With buses that broke down as often as they ran, driver's seats that were beyond uncomfortable and a fleet that was aesthetically unappealing, Metro Transit asked Vince Pellegrin if he'd come and fix the problems.
And he said yes. That was 24 years ago.
Pellegrin left the New York City Transit Authority to take over Metro Transit's bus maintenance department. On Friday, he retired as Metro Transit's chief operating officer, closing out a long run of upgrading buses, overseeing the agency's foray into commuter and light rail and introducing popular services such as State Fair express buses.
"We are in a complicated business and somehow it magically all works," he said Wednesday. "I hope I am a small part of that magic."
Pellegrin oversaw the opening of two light-rail lines and the Northstar commuter line.
"Starting rail was my biggest challenge," he said. "We became multimodal. We did new activities we'd never done before."
That included devising an elaborate plan for the 2018 Super Bowl. Metro Transit was the first transit agency allowed inside the FBI's security perimeter. Trains transported gamegoers from the Mall of America to the stop outside U.S. Bank Stadium.
That became a real "morale booster for my people to pull that off with U.S. marshals breathing over our shoulder," Pellegrin said.