Note: The agenda listed the meeting date as January 14, 2026, but the provided context specifies the meeting took place on January 15, 2026. This summary uses the latter date as instructed.
The Transit Advisory Board (TAB) held its annual business meeting on January 15, 2026, at 7:00 PM at the Transit & Commuter Services Office in Leesburg, Virginia. Chair Ray Delpesche called the meeting to order. New Mobility Services Coordinator Mariah O'Connessy was introduced. Members discussed officer elections, meeting schedules, staff updates, and upcoming transit initiatives.
All right, time to AI. Welcome everybody here tonight. First order of business. Yes. We don't know this loop first. Uh yes. I I'd like for you all to meet Mariah O'Connessy. Okay. Sorry, Mackenzie. Um she is our mobile. I don't have to say her last name a lot because I will right next to her. Um she's our new mobility services coordinator. Oh, she's been here for several months now. I just passed a year. Um the I'm sorry I haven't been here sooner. It's just um schedules did not align, unfortunately. Um pretty much I'm the main point of contact for paratransit, which is how Evelyn and I know each other. And I'm also in charge of the mobility assistance program. So I concentrate on finding transportation gaps for people for that either from an equitable or disability or accessible standpoint for some reason are unable to use public transit or need a little help to be able to use public transit. Um I'm also the main point of contact for our travel training program that educates people in making sure that they can understand transit. And again, just inclusivity as a whole. But I'm happy to be here and happy to finally need everyone. Well, thank you. Thank you very much. She always has on good shoes. You know, if you can't get the transit that your feet do that. Anyway, you can scratch that for the minute then. Uh do we have anybody who's gonna be doing any public comments? I'm still a member of the public, I'm sorry. You got you got three minutes. So I have some ideas on the Khmer bus pilots. Kevin uh Potter. Um I've been here, so a lot of you guys know really. Um I got some ideas on the Khmer bus pilots, but I'm not gonna go into those because that's gonna go over three minutes. Instead, what I want to focus on is the uh Dulles Town Center, their new expo and event center. Um obviously we all know, I think most of us know how popular the conferences were uh at Dulles Expo Center were. I think that the schedule for the 322, especially since the Dulles Expo Center didn't have a direct metro connection, is going to be a little strained, I guess, by ridership. Uh going into the whenever they open the uh new Dulles Town Center event and expo center. I think that should be potentially reviewed, maybe. Yeah, I can just comment on that. That uh the applicant who's doing that work, they do have an application in the county and all the departments including ours are taking a look at it. They have been willing to maintain their transit hub there and to improve it as part of their redevelopment. So your concern is it the assumption that this schedule is gonna be overwhelmed. I I think so. Yeah, I think the ridership because uh I've written that route. You guys operate uh the Ford bus on chassis buses on that route, and those are very you know, they don't have a lot of room, I guess. I don't I don't think it's gonna be uh and they run hourly, I think on the weekends. Yeah, it's about our yeah. So yeah, and as Sarah was mentioned, we actually got wind of that uh expo center when the developer was presenting their plans and asking for course, you know, discussing his proper plans, those types of things. So we're actually looking at their whole community because it's gonna be a mix of residents going to jobs, employees coming to jobs, and then recreational uses like the expo center.