DC ParaTransit Info

The Washington Post’s Lena Sun has an article in today’s issue regarding the mess that is MetroAccess’ certification process:

Nadia Ibrahim, a policy adviser for the Labor Department, gets to work from her Rockville home by taking MetroAccess, a paratransit service operated by Metro. Ibrahim, who has cerebral palsy, uses a wheelchair and a service dog.

Her disability is permanent.

But every three years, she must go through a time-consuming process that will cost Metro more than $1 million this year to prove a basic fact of life for her and thousands of other riders: Her disability makes it difficult for her to ride Metrorail or Metrobus and therefore qualifies her for curb-to-curb MetroAccess service.

Posted: 2 months ago | No Comments
Categories: In The Media , MetroAccess | Tags: | By: miika.    Print This Post

Lena Sun of the Washington Post writes that the Metro Board has approved a plan to spend up to $1 million hiring “professional” mystery riders, who will go out and assess MetroRail and MetroBus services.

This isn’t a new idea.  As the Post notes, it’s been done before, albeit using trained volunteers - and is something we at DC ParaTransit Info has mentioned before.

Done properly, it can produce relatively unbiased metrics about the service, as opposed to the idea of using customer feedback.  Customer feedback tends to only concentrate on negatives - how many people actually take the time to call or write to WMATA to tell them they’re doing a good job?

Posted: 3 months ago | No Comments
Categories: In The Media , MetroAccess , MetroBus , MetroRail , WMATA | Tags: | By: Kathi.    Print This Post

The Washington Post reported on the new policies that were presented to WMATA yesterday by the Best Practices group with regards to MetroAccess. In the article, Reporter Lena H. Sun wrote:

MetroAcccess customers will be allowed to cancel trips up to two hours before a scheduled pickup and make reservations seven days ahead, instead of the 14 days now required.

That’s incorrect. Riders could book trips up to 14 days before the trip was to take place, the new guidelines will CUT that lead time, meaning riders will only be able to book trips up to 7 days before the trip is to take place.

Posted: 2 years, 1 month ago | No Comments
Categories: In The Media | Tags: | By: miika.    Print This Post

The Washington Post reports that WMATA’s Interim General Manager, Mr Dan Tangherlini, is pressing for the appointment of an Inspector General with oversight of Metro operations, including MetroAccess.

The article states that the WMATA Board is in favour of the plan, and we agree - independant oversight of WMATA operations is necessary given the way it has been managed in the past. It will need an independant eye kept on it as it struggles to make up for past mistakes, which last year alone according to the post resulted in the loss of over $1 billion in railcar and elevator contracts alone.

Posted: 2 years, 4 months ago | No Comments
Categories: In The Media , WMATA | Tags: | By: miika.    Print This Post

The DC Examiner reports that Arlington’s STAR Transit System riders, the county’s ParaTransit service, may be facing the first price increase in 15 years.

The Arlington County Board will be considering raising the one-way trip fare, currently $2.00 by an additional 50 cents at a public hearing to be held March 30th 2006.

This increase will effectively bring the cost of STAR rides to the same level as that currently charged MetroAccess riders, $2.50 per trip, however it’s worth noting that this means the round trip cost will effectively increase by $1.00 in total.

Posted: 2 years, 4 months ago | No Comments
Categories: Arlington County , In The Media | Tags: | By: miika.    Print This Post

The Washington Post’s “Regional Briefing” page today notes that:

The Metro transit authority plans to hold an information session on its proposed budget from 7 to 9 p.m. today at its headquarters in downtown Washington.

Metro board members and senior managers will answer questions and listen to concerns. The information session, at the Metro Board Room, 600 Fifth St. NW, will be preceded by an open house at 6:30 p.m.

Metro asks that people who want to speak at the session sign up by e-mail at public-hearing-testimony@wmata.com or by sending a fax to 202-962-1133 by 2 p.m. today. Speakers should submit a written copy of their comments at the session.

Posted: 2 years, 4 months ago | No Comments
Categories: In The Media , Press Releases , WMATA | Tags: | By: miika.    Print This Post

The Washington Post reported on Friday that the Metro Board has finally approved MV Transportation’s request, made at the start of the contract, for over $1 Million in additional funds. This request, to outfit legacy vehicles remaining in the fleet from the Logisticare days, had been originally rejected by the Board.

Whilst WMATA tries to spin this into the Board making positive moves to try to resolve the issues facing MetroAccess, it’s more accurately Metro having to once more backtrack on itself, and this decision would have been better served if WMATA had listened to the experience of the contractors it had hired to operate the service back in January.

Posted: 2 years, 4 months ago | No Comments
Categories: In The Media , WMATA | Tags: | By: miika.    Print This Post

According to a brief article in the Washington Post, the MetroAccess call center was briefly evacuated yesterday, leaving telephone lines unstaffed for about 15 minutes, after a fire alarm was pulled in the Silver Spring office building.

The false alarm went off about 1:45 p.m., according to Metro. It seems that MV’s employees didn’t leave until they were told to by Fire officials at around 2pm, returning quarter of an hour later after the alarm had been determined to be a false one.

Posted: 2 years, 4 months ago | No Comments
Categories: In The Media , WMATA | Tags: | By: miika.    Print This Post

In the first Washington Post article about MetroAccess for this month, we are told that MV Transportation has a “grace period” written into their contract - they’re not going to face penalties for the level of service provided until after April 15th, giving them in effect four months to get things sorted out from the date they took over.

The pressure from local governments, as well as Congressman Van Hollen (D-MD) is continuing to be applied, with Monttgomery County Councilmember Steven A. Silverman (D-At Large) joining the calls for things to improve.

Posted: 2 years, 4 months ago | No Comments
Categories: In The Media , WMATA | Tags: | By: miika.    Print This Post

Buried at the bottom of the Post’s article today about WMATA’s changes to the bus routes is a note that WMATA is to pilot giving MetroAccess drivers cell phones to use to contact riders directly when necessary.

This move, coupled with MV Transportation’s returning rider’s phone numbers to the manifests a few weeks ago, is a positive step towards giving the drivers (and the riders) back some of the tools that enable the service to run more efficiently, allowing direct driver-to-rider contact to help locate them in those impossible-to-find-on-the-map places.

Posted: 2 years, 5 months ago | No Comments
Categories: In The Media , WMATA | Tags: | By: miika.    Print This Post