Renée Amilcar is the first female president of international public transport organisation UITP; an overdue appointment, some would say, as UITP had been going for 138 years by the time she was voted in, two years ago. Rather disarmingly, Amilcar says she didn’t really ever see herself in this position.
“It was not a goal,” she insists. “I never had this wish because, for me, it was not possible - it was for other people, not for Renée, you know what I mean? So that's why it brought a joy - and it's my colleagues at the executive board who, I would say, forced me to apply!”
Amilcar is aware that her appointment as president of the organisation has a wider significance. “I realised at the time that, hey, it's important,” she acknowledges. “I didn't get there to have this recognition, but if some other women, [or] little girls can say: ‘Oh, okay, it's possible, because we have a role model here’, I think just because of that, it's great.”
UITP Summit 2025
She is looking forward to UITP’s annual conference – UITP Summit 2025 – which will be held in Hamburg, Germany, on 15-18 June. “It will be fantastic,” she says. “First, you will have access to operators, to other stakeholders, to constructors, to leaders, to politicians. And it's a great time to do a lot of networking. It's a great time to be inspired by a lot of leaders and to see the trends for the next years in transit. And you know, even to just have the opportunity to take a coffee and talk about transit will be great. I used to say that [you should] take any opportunity that you have to talk about transit.”
“Transit will need to be more sexy than your car - it's got to be a good price, reliable, frequent, convenient" Renée Amilcar, OC Transpo & UITP
As well as her presidential role, Amilcar is director general of OC Transpo, the transport agency in Canada’s capital, Ottawa. An engineer by trade, she took over there in late 2021 after 19 years at the Societe de Transport de Montreal (STM), where she had a particular responsibility for buses.
“This is where I discovered transit, really,” she explains. “I realised, as an engineer, that transit is more than just a bus and a bus driver. And so in 2002 I started my career at STM on transit, and very quickly I said: ‘Okay, this is for me’. Transit, it's for everyone.”
Her experience of the importance of public transportation before that had been as a child going to high school, or visiting friends. “And I really like the fact that, when I was a kid, I was relying on transit without knowing it.” Her parents were not ferrying her everywhere in a car, so it was walking or the bus.
“So that became a ‘must’ for me, and knowing today that I'm in charge of that, knowing that I can so easily make a difference in people's lives – wow!” she laughs. “Do you know a lot of people who, daily, can take a decision that will either say that you have a good day or you have a bad day? It's a huge responsibility, because, you know, on transit, we have to bring people from A to B, but it's not only for fun; it's for school, for work, the doctor, it's for everything.”
That’s not to say she opposes other ways of getting around. “I'm not against cars either, you know – in an urban area, if we can have dedicated lanes, if the transit is affordable, efficient, repetitive… Singapore is a good example. I went there last year, and it was amazing.”
Her responsibilities at OC Transpo also include train and paratransit. “So it's a complex bouquet of services, which is great,” she says. “And I love the fact that we can be together in the same bus: we have our own responsibilities, and we are everywhere in our head, but we are in the same vehicle, and we rely on the bus driver. Those kind of things, I realised only when I became a manager on transit, because, as I said before, for me, it was just a bus and a bus driver.”
Importance of customer experience
She understands the value of customer experience and she advocates the importance of this in driver training. “When the customer comes in the bus, it's important to say hi, it's important to smile, it's important to look at him or her, because you are one of the best ambassadors. My bus drivers are very lucky because they can see happy customers, and they can even influence their happiness by saying: ‘Thank you for taking transit, see you tomorrow?’ Those kind of little connections can make a lot of difference.”
Amilcar takes public transit regularly and is one of those people who always thanks the bus driver when they get off. She insists everyone calls her Renée. “I'm so lucky to have this job, to be able to connect with my employees and to connect with my customers as well - because when I take transit, people don't necessarily know who I am.”
Like all cities, Ottawa has its own transportation challenges. “The city has a million inhabitants but it's very vast as a territory,” she says. “So it's a complex city to provide transit: it's huge.”
Its urban rail system – the O-Train – was new to her after 19 years in Montreal. A major extension south, east, and west will see the addition of 24 stations, 44km of track – tripling the length of the network - and 45 new trains.
“We had an amazing year,” she insists. “The reliability is there. People are very happy with that. I trust in transit, I rely on transit, and I love transit.”
Passenger numbers and money are now the key issues for OC Transpo. Like pretty much every transit system in the world, it took a hit during the Covid lockdowns, and has been slow to recover.
“The pandemic is gone now,” Amilcar says.
“But the city continues to deal with ridership problem, because most of our customers are federal workers, and they're still working from home twice or three times per week. So that means a low ridership for us. The network was built to have a lot of people coming in downtown and, unfortunately, it's not the case. So we continue to have very high expenses with less revenue. And that brings the other problem, which is funding.”
Again, this problem is not unique to Ottawa. “[It is] a systemic issue here. And it's not only here, it was the same thing in Montreal.” She is grateful that the provincial government is supportive.
Outlawing ‘manels’
Talking of systemic issues, UITP has outlawed ‘manels’ from its events, which means that the Summit in Hamburg will have no panels which only feature men speaking. The organisation has also doubled the number of female speakers at its events (from 21% in 2017 to 43% in 2023) and achieved greater representation of women on its boards.
An attempt to redress the gender balance, it is part of wider efforts to narrow the gender gap in transport. “We don't have enough female engineers, for sure,” says Amilcar. “And I look forward to seeing more and more and more.”
UITP launched a gender equality policy in 2021 which aimed to address the gender imbalance in the public transport sector, which has historically been designed and operated predominantly by men, often neglecting the specific needs of women. It also aimed to engage more women with its events.
As a result, the proportion of women on UITP’s executive board increased from zero in 2019 to 38%, and from 11% to 33% on its policy board, while its management team now features 45% women.
“For sure, the goal is to reach parity – 50/50 - and I am sure we will achieve that pretty soon,” Amilcar suggests. “And we are very proud of that. Mohamed Mezghani [secretary general of UITP] is a very, very good advocate of women. Men can play a very important role, because it's a man who gave me my chance, who promoted me at STM, who asked me to go to UITP because he wanted me to see public transit around the world, not only in Montreal. So we have to work together to increase this diversity and inclusion as well, right? Because the more we can have different people around the table, the more strong ideas we can bring. We must be a leader more than ever, and that will need to start at the top of the pyramid.”
Seeing more women in these roles is positive, Amilcar says. “We need to be able to build transit for people who will take it, and we need to prove that it's possible to get access to those positions - to be the journey manager, to be an engineer in charge of the construction, etc. But it's okay as well to be women that don't want to deal with those things. I love my job, but I'm [also] a mom, I'm a spouse, and there is, you know, some sacrifice to be able to do what I'm doing.”
Political will
That’s not to say she’s complaining – far from it. Apart from the gender gap, finance and ridership, there one more issue which Amilcar thinks is of crucial importance to transit operators throughout the world: political will. The idea of never having to advocate again for the importance of transit with policymakers is highly attractive.
“Political support for the idea of public transportation itself is also vital,” she laughs. “I think, my God, I would take my retirement if we could achieve that!”
Getting people interested – and showing what’s possible – is key to bringing public transport to the fore. “But to be able to do so, transit will need to be more sexy than your car - otherwise you will not come,” she admits. “It's got to be a good price, reliable, frequent, convenient, for sure.”
Predictability is particularly important: “I need to know that I will leave at 10 and I will be where I'm going to attend today.”
“The more we can have different people around the table, the more strong ideas we can bring”
Offering free transit has been tried in a number of cities worldwide and it’s fair to say that it has a chequered history; private car use has not fallen everywhere it has been trialled.
So Amilcar is well aware that giving the service away for nothing will not attract more people on its own, since price is not the only factor which attracts users – reliability is crucial. However, free ‘tasters’ are a good way of getting people to try public transport. “I want to make it clear that free transit will not attract more people, necessarily,” she agrees. “But having free weekends to showcase my new network, to demonstrate that my new lines worked very well, to be curious - come try it and then buy your ticket! And during the weekend free service, people were smiling.”
And she enjoyed conversing with them – customers, employees, whoever – in fact, it’s probably fair to say that Amilcar is always happy to talk transit. “It's my passionate topic!” she concludes happily.
