By James Pilcher
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The head of the Tristate's largest public transit agency and one of the area's strongest light-rail advocates Thursday said he was taking the same job for the San Diego region.

Paul Jablonski, general manager and chief executive officer of Metro and secretary general of the agency's board, is resigning to become CEO of San Diego's Metropolitan Transit System.

"If you are in this business, you aspire to operate larger systems, and this is that chance for me," said Jablonski, who will go from a system that operates about 80,000 trips a day to one that handles 250,000 daily and includes a light-rail system.

Jablonski, 50, has led Metro for more than 10 years. He made about $175,000 a year here. He will be paid about $180,000 in his new job, including benefits. He intends to fill out the remainder of his Metro contract through the end of this year, starting his new job early next year.

The past 18 months have been the most tumultuous of his tenure.

He helped persuade the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority to pursue a sales-tax increase in Hamilton County to help pay for a new light rail system, a proposal that voters soundly defeated last fall.

Since then, three anti-light rail members have been appointed to the transit board, including the person who led the anti-light rail campaign.

"This is a real loss to Metro and to Cincinnati," said Stephan Louis, who chaired Alternatives to Light Rail Transit and has been appointed to SORTA's board.

E-mail jpilcher@enquirer.com