[PRCo] Transit riders satisfied with service

[mtoytrain at bellsouth.net]

Transit riders satisfied with service
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
By Joe Grata, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Conditions like overcrowding and cleanliness were chief concerns of bus and light-rail riders in a customer satisfaction survey that County Controller Mark Flaherty's office released this week.
The latest report in a series covering Port Authority financial and operating issues made several recommendations to improve riding conditions, including immediately addressing spills and smells, fixing damaged seats and cultivating higher standards of driver courtesy.
Overall, the survey results indicated that riders are satisfied with their public transit service, but not overwhelmingly.
Thirty-seven percent of bus riders and 42 percent of light-rail riders specified riding conditions as their major complaint. Concerns over recent transit cuts, fares, service reliability and punctuality ended up farther down the list.
Port Authority Chief Executive Officer Steve Bland said policies and practices in place or being planned address most of the findings and complaints. Other recommendations are to be incorporated into a Transit Development Plan now in process.
"We believe the ultimate measure of customer satisfaction is ridership," Mr. Bland said, "and we have been pleased to note that in the wake of our 15 percent service reduction in June, ridership has declined only about 3 percent, which is less than our original projection."
The controller's report was based on surveys by 2,878 riders over 16 days in June.
The authority said complaints about late buses are down more than 9 percent compared with the same four months last year; complaints about discourteous drivers are down 62 percent as a result of special training; and efforts are being made to increase park-n-ride lots, reduce breakdowns and use "smart cards" for fares.
Mr. Flaherty's full audit report, along with a news release that includes the Port Authority's response, can be found on the Web at www.portauthority.org.