GREATER HARTFORD TRANSIT DISTRICT
ADA PARTICIPATION GROUP FORUM
Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Attendees:  Jeffrey Cole, Herbert Milner, Yvonne Loteczka, Karyn Bennett-FT, Erik Rousseau–FT,  Manny Gonzalez-FT, Vicki Shotland-GHTD, DJ Gonzalez-GHTD, Valerie Ellis-GHTD, Pat Williams-GHTD

The forum began at 5:10m.

Noted below are the statistics for November and December

Operations:
Total passenger trips for the month of November were 22,757, No Shows 811 (4%), cancellations 6,759 (30%).  December passengers trips were 23,455, No shows 1118 (5%), cancellations 8,851 (38%) 

Assessments:
In November 117 ADA applications were received; 91 were new, 26 recertified and 120 ADA eligibilities were completed. Out of the 120 completed ADA eligibilities, 93 received a specific approval condition, 5 denied, and 22 were withdrawn. In December 129 ADA applications were received; 90 were new, 39 recertified and 108 ADA eligibilities were completed.   Out of the 108 completed ADA eligibilities, 83 received a specific approval condition, 4 denied, and 21 were withdrawn. 

Customers Service:
In November 78 comments were received from passengers; 31% were compliments, 68% were driver, dispatch, reservationists and/or scheduling complaints, 0% was mechanical and/or related to safety, 1% other. In December 48, comments were received from passengers; 40% were compliments, 60% were driver, dispatch, reservationists and/or scheduling complaints, 0% was mechanical and/or related to safety, 0% other. 

Yvonne Loteczka praised the service on their record of handling accidents. Mr. Cole agreed and shared his experience on how a driver managed to avoid a serious accident. GHTD and First Transit thanked them both.  DJ Gonzalez noted that First Transit is cautious and serious about safety.

FT Operation Manager, Erik Rousseau was introduced to the group.  Mr. Rousseau was employed with FT in Atlanta and has relocated to CT and is happy to be back.

DJ Gonzalez informed the group that 45 new vehicles are scheduled to arrive the first week of March.  GHTD met with the manufacturers of the lift and were able to resolve the slight bump on the lift.  The old vehicles will be retrofitted to correct this problem and the new vehicles should not have this problem.

Over the past few weeks, the operation has been testing the new AVL/GPS software and hardware. It is hoped that by March 8th, the entire fleet can be equipped with this new system.  Five pilot vehicles are currently being tested for a period of 10 days.  Upon acceptance by the District, a full system roll out will begin.  Karyn Bennett noted that dispatch will be able to quickly and efficiently respond to a rider’s inquiry about the location of a vehicle with the new software system. 

DJ Gonzalez along with the forum group commended, GHTD Executive Director Vicki Shotland and Procurement Manager, Sandra Sheehan for acting so quickly to implement the AVL/GPS project. Yvonne Loteczka questioned the reliability of the software. Staff assured her that StrataGen is a highly qualified provider and well-recognized provider in the industry.

DJ Gonzalez recommended that the group visit FT at a time when it is convenient for the contractor, and our riders can see first hand how the software system operates once it is deployed and fully functional.

Participant Comments:

Comment: Jeffrey Cole
Mr. Cole is generally satisfied with the service but stated there can be an improvement with the telephone system. He has experienced long hold times   on occasion with both the dispatchers and/or reservationists.
Mr. Cole asked if the suspension on the vehicles is up to standards. 
Mr. Cole questioned why when reserving for a thirty-minute doctor’s appointment in the morning he has to wait until the afternoon for a return pickup.  He also would like to know if the service can notify him when they are going to be outside the thirty-minute window.

Response: Note Karyn Bennett’s earlier response regarding this issue.
DJ Gonzalez explained that all vehicles are inspected and meet all federal guidelines and requirements. 
The service is a shared service and must group riders together that are in the same location and requesting the same time.  Unfortunately, all riders cannot be picked up exactly at the same time and can experience a gap when scheduling their return trip.  If the service is outside of the scheduled window, the dispatcher can notify you on your cell phone. Ms. Shotland indicated that in the future there may be an opportunity to seek additional funding to procure software that will automatically call the rider when the service is running late.

Comment: Laura Monty
Ms. Monty could not get through to the reservation department this afternoon to make a destination pickup change with her trip tomorrow (1/21).  Ms. Monty asked if she can make the change now and that this should be permanent change to her Thursday schedule.
Ms. Monty also inquired about transportation to Southington.

Response: Ms. Bennett will make the change and update her scheduled trips accordingly.  Ms. Williams will meet with Ms. Monty next week to discuss the transportation services in the Southington area.

Comment: Herbert Milner
Mr. Milner has experienced difficulties when scheduling his reservations.  He inquired about a specific street in New Britain and did not receive an adequate answer from the reservation department.

Response: DJ Gonzalez informed Mr. Milner to contact the customer service department the next time this happens and a thorough investigation will be done.  In addition, note all calls are recorded and will be used to assist with this investigation. Ms. Bennett forwarded the customer service telephone numbers to Mr. Milner and Ms. Williams will forward the customer service e-mail addresses to him also.

Comment: Yvonne Loteczka
When dialing the 724-5340 telephone number, Ms. Loteczka would like an explanation of the voice announcement message before selecting 1.
On Tuesday, January 19th, Ms. Loteczka experienced a long wait time on the telephone and would like to know was there a problem on this particular day with the phone system.
Ms. Loteczka is having problems with drivers not knowing how to properly secure her wheelchair.

Response: Ms. Bennett commented that this prompt was added to assist the dispatch department with calls that come to them that can potentially be handled by the reservation department.
Ms. Bennett will look into whether or not the service was experiencing problems on this day with the telephone system and will respond back to Ms. Loteczka.
Manny Gonzalez will meet with Ms. Loteczka personally to resolve her wheelchair issue.

The next ADA forum is scheduled for Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 5:00 pm at Union Station.  You must make a reservation for transportation to and from the meeting by calling (860) 724-5340 and select #1.  All riders are required to pay the standard ADA Paratransit rate of $2.50 each way.

As time is limited; all attendees are required to sign up to discuss issues at the forum with Pat Williams, and provide the topic for discussion at least 48-hours in advance with the last opportunity to register fifteen (15) minutes prior to the start of the forum.

Please remember that in order for everyone to have a chance to participate you need to keep your initial questions and discussions to five (5) minutes a piece so that we can accommodate all other participants. Follow-up comments should also be kept to five (5) minutes also.