One word to describe yourself: Facilitator
Alma Mater: University of South Carolina
Fast fact about yourself: I have developed a passion for gardening, cultivating more than 100 plants in my yard, which is nicknamed by my friends as “The Grove”. It is my favorite place on earth.
What’s your best experience on transit and what made it memorable? My wife and I are live music fanatics so we celebrated our anniversary in 2023 at the Montreal Jazz Festival. We rode Montreal Metro, which provided smooth, safe and reliable transportation throughout a special week for us.
Anthony Harris is a senior manager and the founder and head of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) global benchmarking side of the Performance and Global Benchmarking team. Harris leads a dedicated staff of four researchers on a mission to identify, amplify and help apply industry best practices to advance WMATA’s Strategic Transformation Plan. Harris oversees the team’s provision of benchmarking research, recommendations and programmatic support to industry leaders across rail, bus and paratransit operations.
Harris' leadership has helped to bring more internal demand for WMATA’s benchmarking practice. The agency has seen demand rise from completing eight benchmarking activities in Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 to more than 200 in FY23. In FY23. Harris’ team has utilized benchmarking best practices from 47 peer agencies across five continents to help the WMATA advance towards improved transit services.
His impact spans many areas within this position, with benchmarking research influencing internal practices such as track incident management, roadway worker protection, installation of solar panels on bus stop shelters, paratransit fare collection processes and pre-revenue service inspections.
Harris also works to improve service planning across all modes, maintenance, supply chain, station operations, environmental sustainability and small business programming at WMATA. His efforts have earned him the Excellent Young Professional in Sustainability award among others for his research into operational decision-making.
As a graduate of Eno's Transportation Mid- Manager leadership program, Harris works to pay it forward by delivering several leadership training courses across WMATA to encourage future leaders in the industry.
His contributions to the transit industry extend beyond WMATA. He volunteers as chair of the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) panel of distinguished transit professionals developing guidance to modernize passenger rail stations across the world. Harris is a two-time lecturer at the TRB annual conference and presented WMATA’s agency update at the 2023 Community of Metros COMET annual meeting to transit staff from Europe, Asia and the Americas.
What is an accomplishment you would like to work towards in your career?
Recently appointed as chair of the TRB’s advisory panel on modernizing passenger rail station operations, I look forward to working alongside a group of distinguished transit professionals on this two-year volunteer effort. Developing a playbook to enhance customer experiences at stations across the industry is a big opportunity to drive positive change.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
I serve on WMATA’s Performance and Global Benchmarking team; I launched and lead the Global Benchmarking side, which is incredibly fulfilling. Its aim is to identify, amplify and help apply industry best practices to support the agency’s Strategic Transformation Plan. Serving as a leader on the team is a joy, much thanks to my talented and humble colleagues. We're motivated to enhance transit in our region, which drives our commitment every day.
What’s the most challenging part of your job?
Managing a diverse and expanding portfolio of responsibilities is the most challenging aspect of my role. Over the years, requests for my team’s leadership on various benchmarking activities have skyrocketed, from under a dozen in FY 18 to more than 300 in FY 24. Amid WMATA's several transformation efforts, my team plays a pivotal role informing agency-wide strategies that support rail, bus and paratransit services.
We gather insights from peers and distill them into actionable recommendations while also providing some project coordination support. Some example areas we’ve supported include track cleaning, solar panel installation on bus stops and paratransit fare collection processes.
Further, this year members of my department were tasked with central roles in planning two major, international industry conferences that WMATA is hosting. We’ve rallied to learn and execute the nuances of large-scale event management. Despite these myriad responsibilities, working alongside talented teams across the agency helps ensure successful outcomes.
Eman Abu-Khaled | Associate Editor
Eman Abu-Khaled is a former associate editor with Mass Transit magazine.
