MARTA CEO search: What each finalist said they would bring to the job

The new leader will also play a pivotal role in future decisions about how to expand transit in the Atlanta metro, including projects on and along the Atlanta Beltline; along the Clifton Corridor; Campbellton Road; and in Clayton County.

Each finalist met with the board for about 90 minutes earlier this week. They also laid out their past successes in letters to the board that were provided to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution through the Georgia Open Records Act.

Here’s more on the candidates and their plans for MARTA if selected:

Cleveland Ferguson

The second-in-command at the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, Cleveland Ferguson told the board the job is bigger than just providing transportation.

“Modern public transportation agencies must serve not only as providers of mobility but also as engines of economic development, technological innovation and regional connectivity,” Ferguson wrote in his letter to the board. “MARTA’s next chapter presents an extraordinary opportunity to advance these same themes of innovation and growth at a metropolitan scale.”

Ferguson trained as a lawyer and taught law for more than a decade before joining Jacksonville City Hall. Since 2015, he’s worked at the city’s transit agency in a variety of positions. Currently, Ferguson serves as the executive vice president and chief administrative officer.

Jacksonville, a city of about 1 million people, has a significantly smaller transit agency. It doesn’t have heavy rail but operates a ferry, commuter bus routes and the Jacksonville Skyway, an elevated automatic people mover. The agency provided about 6.2 million bus trips last year compared with MARTA’s 34.3 million.

Ferguson said he would be an innovative leader who could help MARTA advance “forward-looking mobility solutions,” telling the board how he oversaw the introduction of the first public autonomous vehicle transit service in the country. Jacksonville has partnered with Beep for that service, the same company testing autonomous vehicles in Cobb County and near the Atlanta Beltline.

He also touted his work with transit-oriented development in Jacksonville. Ferguson said he led efforts to partner with private developers to create economic hubs close to the Jacksonville Skyway in downtown, and would bring a similar strategy here.

“As the Atlanta region continues to experience extraordinary population growth, the authority will play an increasingly central role in shaping how that growth translates into opportunity and sustainable regional connectivity,” Ferguson said.

Jonathan Hunt

Jonathan Hunt told the board his work over the last year as interim general manager and CEO speaks to what he could accomplish if given the job permanently.

“The progress achieved during this period reflects my dedication to MARTA’s mission,” Hunt wrote. “Delivering on future regional projects, becoming the Number One transit agency for customer service and advocating for additional counties to join the system will require substantial internal and external shifts in MARTA’s perception. While ambitious, our results to date demonstrate to me that we can meet the moment.”

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Hunt, like Ferguson, is a lawyer. He worked for private law firms and the city of Atlanta before joining MARTA in 2014 as its chief legal counsel, the job Hunt held until last August when he was tapped to lead the agency temporarily.

Hunt initially said he didn’t want the top job permanently but changed his mind and asked to be considered in April, telling the board that leading the agency has been one of the greatest honors of his career.

Hunt told the board he’s focused his time as interim on two top priorities: increasing ridership and improving the customer experience. In the 10 months he’s served as chief, rail ridership is up 30% compared with the 10 previous months, according to federal ridership data. Bus ridership has not budged.

He’s prioritized other projects to improve the rider experience, including authorizing 30 additional MARTA police officer positions beyond what was budgeted.

About a half-dozen major projects were in progress when Hunt took over, including the first substantive redesign of MARTA’s bus routes since the agency’s founding, as well as the introduction of new trains, a new fare payment and faregate system and the region’s first bus rapid transit line. Other than the bus network redesign, the remaining projects are still in progress, some months behind schedule.

When Hunt took over, the agency was facing criticism from many political, business and civic leaders who found the previous CEO, Collie Greenwood, difficult to work with. Hunt, who is regularly seen riding the system, said he’s made it a priority to be accessible to both officials and regular riders.

“The number of meetings, calls, events and presentations are too numerous to recite here; suffice it to say that this level of engagement has contributed to the improved perception of MARTA as a proactive and engaged regional partner,” Hunt wrote.

Leroy Jones

Leroy Jones is the only finalist who has spent his entire career in transit.

Jones started work at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority in 1999 when he was 21 years old, doing overnight shifts as a track repairman while taking undergrad classes during the day.

Since then, he’s worked his way up through the agency, where he’s served as the executive vice president and chief operations officer for the last year. That job has Jones overseeing daily operations at the second-largest system in the country — and one of the most successful of any in the U.S. at recovering rail ridership lost during the pandemic, according to federal ridership data.

Jones told the agency’s board he could transform MARTA into a world-class transit agency that gives riders the “experience that they deserve.”

“With a natural talent for identifying inefficiencies and a track record of turning around under-performing teams, I offer great value to MARTA,” Jones wrote.

Jones is himself a regular transit rider and has worked on both the rail and bus sides of the agency at various points in his career, including implementing D.C.’s bus network redesign and working on the efforts to modernize and automate rail service.

He’s been a key part of the efforts to increase ridership. D.C. has recovered 80% of its pre-pandemic rail ridership, a rate beaten only by New York City and Miami, according to federal data. MARTA has recovered just half its former ridership.

Jones told board members he collaborated with regional partners to implement lanes that increased bus speeds by 32%. He also touted record-high customer service satisfaction levels that have improved year-over-year.

Jones has said previously that transit is an equalizer that provides people access to places they wouldn’t have otherwise.

“Better bus service builds better communities,” Jones said in 2024 when more than two miles of dedicated bus lanes opened in Maryland.