April 2: Committee meetings, Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA)

Covered by Documenters Charlestine Pride (notes) and Prerna Agarwal (live-tweets)

There’s a new seat in town

The Greater Cleveland RTA (GCRTA) is gearing up to say goodbye to smelly cloth and hello to new vinyl seats on rail cars. For two years in a row, riders have identified seats (and related odors) as top concerns, according to recent customer satisfaction surveys.

Cloth fabric not only holds onto unwanted smells but also absorbs spills and requires cleaning, said Acting Equipment Manager Jeff Grubb during his presentation to the committee. It can take about four hours to clean one rail car, he said.

The switch to vinyl would simplify – and shorten – the cleaning process, Grubb said. Vinyl would allow RTA employees to spot-clean seats immediately with a towel instead of requiring the cars to be deep cleaned. Grubb said that these changes would save the GCRTA money.

“The lowest bid that we received for this was actually 50% cheaper than the cost of buying fabric seats,” Grubb said. Currently, RTA replaces about five cloth seat bottoms every week.

The full Board of Trustees is set to consider approving this work at an upcoming meeting. 

But wait, there’s more

In addition to new seats, the GCRTA is expected to receive new trains – eventually.

The board approved purchasing new trains in April 2023. But to get the trains, GCRTA needs to add some track to connect its Waterfront line to the freight rail tracks at the Port of Cleveland. A contract for that is also pending board approval.

Riders will need to wait patiently for the new trains, which won’t begin to arrive until June 2026, according to Floun’say Caver, chief operating officer for the GCRTA. The plan is to accept one to two cars per month, and it’ll take about seven years to accept them all, he said.

Prioritizing diversity of GCRTA employees

Every four years, the GCRTA is required by the Federal Transit Administration to submit an affirmative action plan to recruit and retain diverse employees. The next plan is due on May 1.

As a federal grant recipient, the GCRTA could lose funding if it discriminates against employees based on race, gender or other protected statuses, according to the presentation. 

As of December 2023, the majority of GCRTA employees are Black (63%) and about 26% of all employees are Black women, according to the presentation. 

“[The goals] do not require any specific position be filled by a person of a particular race or gender. … It still requires the best qualified person to receive the job,” said Felicia Brooks Williams, the senior manager for the Office of Equal Opportunity. She said GCRTA has met some of its goals but has work to do in other areas. 

The plan also includes several Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives from employee resource groups for employees who identify as women, queer, Latinx or a veteran. GCRTA also provides a learning series that educates employees on topics such as microaggressions, privilege and allyship.

Read the notes from Documenter Charlestine Pride:

Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority – Committee Meetings 04_02_2024Download

Read the live-tweet thread from Documenter Prerna Agarwal:

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Service Journalism Reporter (she/her)
I am dedicated to untangling bureaucracy so Clevelanders can have the information (and the power) they want. I spent 10 years on the frontlines of direct service working with youth and system-impacted communities before receiving my degree in media advocacy at Northeastern University.

Cleveland Documenters pays and trains people to cover public meetings where government officials discuss important issues and decide how to spend taxpayer money.