[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 79 (Wednesday, June 15, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1245]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   IN MEMORY OF MR. FRANK LICHTANSKI

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. SAM FARR

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 15, 2005

  Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of a great 
public servant for Monterey County, California. Frank J. Lichtanski 
passed away on June 9, 2005 in his home in Del Rey Oaks, California 
after a battle with cancer.
  Frank was passionate about all modes of transportation, and 
particularly buses, for more than 31 years. At age 23, he worked as a 
bus driver for Monterey-Salinas Transit, beginning what would become an 
illustrious career. After six years, Frank became general manager, and 
in 1982 he became Monterey-Salinas Transit's Chief Executive Officer. 
In his 31 years of service with MST, Frank turned a fledgling bus 
service with only nine buses and twenty employees into a thriving 
public transit system. Today, Monterey-Salinas Transit provides public 
transit service in Monterey, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties and 
carries 4.8 million passengers each year. Each time Frank came to 
Washington, D.C., he marveled at the Metro system and how Union Station 
had developed as a commercial center with transportation as the anchor 
for restaurants and entertainment. He took that inspiration and figured 
out how a public transit station could benefit Monterey County. The 
City of Marina is the northern gateway to the Monterey Peninsula. 
Frank's vision grew to become the Marina Transit Station, situated at 
the west end of a major corridor between the coastal communities and 
the inland communities of Monterey County. The Marina Transit Station 
is a multimodal connection serving transit and over-the-road buses, as 
well as automobile passengers, taxis, and bicyclists. It will serve as 
the anchor for economic development in a part of the county that had 
lost its commercial businesses when the former Fort Ord military base 
closed.
  He was a regional leader in implementing Intelligent Transportation 
Systems that include visual tracking of buses through enhanced 
communication systems, automated voice announcements to ensure 
compliance with ADA, and visual displays at transit centers to provide 
passengers with real time bus arrivals and departures. Frank understood 
that technology improvements alone would not improve ridership and 
championed the purchase of new fuel efficient buses. Always a creative 
problem solver, Frank fought for and won FTA approval to leverage the 
purchase of three buses into a financing package of 46 new buses to 
respond to 10 percent annual growth in ridership.
  Frank amassed a collection of train and bus schedules dating back to 
the early 1900s, and I am talking to officials at the Smithsonian 
Institution about the possibility of a display of Frank's memorabilia. 
Being passionate about all modes of transportation, Frank personally 
traveled to 34 countries and inspected more than 180 transit systems, 
always searching for ideas to improve public transit on the Central 
Coast.
  The residents of Del Ray Oaks, Monterey County and the Central Coast 
mourn the passing of Frank Lichtanski and join me in expressing our 
heartfelt condolences to Frank's wife, Pam; his daughter, Aaron; and 
sisters Jeannie Stopa and Fran Stauff, and to the MST family to whom 
Frank devoted his stellar career.

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