[Nfbmo] The bus Saga Continues.

[Dick Morris]

Good job, Erin and Gary! I wish I were still in Springfield so I could be 
part of this. You're dooing the right thing in trying to garner publicity; 
sometimes the only way to get action is to embarrass somebody. Go for it!

Dick

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Magoon Erin" <magoone at gary-springfield-mo.net>
Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2013 6:11 PM
To: <nfbmo at nfbnet.org>
Subject: [Nfbmo] The bus Saga Continues.

The Bus Saga Continues.

Gary and I went to the City Council meeting on Monday.  He spoke about the 
fixed route buses and I spoke about Access Express.  Access is the 
para-transit door to door service that I'm riding for now because of my 
surgery last October.

It is getting pretty rediculous trying to get a ride on Access.  They will 
only let you schedule a ride up to one week in advance and it's getting 
difficult to do so.  They also have a 20 minute window either side of your 
pick-up to come and get you.  I had a pickup at 6:00 pm and they didn't have 
the person come on duty who was going to get me until 5:55 so he didn't 
arrive until 6:20.

I had another person drop me off at the wrong entrance to my building in my 
apaartment complex. I couldn't get a ride home from my job developer until 
two hours after the end of my appointment.  I couldn't get a ride home from 
the gym at all, I could get there but not home.  I also called one week in 
advance of the City Council meeting to schedule my ride.  I scheduled it for 
10:30 pm because I didn't know how long the meeting would go and they set it 
up.  The lady called me back ten minutes later and said she looked at the 
schedule wrong.  "It's written in military time and I have trouble reading 
and understanding it.  The latest we can get you is 8:30 not 10:30."

I told the Council most of what I've just told you and they sent the 
following questions to City Utilities telling them they wanted answers by 
Friday, February 22.

1. Why did you make the bus route changes?
2. Why didn't you have the schedules and maps ready before the changes took 
effect?
3. Why didn't you hold a public hearing or have public comments before you 
made the changes?
4. Why did the routes change 3 and 4 times after you made the original 
changes?
5. Is it true that you didn't want the passengers to know the changes were 
coming? If so, why not?
6. Why are people having so many difficulties scheduling an Access Express 
ride 6 and 7 days in advance?

I called the City Council yesterday to find out what was the next step, 
that's when I got told those questions were sent to City Utilities and as 
soon as they received a response they'd call me.

Today a reporter from The Springfield Newsleader called.  He talked to both 
me and Gary about what has been going on.  I told him all about Access and 
that some of the buses arrive downtown five minutes early now because of the 
new schedule, and the bus route that was added sits in the Social Security 
parking lot for 15 minutes.  No one has explained why this is.

The paper got a report from City Utilities telling them that the number of 
riders on Access has increased and that they have 5 buses.  I told the 
reporter that several people I have spoken to said they are taking Access 
because of all the route changes.

He said that City Utilities has responded to City Council and said: "We 
should have had the bus maps and schedules available when we made the route 
changes, we will hold public hearings in the future for any change we want 
to make whether it's small or big."

I noticed that they didn't answer any of the questions City Council asked.

The article is supposed to run in tomorrow's paper.  I hope it makes a 
difference.

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