John Fenton was born a ramblin’ man. The lure of the rail yards and open tracks proved irresistible for the southern Indianan, who became a railroader right out of university. But Fenton didn’t so much want to ride the rails, as he wanted to rule them. This week, Fenton, 52, celebrates his one-year anniversary as chief executive of Metrolink, LA’s commuter rail system with seven lines, more than 500 miles, serving five southern California counties. Fenton joined Metrolink at a pivotal time in the agency’s existence – just 18 months earlier, one of Metrolink’s trains collided with a freight train, killing 25 passengers. The accident led to a slew of safety improvements culminating with a $200 million high-tech braking system that will be in place by the end of 2012. Fenton applies his 30 years of experience in the private sector to his first public sector job. His career wanderlust has taken him from general manager of the Canadian National Railway, vice president for Kansas City Southern Railway and Santa Fe Railway, with more recent stints as partner in CIH Capital Partners, a Miami transportation-oriented investment bank, and Omnitrax Inc. a Denver transportation services company. He met with the Business Journal at his 26th-floor downtown L.A. office and discussed his efforts to make Metrolink safer, the passion of Bobby Knight and the thrill of pulling 8,000 feet of train.
Question: Do you ride your trains to check service standards?
Answer: I try to get out and see what’s going on. You don’t ever want to be arrogant and think you’re better than you are. The only way you know that is to get out and see for yourself. You have to get out and ride trains and see what the passengers see. You have to be out there.
How do you convince people to take the train?
We do compete with the automobile. What people want is time. So we’re giving people something you can’t buy – time in their day, time in their lives. It’s so much more convenient to be able to hop on the train and sit down and read the newspaper, listen to music or sleep or whatever you want to do instead of fighting that traffic. We think we offer a good product at a good value and we’re going to continue to innovate our service offerings.
What are the new offerings?
We’re getting ready to introduce an express train from San Bernardino to Los Angeles on May 9. That will be an hour. We’re getting ready to introduce a train from Palmdale to Los Angeles that will be an hour and 30. That will save commuters five hours a week. As we start to add more express trains, we’ll make it an easy choice for people to get out of their car and see how convenient it is to commute by train and not fight the traffic, because I do find L.A. traffic miserable.
What was the Metrolink ridership when you started a year ago?
About 38,000 a day; we’re at 40,000 a day now. We’ll see a spike as we get the new service offerings in place.
What brought you to Metrolink?
Metrolink approached me to see if I’d be interested in the job. What originally attracted me was the Chatsworth incident. I liked the idea of being able to come in and take over an agency dealing with a serious safety incident. I thought I could change the agency around, and that was very attractive.
Why would you want to take the helm of Metrolink after a catastrophe?
I’ve always been known as a turnaround person. I love going into situations where there is a troubled agency. I enjoy the challenge because everything is about the people. It’s about building a culture of success. There’s nothing more satisfying than making people become more successful.
How do you do that?
Everything you do is through people. When you run an operating company, you have to make people feel valued and make them feel that they can make a difference. I wanted to build pride back into the agency.
What was wrong with Metrolink when you got here?
I thought what was missing from the organization is they had forgotten who they served, and lost focus on the passengers and what it means to haul people, mothers, uncles and families around. I knew this was an agency that would need to be rebuilt from a people standpoint.
What do you mean?
We had a lot of housekeeping issues. We had a problem with dirty toilets on the trains, so we put a new emphasis on housekeeping. We started making sure the platforms were clean. We had ticket vending machines placed in direct sunlight, so they couldn’t be read because of the sun glare. People needed to be treated nicely. We weren’t opening the doors on the trains until five minutes before departure. We changed that to 15 minutes.
How did you address the safety issues that arose from the Chatsworth accident?
We really worked diligently with our train crews to make sure that we have one of the most comprehensive oversight programs with train crews in the country. We have extensive testing, we ride with the conductors and engineers. I mean, we have a major presence in the field. We’ve got inward-facing cameras, so we have visibility into the cab. It’s really about engagement with your train crews.
What else was wrong with Metrolink when you began?
Our on-time performance wasn’t where it needed to be. The percentage of on-time trains was in the low 90s. We’ve now achieved over 97 percent. People need to know that a train will be there when you tell them. That’s as good, or better, than anybody in the country.
What else have you changed in the past year?
We put in a fuel conservation program early on. I initiated a program early on that saved 800,000 gallons of fuel a year. Instead of idling when they’re setting, we shut the engines off. When you’re paying $3 a gallon for fuel, it’s simple things like that that save money.
What has been your proudest accomplishment at Metrolink?
To see the change in the people. You see pride. You see people engage and contribute and start to innovate. When you can get an organization to buy in and start to be part of a solution, that’s when you know you’re going to continue to accomplish great things. It was about getting people to be part of this and contribute. That’s what makes me proud. That will accelerate our improvements.
As a CEO, people want to please you initially, but how do you sustain that momentum?
Actually, I think when you come in they’re skeptical. Just because you have a position of authority doesn’t mean you gain credibility and respect. Over time, that’s when it starts to pick up. Empowerment grows and doesn’t diminish. Once you crack the door of empowerment, people are going to bust it down to get more of it.
With your private-sector background, are you introducing a new culture to a public agency?
Yes. I think it’s a good story when you come in from the private sector to a public agency and run it more from a private-sector mentality. We’re able to increase our service without any increase in subsidy or fare increase, and we absorbed almost $15 million in costs through operational efficiencies and managing differently.
What’s a typical day for you?
I get into the office at 6:15 and meet with the COO and we normally spend 30 minutes going through issues. We’ll have a conference call at 7 o’clock with the operating group, which I think is the most important part of the day. We talk about operations, safety and service standards. And three days of the week I have my senior staff in and we go over issues and strategies.
Who were your biggest influences?
Of course, growing up in southern Indiana, one person I grew up watching was Bobby Knight. I loved a lot of things about Knight. He won. He didn’t cheat. He ran a clean program. His players are very loyal to him. He didn’t always have the best talent, but he made the best use of it.
Knight was known for losing his temper.
I don’t throw chairs anymore (laughs). What I admired about Knight was his system. It’s about meeting your potential. Every job that I’ve ever approached, it’s about playing against yourself. My job is the coach of the organization, to play to the potential of what we can do and what we can become.
Are you as passionate as Knight is?
Bobby had the temper and Bobby was very passionate. I think most people would say I’m a pretty passionate guy about what I do. I lead in a way that’s respectful, and people feel treated the right way. To me, the people I admire get results the right way: ethically, morally. That’s been a fallacy in business – that you can’t be those things and be successful, and I think it’s just the opposite.
Other influences?
From a personal standpoint, my father was a minister for over 50 years. My uncle was a minister. I got to see how he served people. I try to be a servant leader.
Why didn’t you become a minister?
That’s a different calling. Growing up a preacher’s son is not an easy thing, either. I would consider my work to be my calling and I help people in a different way. My dad and I are different personalities. I love to run things. I mean, that’s what I do. I’ve always valued running things and figuring out how things work, how you make things run better.
Is your father alive?
Yes. He’s retired. He’s going to be 81 this year. My parents just celebrated their 60th anniversary.
When did you realize railroading was your calling?
I grew up in a neighborhood full of boys. We played whatever sport, whatever the season was. I grew up competing and playing on teams and I was always drawn to the outdoors. When I graduated from college, I could never imagine going and sitting behind a desk. The railroad was a way for me to basically work in an outdoor environment and I wanted to do something where I could lead a team, but not from behind a desk.
You later went to Waste Management Inc., which seems like an unusual move for a railroader.
It’s probably one of the greatest things I did for my career. Railroads do a great job of teaching you how to run a network. Waste Management was a very entrepreneurial business and I got a chance to do something that was more market driven. I got a chance to run a northern Florida group and a Canada group, so I learned a lot about expanding my business capabilities when I left the railroad for six years.
Sounds like you never stay in one place too long.
You know the Allman Brothers’ song “Ramblin’ Man”? Well, railroads move you every two years, whether you want to or not. I wouldn’t trade it. I enjoy the challenge, learning new cultures, meeting new people, learning new operations. It’s been a little tougher on my family.
Did any of your three children go into railroading?
I’ve got a son-in-law who’s a railroader. He loves it. He works for CFX. It’s funny, my daughter says, “I married my dad.” I actually got him into it. He started out as a conductor, then an engineer, then went into management. He’s going to be a great railroader. My daughter-in-law is an accounts payable supervisor for Indiana Railroad.
What do you do on the weekends?
My wife and I we try to pick different things to do. We normally try to do something special on the weekends. Take the day and try to see something. We’ve done a lot of the tourist things – we go to the beach, museums and see the sites. I grew up a Dodgers fan. We’ll go to quite a few ballgames now that the season’s started again.
What do you like most about railroading?
I have so much respect for train crews and what they do. There’s nothing like pulling a big train, the feeling of pulling something that’s 8,000 feet long. It’s quite an experience.
Is it the speed you like?
Just being in control of something that big and running something that large and the skill it takes to do that. There’s something about the romance of being out on the railroad. I got it in my blood, big time.
John Fenton
TITLE: Chief Executive
AGENCY: Metrolink
EDUCATION: B.S., business/transportation management, Indiana University; M.S., systems management, USC.
MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE: His father, Robert, a minister; Bobby Knight.
CAREER TURNING POINT: Working for Waste Management Inc.
PERSONAL: Married with three children; has three grandchildren.
ACTIVITIES: Fishing, Dodgers games, travel, riding trains.
