Bart Rudolph, the acting director of the Municipality of Anchorage Transportation Department, told the Anchorage Assembly on Feb. 7 that his priorities as permanent director would emphasize workforce development, service reliability and rider experience.

Rudolph, who has served as acting director since August 2024 and previously spent five years at the Alaska Department of Transportation and 10 years as the Transportation Department's planning and communications manager, gave a brief presentation about staffing, shelter upgrades, snow-management changes and proposals for service expansion. The mayor (name not specified) opened the hearing by asking the Assembly to confirm Rudolph, saying, "I ask for your support to confirm him in the role of director." The Assembly took no final vote at the hearing and indicated a confirmation vote is scheduled for the Assembly meeting on Tuesday.

Why it matters: Anchorage's transit system, which Rudolph said employs about 250 people and serves routes across the municipality, faces persistent operator shortages and aging infrastructure at stops. Decisions about funding, shelters, staffing and a downtown transit center will affect service reliability and access for riders across Anchorage neighborhoods.

Rudolph told the Assembly that transit priorities will focus on people, reliability and sustainability. "The secret to good transit is not hard. It's fast, reliable, and frequent," he said, and described a "people-first" management approach intended to retain and promote staff from within the department.

Key details from the hearing

- Staffing and training: Rudolph said the department currently has about 5 to 8 bus-operator vacancies and more acute shortages in its administrative finance unit (2 of 7 positions filled). He described a plan to stand up an internal driver-training program that would allow employees to be hired and paid while they complete the passenger-endorsement training required by the state, with the goal of reducing the backlog that limits new drivers entering service.

- Service expansion and funding: Rudolph said a proposed long cross-town route would require roughly $3,000,000 a year and that the department has pursued CMAT (Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality / regional) funding through AMATS (Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation Solutions). He said the department has been successful getting time-limited CMAT grants but cautioned that such grants typically last four years and would require finding new funding after that period.

- Fare policy and youth/senior free-ride ideas: The department is conducting a fare-analysis study. Rudolph said he secured AMATS funding to study seniors- and youth-ride-free options, but the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) rejected the proposed funding source for paying fares, meaning federal funds could not be used to reimburse the agency for fare revenue in that configuration.

- Bus stops, shelters and snow management: The department oversees about 700 bus stops, Rudolph said, and is prioritizing the top 50 highest-used stops for site enhancement. New shelters will include lighting and provisions for electrical service. The department plans to revise chapter 7 of its design criteria manual to add guidance on snow storage and shelter design so snow can be pushed outside the right-of-way rather than onto sidewalks.

- Safety and security: Rudolph said the department contracts for roaming security patrols and operates a text line riders can use to report safety concerns; security can be dispatched to stand with riders when requested. He described shelter designs with three-sided enclosures to improve perceived safety and said stops should be set back from high-volume roads where possible.

- Downtown transit center and other projects: Rudolph said officials are weighing two or three downtown transit center locations, including staying at the current site or using the Chinook parking lot, and that there is not strong appetite for a $100 million–$200 million downtown flagship project. Rudolph also said negotiations with a contractor for the Muldoon Area Transit Hub are nearly complete and a purchasing contract will be routed soon.

Questions from Assembly members covered route funding, vacancy levels, snow clearing at stops, transit-center location choices, and service restoration for holidays such as Juneteenth and Indigenous Peoples' Day; one member also urged exploring service on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Assembly members named in the hearing included Mark Littlefield and Scott Myers among others who asked follow-up questions about funding and operations.

What the Assembly did: The Assembly held the confirmation hearing and did not vote; members said the nomination will be taken up at the next scheduled meeting on Tuesday.

Ending: If confirmed, Rudolph said he is committed to staying long-term in Anchorage and to making transit "a catalyst" for the community. The Assembly's final confirmation vote will determine whether he becomes permanent director.