Posts tagged Philip A. Shucet

Tide’s Final Cost = $338,284,251

Feb 19th

Posted by 757HR in Light Rail Transportation

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Tide LRT Vehicles Being Delivered

HRT has released their final “cost-to-completion” for the Tide light rail system currently under construction in Norfolk. The new final cost is $338,284,251. This is, of course, much higher than the $232 million that was originally promised. Despite claims that HRT’s new President and CEO Philip Shucet is responsible for the firming up of the new number, the consultant was actually hired for the job by Townes, who knew about the cost overruns but failed to live up to City Council’s standards. It actually would make sense to me that the numbers Townes was feeding council were the preliminary numbers from his consultant. The difference between Townes’s and Shucet’s communication is that Townes should have done what Shucet did: tell council to hold on for a couple weeks while the consultant finishes the estimate.

Regardless, I hope that the project can stick to these numbers until completion. Personally, if Shucet does a good job with costs, I think we should demote him to a position to simply control LRT construction. That way we can hire a President and CEO that actually knows how to operate a transit system.

http://www.ridethetide.com/about_the_tide/cost-to-complete.shtml
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HRT Names Interim CEO

Jan 30th

Posted by 757HR in Local Politics

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HRT has named Philip A. Shucet as the new interim CEO for the company. Financially, I think that this is a great move. Due to his record on cost-control, he should bring some much needed eyes on the various budgets of HRT. One minor thing that I have to wonder about is: The Virginian-Pilot reported that “when Shucet took over VDOT in 2002, one in every five construction projects was behind schedule, and more than half were over budget. By the end of his three-year tenure, 75 percent of projects were on time and 80 percent were on budget.” Now basic math tell us that, as for the budget part, he improved. He raised the “on budget” rate from less than 50% to around 80%. Unfortunately, basic math also tells us that, when it comes to on-time performance, he lost ground. “One in five” is 20%. That means, following various properties you thought you’d never use, 80% were on time. When he left, however, only 75% were on time. Not a large number, but large enough the Pilot decided it needed a better spin.

The part that I really worry about is whether his budgetary sense is going to have a positive or negative effect on ridership and ease of use. This man has very little in his published background that suggests that he knows anything about running a public transit company. I am not saying that this is a bad thing. Given the fact that most transit companies are poorly run, it might be time for someone who is different. I just think that we need to keep a watchful eye on what he thinks are cuts waiting to be made.

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