Steering a new course, Metrolink chief gets the
railroad back on track When John E. Fenton took
over Metrolink in April 2010, millions of dollars
in inventory was unaccounted for, ridership was
dropping and morale was low. The turnaround has
been dramatic.

By Dan Weikel, Staff Writer

Los Angeles Times, Sunday, August 6, 2011

When John E. Fenton took over Metrolink in April of
last year, the government-run railroad had fallen
off the tracks.

Several million dollars in inventory was unaccounted
for. Ridership was declining and staff morale had
plummeted. After a head-on crash with a freight
train in Chatsworth killed 25 people in 2008, the
line had the worst safety record in the nation for
a commuter railroad.

Today — 16 months after Fenton arrived — Metrolink
has changed by a number of critical measures.

Transportation officials say the 52-year-old
chief executive has reversed the line's sagging
performance under David R. Solow, who stepped
down as chief executive in December 2009 during
a management shake-up.

Safety violations and injuries have decreased.
On-time performance has risen. Ridership has
increased by about 5,000 a day since December,
and millions of dollars have been saved through
changes in procedure.

Audit recommendations that languished for years
under Solow have been accomplished in months,
if not weeks. To promote the railroad, Fenton
has tapped into social media like Facebook and
Twitter. He also has expanded operations, with
novel approaches like service to a U2 concert
in Anaheim one weekend last month. It attracted
about 11,000 riders.

"There was a very dispirited group at Metrolink
after the Chatsworth crash," Fenton said. "The
railroad had forgotten its purpose. Everyone
needs to realize that we don't move trains.
We move people."

The challenges before him remain considerable. Fenton
notes with dismay that in a region with more than 14
million people, Metrolink hauls only about 21,000
round-trip passengers per day. The number of individual
boardings peaked in July 2008 at more than 50,000 per
day, but ridership plunged to 37,347 before rising
again in December.

And because Metrolink must share its track with major
freight lines and cross against truck and car traffic
at more than 400 street and highway intersections,
the risk of a collision is always present.

In charge of a five-county system with 512 miles of
track, Fenton regularly puts in 12- to 14-hour days
for his $275,000 annual salary. He constantly measures
performance, talks up safety and shows a fervent desire
to better serve customers.

"I try to create an environment where people feel
valued, where they can take ownership," Fenton said
in a recent interview. "Goodness is what motivates
people. People long for being part of something
successful."

Except for stints in investment banking and waste
management, Fenton is a longtime private-sector
railroader, having held high-ranking executive
positions at four major lines. He has degrees in
transportation and systems management.

Shortly after he was hired, Fenton's deliberate
style drew some concern from Metrolink board
members — 10 mayors, county supervisors and
transportation officials from across the
region — who felt they were not being adequately
informed. But supporters say he quickly adapted.

Where Solow was guarded and media-shy, Fenton is
at ease in front of a camera. His modest frame
is topped by a round, boyish face, with sandy
hair and wire glasses, and he speaks with a
slight Midwestern drawl.

His view of human relations was partly shaped
by his father, a Church of Christ minister in
Bloomington, Ind. "He once told me that people
might forget what you say or do, but they will
never forget how you make them feel," Fenton
recalled.

Inside Metrolink, that approach has been
refreshing.

Within six months of his hiring, he bolstered
morale with an event at the Pasadena Playhouse.
An open microphone was set up so employees could
talk about Metrolink and the effects of the
horrific Chatsworth crash. It was part wake,
part therapy session.

"It was the start of a turnaround in the culture
of the railroad and provided an outlet for
employees to grieve and express their concerns,"
recalled Richard Katz, board chairman of
Metrolink's operator, the Southern California
Regional Rail Authority.

In one of his first changes, Fenton stopped
engineers from having their locomotives idle
without reason, sometimes for hours a day.
It has saved Metrolink more than $3 million
in fuel costs.

With a small boost in the operations budget
but without increasing crews, he added 22
trains to Metrolink's schedule.

The new service included an Antelope Valley
express line, more holiday trains and
special-event transportation to baseball
games, concerts and high-volume destinations,
such as the San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino
in San Bernardino.

The casino train attracted 3,000 riders a
week until it stopped when the casino said
it could not provide enough shuttles to get
passengers to and from the Metrolink station.

Complaints from the public, passenger counts,
mechanical problems, crimes, safety violations
and the number of late trains are now tallied
daily and discussed at 7 a.m. briefings Fenton
regularly attends at the Pomona operations center.

"He realizes the train is a lifeline for people,"
said Bart Reed, director of the nonprofit Transit
Coalition and a member of a special review panel
appointed after the Chatsworth crash. "Metrolink
is a different planet."

Under Fenton's leadership, the number of rules
violations by train operators and other railroad
workers has decreased from 33 in 2010 to 12 — a
telling measure, because the Chatsworth crash
was blamed on a distracted engineer who had been
text-messaging just before running a red light.

Richard Clark, a top safety official with the
California Public Utilities Commission, praised
Fenton and said that Metrolink has, at least
for now, virtually eliminated red-light
violations by train crews.

Fenton has boldly vowed that by early 2013,
Metrolink will also be the first railroad in
the nation to install a sophisticated collision
avoidance system that might have prevented the
Chatsworth crash. Many in the rail industry
say it is a substantial challenge because
so-called positive train control has yet
to be demonstrated on a large scale.

But the tone set by Fenton may be
Metrolink's most significant change.

"With the help of the board, Fenton
broke up a good ol' boys network and
brought a fresh and invigorating purpose
to the agency," said Keith Millhouse,
a Metrolink board member who has worked
to reform the railroad.

Millhouse said that Solow had created
a "silo culture" in which managers ran
their own fiefdoms and no one challenged
the status quo because the system worked
for them but not necessarily for Metrolink.

A few months after the Chatsworth crash on
Sept. 12, 2008, a Metrolink peer review panel
uncovered serious management deficiencies, a
lack of oversight, low morale and safety
problems under Solow's stewardship.

But efforts by board members to oust the
former chief executive were unsuccessful
until he stepped down more than a year
after the crash.

"I really thought the railroad was on the
ropes," Katz said. "We needed someone who
could not only run Metrolink but turn it
around. A few minutes into our interview
with Fenton, we knew we had the right guy."

On a recent morning, Fenton demonstrated
his management style by boarding a train
from Pomona to Los Angeles to hear what
riders thought about his railroad —
something he has done regularly.

"Hi. I'm John Fenton, CEO of Metrolink.
Is the train trip doing OK for you?" he
asked a U.S. Army veteran wearing a dark
green beret with the insignia of the 1st
Infantry Division, the famed "Big Red One."

"The train is clean and the people are
friendly," the former soldier answered.

"You need to listen to what people have
to say and hear what they have to say,"
Fenton said. "The people have told me
that they are scared of Metrolink. That
the system is difficult to figure out."

To encourage ridership, Fenton and his
staff are reaching out to companies and
overhauling the marketing effort.
Metrolink also has begun placing
so-called customer engagement
representatives on trains to
assist passengers and take complaints.

"I knew this would be a major turnaround
effort," Fenton said. "But that's what I
love. Go in and see how you can make
things better."

dan.weikel@latimes.com

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times