‘Never let them see you sweat’: RTD’s Phil Eberl retires after 40 years

Take a trip back in time to 1984. The box office just had its most successful year ever, generating $4 billion in revenue while introducing the masses to some of the most iconic movie franchises, such as “Ghostbusters,” “Terminator,” “Police Academy” and “Indiana Jones.” The Billboard Hot 100 was loaded with legendary music from Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Kenny Loggins, Van Halen, Phil Collins, Prince, Madonna and Bruce Springsteen. Apple introduced the first Macintosh computer. Hulk Hogan defeated the Iron Sheik in one of the most shocking upsets in wrestling history. The Space Shuttle Discovery made its maiden voyage to the stars. It was a year to remember, and one that continues to be discussed in the history books today.

Among all of this, RTD’s Phil Eberl began what would be a 40-year career that would see him lead the agency into a new age of transportation and beyond.

Eberl, a Denver native, grew up just north of downtown in a neighborhood that was built by his grandfather and sons in the area of 54th and Zuni streets. After high school, he began his adult life as an automotive mechanic in 1974 working on passenger vehicles. Not long after, fate introduced him to working in public transportation.

“I met this girl who went to a rival high school,” Eberl said. “After we started dating, her dad recommended me to some folks at Trailways in 1979, where I would go on to become a bus mechanic.”

Trailways, at the time, was the largest intercity bus service in the United States, connecting cities both regionally and nationally.

After spending time as a bus mechanic at Trailways, he became interested in RTD, as the agency was expanding at the time and hiring 100 mechanics. In May 1984, Eberl was hired in the unit shop of the old Alameda division, where he was tasked with working on starters, alternators and motors.

Once his 90-day probationary period had ended, he wanted a change of scenery and transferred to East Metro, serving as a general repair mechanic for the next decade.

At that time, RTD was working on introducing a new mode of transportation that would revolutionize the agency and propel it into the future: light rail. This new mode of transportation caught Eberl’s attention.

“I spent a full year learning about electrical systems for the chance to work on light rail,” Eberl said.

Once it was time for the agency to begin hiring mechanics, RTD wanted to hire from within.

“RTD wanted the best seven mechanics it had to start the light rail system,” Eberl said.

Eberl’s name was mentioned by many of his colleagues and superiors as a top candidate for one of the seven open positions. Sure enough, after the interview process, he would be selected to join the team of electro mechanics in 1994, nicknamed the “Original Seven.”

The team was assigned to work exclusively on the agency’s initial fleet of 11 light rail vehicles. The first light rail line, known today as the D Line, opened in 1994.

Eberl did something that propelled his career from a worker to a leader.

“In 1994, just after opening, I saw that we were having struggles with how we were going to record and track our maintenance, so I had some ideas on how we could make that better as a mechanic, implementing processes the bus side was using,” Eberl said. “While the original ideas would be struck down due to the logistics of it, it led to me being promoted to supervisor in 1995, with support from my manager to initiate those same ideas.”

Eberl’s idea saw the end of the traditional pen-and-paper method of tracking maintenance logs and using the same digital system that bus maintenance technicians were using at the time, saving resources and allowing records to be easily acquired as needed.

In 2001, Eberl was promoted to the manager position in light rail maintenance, then in 2013 to general superintendent of light rail maintenance, a role he has held since.

As RTD saw rapid expansion of its light rail network in the late 1990s well into the 2010s, Eberl was on the ground floor for all of it.

“The buildout of RTD’s light rail system was really enjoyable to work on,” he said. “We were always working on lines, implementing state-of-the-art technology and enhancing the reliability of them.”

Despite having a smaller maintenance budget than other light rail systems around the country, Eberl’s team worked hard to get the most bang for the buck out of RTD’s system. However, growing pains became apparent, outdated technology created bottlenecks and changes needed to be made to accommodate the rapid growth and interest in the system.

“With the expanding fleet, it was beginning to expand past our means of maintaining vehicle-borne analog systems,” Eberl said. “That’s when our team began to implement digital systems.”

In 1999, Eberl led the transition efforts into the digital sphere. His team introduced a new public address system on all light rail vehicles, complete with automated audio announcements and digital signage, retrofitting the HVAC systems on all light rail vehicles to bring them into Federal Transit Administration environmental guidelines. “The district’s direction for installation of an automatic train stop system, automatic passenger counters on vehicles and a new digital video surveillance system kept us moving forward,” Eberl said. “We coordinated and implemented these changes with a lot of help from other departments like IT, security, procurement and specialized vendors.”

“I wanted to use the latest and greatest technology available, and our team of employees and staff had many other system improvement ideas that we have applied to the vehicles,” Eberl said.

The digital evolution and the retrofits being done at RTD caught the eye of many transit agencies across the nation, driving them to implement some of these system changes themselves. Even Siemens, the manufacturer of RTD’s light rail vehicles, implemented the new HVAC systems and some of the other changes Eberl’s team recommended into their new vehicles.

Reflecting on his illustrious career at RTD, Eberl recalls some of his fondest memories being the opportunities the agency has given him, allowing him to meet key players in the public transit industry and learn from them about how they navigated struggles.

“The trips to industry events are really special to me,” Eberl said. “Sometimes, when you think you are fighting your own battles on an island, then you go to industry events and see other agencies, meet your peers and learn they have the same problems and challenges. It’s motivating in the sense where you return home to make changes to improve the system.”

Eberl also recalls some of his best moments being overcoming some of the biggest challenges he has faced in his career.

“There have been times where the entire city has been completely shut down due to a blizzard,” he said, “and yet, here we are continuing light rail service, being the only thing that is running.”

As Eberl says goodbye on Friday, he leaves advice for all he has led and worked with over many decades.

“Never let them see you sweat, keep your composure, rise to meet the challenge and be accepting of change,” Eberl said. “Changing with the times is such a huge requirement for success. If you can do it calmly and professionally, they will have a bright future and career as well.”