCTA’s project manager for PTC, responsible for managing all vendors, contractors, project schedules and budgets. Additionally, he oversaw all engineering and design documents, and submitted all plans to the FRA.
In November 2015, DCTA awarded a contract to the GE Transportation Systems/Alstom (GE/Alstom) for implementation of an Enhanced Automatic Train Control system (E-ATC) system. The contract price was well within the established project budget, and implementation and full commissioning of the system is expected in early 2018.
He is currently overseeing the implementation of the vehicle and wayside installations. After the installation phase is complete, Bennett will be responsible for coordinating all system testing, acceptance, and commissioning activities.
Choosing E-ATC allowed DCTA to save funds from what was originally projected. The $16 million project is estimated to save DCTA $7 million, and will allow the agency to keep a healthy balance sheet. In addition, DCTA will be the first public transportation agency in Texas to implement PTC, due to his management and leadership of this project.
Since DCTA’s A-train launched in June 2011, the agency has operated all trains with two cars. After analyzing ridership trends and wanting to increase service, it was recommended that the agency operate single cars on a more frequent schedule.When first trying to implement single-car operations, DCTA experienced challenges with shunting. In order to safely move toward single-car operations, DCTA worked with CTC Inc. — a company that provides railroad signaling and communication engineering and project management services — to implement a real-time reporting system for track anomalies.
The installation of the real-time reporting system was led and managed by Bennett. As the project manager, he ensured that all project schedules were met and that installation did not interfere with current operating schedules. Additionally, an overlay layer was placed on the track to ensure further safety. Bennett verified that all designs, documents and submittals were sufficient. DCTA invested approximately $1.5 million in upgrades for this project and as a result, the agency was able to implement single car operations with $500,000 in savings annually that will allow for increased availability of fleet to increase A-train service levels.
“Most challenging aspect is maximizing output with limited resources. We handle a lot of different roles but I’m able to learn a lot — more about safety, security, vehicle maintenance.”
“The people I manage, when I see them achieve their goals, if I’ve helped that, that’s rewarding.”
“Transit allows me to interact with the customers directly. I see it helps them get to work, to where they need to go. For the future, my wish list would be if each city could have a commuter line and to have high-speed rail, for people to see it. I had the opportunity to see it in Europe and if we could develop to where they are. And maglev in the United States. It would help with safety and security and offer alternate ways of traveling.”
