Laketran CEO recognized as Top 4 Under 40 in Ohio

Less than a year on the job and Ben Capelle is already taking home hardware.

The Laketran general manager earlier this month was recognized as Top 4 Under 40 by the Ohio Public Transit Association during the association’s annual meeting in Columbus.

Capelle began his transit career at 18 working at Campus Bus Service, now Portage Area RTA, as a student bus driver while in college, before transferring Ohio State University, where he quickly earned a management role as supervisor of student drivers.

While still in college, Capelle was recruited by First Transit in Cincinnati and hired as the executive director of Clermont Transportation Connection within five months of graduation. Under his direction at Clermont, Capelle improved ridership by an average of 23 percent per year.

In 2012, Capelle joined Laketran, one of Ohio’s top 10 largest transit systems, as its operations manager to oversee the daily operation of Laketran’s core services, Medicaid contracts and construction projects.

Additionally, Capelle led the implementation of numerous technology upgrades, including Laketran’s GPS navigation and tracking, automatic bus locators, and automated reminder calls and online reservations for Dial-a-Ride. Capelle also spearheaded the transition of Laketran’s Dial-a-Ride buses to propane fuel, which yields significant fuel savings for the agency.

Capelle was promoted to deputy general manager in April 2016 and then to general manager in August 2017, following the retirement of Ray Jurkowski.

“It’s was an unexpected honor to be recognized by OPTA,” Capelle said. “I’m not really one who likes the attention, but appreciate being recognized alongside other very deserving peers.

“I truly believe transit leaders are only as good as those inside our agencies that make sure our buses are on the road. I’d like to share this honor with my Laketran staff, who are dedicated to making sure Lake County residents have transit access they need.”

In his short time as general manager, Capelle has explored new ways to grow revenue by selling specialty maintenance services to area government agencies and has saved the agency 15 percent in health care expenses. He also plans to implement mobile ticketing and prepayment for Dial-a-Ride, aiming for a cashless system.

Capelle is an advocate of coordination and under his leadership, Laketran has joined NEORide and HealthTP — two consortiums of transit systems that work together to reduce costs and create regional benefit for area transit systems. Capelle serves on the Board of Ohio Transit Risk Pool, Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, HealthTP and NEORide.

Since Capelle joined Laketran, the agency has received many awards for safety from Ohio Transit Risk Pool, a perfect Triennial Review, the American Public Transportation Association’s Grand Adwheel Award for marketing and communications, and has continued a history of consecutive clean audits from the state.

Capelle also contracts with Ohio Department of Transportation as a technology consultant to help small transit systems build capacity and efficiencies within their paratransit operations using technology and communication strategies.

From successful labor negotiations to technology improvements to offering better customer amenities, Capelle has worked to improve the service quality in every market he’s served.

Capelle is a graduate of Leadership Lake County and was recognized nationally as Mass Transit Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40. He also volunteered for Lake County Historical Society and advocates for animal welfare.

“I, along with my fellow trustees, would like to congratulation Ben on this tremendous honor,” said Laketran Board President Brian Falkowski. “Ben is incredibly hardworking and is consistently implementing initiatives to advance the agency through technology and innovation. Lake County is very fortunate to have a general manager of Laketran as committed as Ben is to providing high quality and easily accessible public transportation.”

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