(upbeat music) - Hey, everyone, Steve Adubato.

We kick off the program with the executive director of a very important agency, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Kathryn Garcia is the first female to serve in that post with an impressive background in public service.

Kathryn, it's an honor to have you with us.

Thank you.

- I'm so happy to be here.

- Talk about your background leading up to this role.

- Certainly.

So in my prior role, I was working for Governor Hochul, running operations for the State of New York, which literally was everything, from the Port Authority to the National Guard.

And then prior to that, I was commissioner of New York City sanitation, so I knew a little bit about snow, and prior to that, the COO of New York's water supply.

- And, again, check out previous interviews we've done with the chair of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Kevin O'Toole.

Check out those interviews.

We've talked about a whole range of things, but Kathryn, from your perspective as you come in, the top two or three priorities for you as the leader of the Port Authority on the staff side, if you will.

- In terms of how we are strengthening our staff, I mean, it is absolutely critical that we are hiring the best and the brightest to push this agency forward.

We have a long and storied history of building great things, and I wanna see us continue to do that.

We have to execute on the Midtown Bus Terminal, but also really see the AirTrain get done at Newark so that we can make room for a new Terminal B.

- Let's go back to the bus terminal over on 42nd Street, Eighth Avenue, and the surrounding areas.

Why is that so important, Kathryn?

- When you think about it, over 200,000 people are moving through there every single day, how their experiences in that facility, how we are operationally?

If the bus gets stuck, and I can't get you out of the bus terminal, you're late to your little league game, you're late to the parent-teacher conference, you're late to your gym appointment.

Whatever you're doing that's personally important, now you're not gonna be able to do it.

And time is really important to people these days, and it's about giving them that.

And they should enjoy their experience as they're moving through any of our facilities, whether it's the Midtown Bus Terminal or it's any of our airports or across any of our bridges or tunnels.

- Can we talk about PATH?

Where are we with the improvements on PATH, Port Authority Trans-Hudson, PATH?

- So every day, every line is running.

We started that on Sunday, so now you have direct access.

You don't have to stop at Hoboken.

So we have made it so that there's a lot more service, and it is because of the investment that we made, the $430 million of investment in PATH Forward.

But also our customers were extremely patient as we did over 15,000 linear feet of new track to prepare for this service.

And you know, we've got a lot more weekend service happening.

We're seeing real upticks there.

- Yeah.

Again, we'll put up the Port Authority website, and also the Port Authority, an underwriter of our programming.

I often wonder about this, as we talk about Newark Airport, for those of us who fly in and out of Newark Airport, we see certain progress taking place, Terminal A, but there are other terminals.

Talk about what else is going on there, Kathryn?

- Absolutely.

So Terminal A, obviously, we are gonna have to get them a new display case for the amount of awards they're winning.

But we are moving the AirTrain from its current location, so it will be closer to the highway system away from the semicircle, that will give us a lot of room to build an actual modern Terminal B. The Terminal B of today at Newark is really subpar, and it's not gonna be overnight 'cause, obviously, it's gonna take us time to move the AirTrain and then build a new terminal.

And in the meantime, we are gonna try and make the customer experience better in Terminal B. There's a lot of brown.

We seem to have liked the color brown.

- And that's changing.

- Brown carpeting.

Brown walls.

- Okay, that's changing.

- We're working on making a little bit of a refresh there as we hold ourselves over until we can build the new terminal.

- What do you believe the impact of the Airbus will be, excuse me, the AirTrain on Elizabeth, on the community?

Because Newark Airport is in two cities, Elizabeth and Newark.

Please, Kathryn.

- So, you know, there are almost 25,000 people who work at Newark every day.

Being able to see that much economic impact, it is important that both the cities of Elizabeth and the cities of Newark really benefit from that.

And that's also why, at least in the South Ward of Newark, we're creating another access point to the AirTrain, New Jersey Transit and Amtrak, that has never been there before.

You know, when you give people transportation opportunities, you give them economic opportunity.

- You know, you mentioned New Jersey Transit.

We actually just did a panel discussion that included Kris Kolluri, the executive director of New Jersey Transit, talking about FIFA and moving people and how complicated that is.

- Yes.

- What is the role of the Port Authority in moving people being involved in the FIFA World Cup over at the Meadowlands at MetLife?

- Absolutely, like, we've been working very, very closely with Kris.

I mean, he is gonna carry the lion's share of this.

And our two roles are, one, to make sure that we can move regular New Jersey commuters, so on New Jersey Transit buses and on the PATH train.

But in addition, we have to make it so that all of the special FIFA buses can move through the Lincoln Tunnel effectively.

So those are our two real roles is ensuring that the Lincoln Tunnel moves smoothly and prioritizes those buses, as well as to pick up the slack, because all of these Midtown trains are going to be headed to the Meadowlands and not to where they usually go.

- Last question.

We have a sister series called "Lessons in Leadership" I do with my colleague, Mary Gamba, and we talk all kinds of leaders.

Kevin O'Toole has been on and others.

We try to ask what the most significant leadership lesson people in very prominent positions like the one you have is.

What would you say the number one leadership lesson you've learned in all of your leadership roles is?

Tough question, I know.

- Oh, no, very tough question.

And by the way, you should never follow Kevin O'Toole in a speaking engagement.

- True.

- You know, I think the actual most important lesson I learned, particularly in public service, is that you have to make decisions.

Waiting for perfect information is almost never gonna happen.

And so you have to live with what you decide and learn from them if they aren't the right decisions.

You're never gonna be perfect.

- Well said.

Kathryn Garcia, Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Kathryn, thank you so much for joining us.

We appreciate it.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by NJ Transit.

United Airlines.

PSEG Foundation.

Kean University.

Newark Board of Education.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The Fund for New Jersey.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

And by New Jersey Sharing Network.

Promotional support provided by NJ.Com.

And by BestofNJ.com.

- (Narrator) Visitors traveling to New Jersey for the FIFA World Cup can use New Jersey Transit Services statewide.

Train bus, light rail, and paratransit services connect riders to Newark Liberty International Airport MetLife Stadium, New York City, and communities throughout New Jersey.

New Jersey Transit Safe Passage Initiative raises awareness about the signs of human trafficking and encourages reporting suspicious activity.

Travel information, schedules, and safe passage resources are available at njtransit.com.