Q&A with Charles Odimgbe, new CEO of RIPTA

Charles Odimgbe, a Nigerian native, will take the reins of the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority on Dec. 6.

Odimgbe told Providence Business News he’s excited about the “challenge” that the Ocean State’s public transit authority presents and has high hopes for the agency.

Odimgbe’s veritable “American dream” began in 1981 when he moved to the United States. His transport system career started at the bottom – as a bus driver in Portland, Ore.

Eight and a half years behind the “big wheel” and Odimgbe became a partner. Five years later, it was time for yet another change, as he moved to Vancouver, Wash., as a senior planner. In 2000, he ventured into middle America as the executive director of the Stark Area Regional Transit Authority in Canton, Ohio. He will come to RIPTA from his most recent position as general manager for Veolia Transportation in Savannah, Ga.

- Advertisement -

“I’m beginning my next journey, which is trying to get [RIPTA] moving forward again,” he said to PBN. “I felt it was a good fit for me.”

PBN: First of all, congratulations on your new job! I’m not sure it’ll be the easiest one you’ve ever had…

ODIMGBE: I love challenges – that has been my legacy. I found out my love for challenges in Vancouver when I was a special projects manager. A special projects manager only does those projects that no one else wants to touch. I kind of grew this merit for handling these very difficult projects, and I love that kind of environment.

PBN: As the new CEO, what will be your biggest challenge at RIPTA?

ODIMGBE: The biggest challenge now is better articulating our vision. I’ve looked at the information from the Board of Directors, the five-year strategic plan and the Transit 2020 plan, and I thought they did a wonderful job of putting together where they think RIPTA should be headed.

The first challenge will be to articulate our vision and make it filter down so we’ll have the right support to make it a reality.

PBN: You’re coming to RIPTA from a much smaller system; do you think it will be an issue adapting?

ODIMGBE: I think my capacity is large enough to be able to accommodate the size difference, I really don’t see that being an issue at all. It’s just going to be doing what I do every day on a much larger scale.

PBN: What are your thoughts on the Transit 2020 plan? Do you think it’s feasible?

ODIMGBE: Anything is feasible if you really put your mind to it. Part of the challenges is funding, so we’re going to have to look at where the funds are going to come from.

But we [need to] start by putting our house in order, I think I’d like to take a look internally and find out why we are spending so much money.

Year-over-year there is something that is quite baffling about RIPTA expenses. I need to find out a way to stop the bleeding from within before we can go and have some more money.

Again, everything [in Transit 2020, five-year plan] is feasible … whether we can make them a reality depends on if … we get our act together … get our finances in order. I really think that the leadership may be more apt to support the system and give us the funding that we need to take that next step.

PBN: What do you think of the streetcars?

ODIMGBE: The question that I would ask Rhode Islanders is: Is the intent of the streetcars to improve tourism in Rhode Island? If the answer is ‘yes,’ then we need to push forward. The funding has to be some kind of a public-private partnership.

PBN: What do you mean when you say you’d like to make RIPTA a ‘one-stop shop’ for public transportation?

ODIMGBE: We need to find ways to begin to coordinate all of the transportation modes within the state. The ultimate goal of that exercise will be that anybody, even if you are on fixed route, transit, streetcar, rail, hospital transportation – even school transportation, if we may – that you can call Rhode Island and you will have information available that will be helpful to the individual.

PBN: You mention that you’ll depend on attrition in order to “streamline” some of the operations; do you have a number of people that need to go?

ODIMGBE: No, that will be really difficult for me to quantify at this point. We know that the system is heavy. I read that they did some service reductions, later some drivers but nobody talked about laying-off administrators or staff. So all of those things [I’m] going to need to look at and later quantify what is plausible, what is feasible and what is practical.

PBN: So, layoffs aren’t ruled out?

ODIMGBE: From my perspective, I wouldn’t use it as an option because I’m going to let attrition do the work for us.

PBN: Do you think you’ll have a balanced budget?

ODIMGBE: I’ve always operated on a balanced budget … that is my legacy.

Yes, I think we will be able to operate on a balanced budget. When I present my budget, whenever that may be, you will see a balanced budget coming from me.

No posts to display