Elevating the Transit Journey
Wednesday, November 19
9:00 am – 10:00 am Pacific / 11:00 am – Noon Central / Noon – 1:00 pm Eastern
Register for this free webinar to learn how public transit agencies are advancing customer experience (CX) through design, technology, feedback systems and service innovation.
Mapping and improving every stage of the rider experience is essential for building trust, increasing ridership and aligning transit with broader land use and policy goals. It also is essential for prioritizing capital investments, from wayfinding updates to new vehicle purchases.
Join the webinar to learn about
- The current state of customer experience in the transit industry
- How leading agencies are responding to evolving rider expectations
- Strategies, ranging from digital tools to human-centered design, for gathering feedback, measuring satisfaction and implementing improvements that make transit more responsive, inclusive and effective.
In recent years more and more agencies have recognized the need to focus on the customer journey and make transit a safer, easier and more reliable choice. Whether you’re directly involved in this work or invested in the outcomes from an advocacy, policy or transit-adjacent perspective, this webinar is a great opportunity to get up to speed about the latest approaches and understand the implications for building stronger communities around transit.
Featured Speakers
Sarah Meyer
Chief Customer Officer, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, Washington, DC
Sarah Meyer joined WMATA in April 2023 and serves as the customer advocate, working to improve journeys from end-to-end; reducing stress and confusion, speeding up wait times, and making rides more comfortable. She leads Strategic Initiatives, Government Relations, Community Engagement, Transformation, and Marketing.
Prior to working for WMATA, she served as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Chief Customer Officer, where she worked to restore New Yorkers’ trust through transparency and better design. She fought for better trains, buses and schedules, for more elevators, and for better maps and signage. She conceived of the Live Subway Map, a Time Magazine “Best Inventions of 2021,” and led the marketing and launch for OMNY, the new contactless way to pay for the MTA.
Earlier in her career, Sarah led advocacy, marketing, and fundraising campaigns for nonprofits and Fortune 500 companies. She graduated from Wellesley College with a degree in Art History. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and two daughters.
Julia Gessner
Director of Development Administration, Dallas Area Rapid Transit, Dallas, TX
Julia Gessner serves as Director of Development Administration at Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), where she leads strategic department initiatives, identifies and implements process improvements, and supports department employee development and executive communications.
Prior to joining DART, she was Director of Performance at Transdev, overseeing zero-emission projects, contract startups/shutdowns, and organizational development. She also previously led communications for the North American Transit Alliance and served as Chief of Staff at First Transit.
Julia is a graduate of the American Public Transportation Association’s Emerging Leaders Program and holds a master’s in media studies from Pennsylvania State University and a bachelor’s in journalism–public relations and political science from East Texas A&M University. With a strong background in public transportation and strategic communications, her work reflects a commitment to innovation, leadership development, and process improvement across the transit industry.
Vince Tam
Senior Urban Planner, Customer Experience Lead, HNTB,, Dallas, TX
Vince Tam, a senior urban planner at HNTB, has been reimagining and improving transportation systems and the built environment for the last 14 years. Now in her most recent role as the Customer Experience Lead for Dallas Area Rapid Transit’s system modernization program, DART Transform, Vince and her team are closely collaborating with the transit agency to improve riders’ day-to-day experience. With a unique understanding of customer experience and an innovative, data-driven journey mapping approach, Vince and DART are developing concrete strategies to elevate daily ridership.