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HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Elizabeth Gonzalez Brock assumed leadership of METRO in February. Now, she oversees an agency with a $1.6 billion budget, serving hundreds of thousands who rely on it for safety, timeliness, and convenience.
“If a service is easy to use, people will use it,” Brock told.
This straightforward principle guides the new METRO under Brock’s leadership. She aims to shift the agency’s focus from expanding infrastructure first to attracting riders by enhancing existing services.
“I would love to see light rail expanded to the airports,” she said, “but I think we need to focus on our current services and ensure we are growing our ridership.”
Attracting riders has proven challenging. According to METRO, ridership improved last year post-pandemic but still fell short of pre-COVID-19 levels. So far this year, 48 million people have used METRO. Brock believes that to improve, the agency must be reliable, easy to use, safe, and punctual.
“I think we have some work to do. With our ridership being down, it’s clear we’re not where we need to be. We’re working towards that,” she said.
Regarding safety and the potential request from Houston Mayor John Whitmire for METRO police to assist with a shortage of Houston police officers, Brock is not worried about how it might affect the agency’s ability to address crime on buses and trains.
“We should view taxpayer dollars as a collective resource,” she said. “The taxpayers would appreciate that we are responsible with those dollars and that we are collaborating. We’re working together to solve our city’s and transportation issues. We’re currently reviewing the process to see how we can increase our presence on our transit system. I think visibility is crucial.”
Over the past five years, crime statistics have been relatively stable, with one major crime per 133,155 rides, including non-violent crimes like theft.
Brock is committed to working collaboratively to enhance the state’s largest transit agency.