Chief Executive Officer

Recently, I had the pleasure of recognizing six Port Authority operators who I believe epitomize Port Authority’s mission of providing efficient and courteous transportation service to the residents of Allegheny County.

They are: Thomas Delegram (Collier), William Diveglia (East Liberty), Charles Mercadante (West Mifflin), James Penton (Ross), David Straub (South Hills Village Rail Center) and Donald Walker, Jr. (Harmar).

These operators received the highest number of commendations at their respective bus and rail divisions over the past five years and because of their outstanding performance were selected to assist in modifying a pre-existing training program for all operators called the “Operator Awareness Program.”

Using their experience and expertise, these operators reviewed the course outline and made suggestions on additional topics they believed would benefit other operators in their daily interaction with customers. They identified the value of good customer relations and customer communication as a main priority and they emphasized that additional training on these issues would ensure a more customer-friendly transit agency.

Our Transportation Training Department evaluated the suggestions of these operators and developed a new six-hour training program that all operators are now required to complete.

The program trains operators on topics such as: how to react in an emergency situation; how to handle stress, frustration and time pressure; how to maintain a professional appearance; how to avoid conflict; how to handle difficult situations and more.

Our goal is to have every operator complete the program within the next 30 months. So far, more than 350 Port Authority operators have received this training.

I’m proud to announce that we have noticed a substantial decline in the number of customer complaints about our operators in recent months. It is our hope that once all of the operators complete this training, customer complaints will be replaced by customer commendations.

There’s no question that Port Authority has faced some stormy weather in recent months. However, among these storm clouds, our star employees still shine. I look forward to reporting more positive news in the future regarding how we succeed in achieving the Port Authority’s mission.

Sincerely,

Chief Executive Officer
Port Authority of Allegheny County