“It’s stressful having to sit there and redial 834 times,” explained Natalie Judges.
Earlier this month, Judges’ cell phone logged her 834 attempts to book a paratransit ride only to find the system overloaded with calls from other Londoners with disabilities.
Cathy DeMuy is one of those other riders equally desperate for a paratransit ride, and told CTV News London, “You hit redial for an hour-and-a-half starting at 7 a.m.”
In July, city council took the unusual step of rejecting the 2022 London Transit Commission Annual Report because the commission self-evaluated its performance as an “integrated, affordable, and valued mobility choice” to be satisfactory.
On Tuesday, Judges and DeMuy were among a group of paratransit riders at the Civic Works Committee to hear why London Transit was returning to city hall with the performance evaluation unchanged.
“This is an overall scorecard of all of our services, it’s not just specialized transit (paratransit),” explained LTC Chair Sheryl Rooth.
Rooth pointed to the severe impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on staffing and supply chains last year.
“Simply, we did the best we could with what we had, and that was to provide service for the entire year,” she asserted.
But accessibility advocates remain unconvinced.
“These are issues that have existed for years, well before the pandemic,” Dr. Jeff Preston told the committee during his delegation.
Transit rider Mel Sheehan added, “Customer feedback when it comes to the specialized service is abysmal, and has been abysmal for almost a decade.”
Rooth outlined some short-term initiatives to address some of the concerns raised by paratransit riders:
- Smart card fare readers will be installed in the first quarter of 2023
- New ride booking software is being sourced
- Available rides on weekdays will increase 20 percent above 2022
- Newly purchased paratransit buses are arriving
“It’s our time and our turn to help fix the problem for everybody,” Coun. Peter Cuddy urged his colleagues on the committee.
Councillors called on the LTC to make noticeable service improvements in the coming year.
The committee unanimously backed a motion by Coun. Hadleigh McAlister to receive the 2022 LTC Annual Report as is, but to have the commission review and refine its evaluation criteria before preparing its next annual report.
“For an accurate reflection of the shortfalls, and how LTC will evaluate and plan to address them in the future,” McAlister explained.
“We are going to be getting a significant budget ask from the LTC coming up,” said Coun. David Ferreira who sits on the transit commission. “So that’s part of council’s role that we have to start considering to make sure these changes work.”
Judges was cautiously optimistic as she waited to book a paratransit ride home from city hall.
“Having city council on our side will hopefully, definitely make a difference,” she said.
