General Manager of Duluth Transit Authority to Retire After 38 Years With Company

DULUTH, Minn. — After nearly four decades of dedicated service to the Duluth Transit Authority, General Manager Rod Fournier is set to retire in the upcoming weeks. 

As he leads up to the last days, he is reflecting on his time at the DTA. His career started out behind the wheel 38 years ago. 

“I took a pretty non-traditional path to become a general manager. Way back in 1988 I was a bus driver, and I drove bus for 15 years,” Fournier said.

After moving to the management side of things, Rod eventually worked his way up General Manager.

“It was a step by step process, but each step along the way really helped prepare me as a bus operator. Then when I became Head of Operations, I knew what the drivers were going through, so we kind of had that to feed off of, and even scheduling,” Fournier said.

After taking on the GM role four years ago, Rod found himself in a post COVID-19 world, and in the midst of a system redesign. 

“With the launch of the better bus blueprint two years ago, now, I think there are some things that we can look back on and really show some improvements that we have done. The DTA is a high achieving agency, not just in the state of Minnesota, of Minnesota, but in the nation as well,” Fournier said.

During his time at the DTA, Rod has seen big changes in the busing industry. 

“I used to ride the bus when I was five years old with my grandmother, and to see how things kind of progressed from there, and the ease for the passenger amenities, and people can use their phones now for real time tracking and paying fares and things like that,” Fournier said.

Now Rod is passing the torch to current Assistant General Manager Chris Belden, who credits a lot of his learning to his mentor. 

“I actually met Rod when I was riding the bus and he was training in new drivers, and I’d sit next to him and we’d chat a bit. So we became friendly early on,” Belden said. “I think we’ve got a lot of really positive momentum right now with our goal line system just seeing really high ridership numbers, and the demand just keeps on growing.”

As for Rod, he is looking forward to retirement, and is continuing to share his learnings from his time at the DTA. 

“Don’t be afraid to fail. I mean, that’s the biggest, when things go sideways a little bit, you just pull yourself back up and do your best not to let it happen again and off you go, because it worked for me several times,” Fournier said.