Sheryl Adams is GRTC’s first Black woman CEO. Image provided by Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC)

Closing in on three years of zero-fare service, the Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC) has weathered the pandemic better than most other public transportation providers. Ridership is almost fully restored with some local routes serving more passengers than ever before. Plans are underway not only to extend Richmond’s existing Pulse bus rapid transit but also to build out a north-south route.

The city’s bus-only lanes got the red carpet treatment last summer, a plan was passed to put essential infrastructure at 75% of GRTC’s stops, and even Richmond’s once-hostile surrounding counties are planning new routes and service expansions.

Central Virginia’s premier transit provider also announced a new leader: Sheryl Adams, its seventh (and first Black female) CEO. As public transportation’s ridership in Richmond skews Black and female, such unprecedented representation can be powerful. With more than two decades of experience at GRTC, Adams knows the ins and outs of the transit company as well as the Richmond region. We sat down for an interview about her vision for transit in Virginia’s capital.

You’ve been with GRTC for 24 years and even served as the interim CEO before Julie Timm. What made you want to take the top job now?

I started out here as the risk manager, and part of my job was to do route books. That entailed me going out with a camera and taking pictures of issues at bus stops and putting it together in a binder. I touched every route and every bus stop. I also focused on safety in the shop, and then I moved on to become the training manager. To this day there are still operators here that I trained. I served in the role of director of risk management for almost 15 years, and then the chief operations officer position became available.

Part of why I felt called to take the CEO job now is because of the fact that I have been here so long and worked in so many roles. I have a broad perspective of the organization and the region. I provide continuity to GRTC. I’ve built good relationships, and the employees know me and trust me, and I know them and trust them to do their job. All of us together want to be the best transit agency we can be.

I’ve seen GRTC grow with the bus rapid transit (BRT), and I know that we are capable of achieving more. I feel like my longevity here provides stability to the company and the region.

For the first time in history, GRTC doesn’t have all the operators needed to provide full service, let alone begin any of the planned system expansions. Could 2023 be the year to end the operator shortage?

Currently, we are around 236 full-time operators and 27 part-time operators, and the goal is to get to 280 operators. If we get to around 254-260 we can put existing service back in, but in order for us to do the expansions we need at least 280 operators.

The Great Resignation hit us hard. Now we’re competing with the same labor pool as the local school districts, Virginia Commonwealth University, and the trucking industry. We have seen some improvement in retention since September as we provide a great living wage, quality healthcare, and retirement benefits.

We have a rigorous recruitment campaign, an operator hiring bonus of $5,000, and a pay incentive for all operators and mechanics, so that for every hour worked you get an additional $2 an hour and if you work nights and weekends it’s an additional $4 an hour.

One of the other obstacles we have tried to help people overcome is the commercial driver’s license (CDL) process. We partnered in 2021 with DMV to offer all three CDL tests here. In the past, before we hired you we would require you to come with your learner’s, but now we can get you that permit on-site, and we have a class to help you pass the permit process. We have seen our recruitment increase because of that. Without the operators we can’t function and become the regional transit agency we want to, so we are doing everything we can to let them know we are here to help them be successful in their career.

GRTC has a lot of big transformational projects in the works right now. Tell me about some of the new initiatives you’re most excited to lead on.

Our microtransit project will give us an opportunity to reach people outside of our current network and increase our ridership. It will provide people a chance to see the benefits of transit and connect to our wider network in some areas that have never had transit like Powhatan and Ashland. It’s a small step in the right direction toward becoming the regional transit provider we want to be.

I’m also excited about our new Downtown Transfer Station because this will be better than what we have across the street. It will offer 12 bus bays and enhanced safety. It is still convenient and centrally located. It will provide easier transfers and have better amenities there for our customers. It will have restrooms for our operators. We know it’s not permanent and we are still looking for a permanent home, but the facilities that we plan to put down will be an upgrade.

The Essential Transit Infrastructure plan is going to make all of our stops ADA accessible, provide better comfort and convenience for our riders, and provide more shelters so people are not standing out in the elements.

Currently GRTC has two potential expansions of its award-winning Pulse bus rapid transit service in the works. Can you tell me about those?

We’re doing a study of a north-south BRT and have started doing focus groups and surveys of where it should go: Hull Street, Midlothian Turnpike, or Route 1. It will be huge to connect both sides of the river and have dedicated lanes. It will allow people to get where they need to go faster and more efficiently, but we have to make sure our fixed route network coordinates with it to make sure people can easily transfer.

I’m most excited about the extension on the east-west route because we all know how Short Pump is congested, and this will help with that. Route 19 has proven that people will utilize that service, and it’s an expansion that we will be able to put in place sooner than the north-south BRT.

GRTC’s red bus-only lanes are currently 0.6 miles short of being long enough to unlock millions in federal BRT maintenance funding once the Pulse turns seven in two years. What are your plans to extend the bus-only lanes and secure that funding?

Parking downtown is at a premium so when we were able to get the dedicated lanes we couldn’t get everything that we needed then, but we are definitely looking at 14th and Main Streets as the solution to this problem. We’re also looking to expand them a little bit west into Henrico. Because it is such a short distance that we need in order to qualify, we’re hoping it won’t be that big of an issue to get it accomplished.

What does it mean to you to be the first Black woman CEO of GRTC and only the second female to lead an agency whose average rider is a Black woman?

This is not something I was seeking or looking for, but I prepared my entire career for this. I am truly thankful to the board for putting their trust and confidence in me, so I will do everything I can to make them proud they selected me. A lot of our riders are African-American, so I think they can relate to me and I can relate to them. We have a lot of African-American [woman] employees here, and they look to me to lead and respect me, so I think this will be a good working relationship. Whether it was me or somebody else I’m just happy that it finally happened.

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Tagged: demographics, development, equity, government, history, pedestrians, planning, public spaces, richmond, roads, transit, virginia, zoning

Wyatt Gordon is the senior policy manager for land use and transportation at the Virginia Conservation Network, and an adjunct professor at Virginia Commonwealth University's Department of Urban Planning. He's a born-and-raised Richmonder with a master's in Urban Planning from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and a bachelor's in International Political Economy from American University.