Tag: Memphis Bus Riders Union

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Bus Riders’ Union and Bus Drivers’ Union Team Up

Less than a week after the announced partnership between the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 713 (the local bus drivers’ union) and the Memphis Bus Riders Union (MBRU), Congressman Steve Cohen announced that $2.6 million in federal funds, secured through the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT), would be allocated to fund three electric trolleys for downtown Memphis.

Members of the MBRU congregated at their monthly meeting at the Memphis Center for Independent Living said the funding felt like a familiar slap in the face; so familiar, that the funding announcement invoked little surprise, and the discussion quickly refocused to the litany of problems faced by everyday Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) users.

“When you put money [only] downtown where the trolleys are, you’re forgetting about your citizens,” said Cynthia Bailey, outreach coordinator for MBRU. “You’re forgetting about the people who need transportation to get to jobs and destinations.”

The narrative of bus riders and drivers drawing attention to unmet transit needs while money continues to pour into the trolley system is hardly new, but with each announcement of trolley funding, members of both unions have become increasingly desperate to look for solutions.

According to both Bailey and Sammie Hunter, MBRU’s co-chair, the bus riders’ union has little faith left in MATA’s CEO and general manager Ron Garrison, who they said showed initial interest in solving MATA’s problems but has not followed through with solutions.

“We took his word, but I think he’s all about the money instead of the citizens,” Bailey said. Hunter nodded in agreement and added, “I never trusted him from the beginning, and now his true colors are coming out. He’s not about the citizens.”

According to Bailey, if both the MBRU and the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 713 (ATU) are able to meet with Mayor-elect Jim Strickland and bypass Garrison, it will be a victory.

“I think [Stickland will] understand us better,” Bailey said. “The ATU has experience with the board on the inside, and we have experience from the riders’ perspective on the outside. If we’re merged together as one organization, it will have a big impact.”

Local 713’s business manager William Barber not only echoes MBRU’s concerns but is also eager that the union merger will erase the long-standing perception of blame-placing that pits the bus drivers against the bus riders.

“What I want our public to realize, is that it’s not drivers against the public, it’s management against the public,” Barber said. “We want everybody to join us, listen to our rally points, get on board with the unions and MATA so we can make this city better for everybody, not just for a certain group of people.”

Barber is also quick to point out that he’s highly in favor of trolley drivers having jobs. “We want everyone to benefit,” Barber said.

Garrison said that he wants to keep an open dialogue with both unions.

“I think to the extent that we can make ourselves available, my staff and I would be happy to sit down with them to work through their concerns. I’ve tried to meet with them a number of times and have,” said Garrison, who noted that there have been no additional funds spent on the trolleys except for specific funds that can only be used on trolleys.

Additionally, the funds recently granted by TDOT could mean that the current buses used in lieu of trolleys on Main could be redistributed to MATA’s fleet.

“I welcome anyone to talk to our mayor, and I would be glad to do that with or without them,” Garrison said. “I would like to partner with them to get additional funds.”

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Bus Rider Union Calls For New Buses, Fewer Trolleys

Using the hashtag #transitNOTtrolleys, the Memphis Bus Riders Union (MBRU) has taken to social media with a call for the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) to focus on improving or replacing buses rather than spending money on replacing trolleys.

In July, MATA approved the purchase of eight rubber-wheeled, trolley-like buses for $1,178,256. But Bennett Foster, an organizer with MBRU, said the focus should be on remedying recent complaints of overcrowding and a lack of air conditioning on buses, as well as buses breaking down in the middle of routes.

MBRU organizers recently met with Mayor A C Wharton regarding the transit system’s budget, suggesting a prioritization of buses and bus facilities — both of which, the organization says, are lacking.

“We met with [MATA President] Ron Garrison a few months ago, and he told us there are just dozens of buses parked on his lot that are not operating, as well as buses that are beyond their useful life,” Foster said. “Our campaign right now is centered around the funding that we’re getting for trolley renovations and trolley infrastructure. It’s inequitable.”

Alison Burton, marketing and service director for MATA, said there is an open dialogue with MBRU regarding transit issues. She said MATA executives shared mutual concerns over the poor state of the William Hudson Transit Center (previously the North End Terminal downtown), which is currently getting new paint and flooring.

While the union is happy to see MATA making improvements there, the focus of their latest campaign is MATA’s push for new trolleys, which union members say will take away money that could be used to fix other issues. In a fact sheet given to the mayor by the MBRU, the organization says more than two-thirds of the MATA’s capital funding will go toward new trolleys, when they believe it should go to replacing buses.

MATA admits that trolley ridership is way down, after the vintage trolley streetcars were temporarily replaced with trolley buses. MATA is still working to get the original trolley cars back online after several trolley fires, but there is no timeline for when that will happen. In the meantime, MATA will use the new trolley-like buses on the routes.

“We know trolley ridership is down 70 percent,” Burton said.

According to Burton, ridership is more than 35,000 per month on the bus “trolleys” downtown. But when the streetcars were up and running, ridership exceeded 125,000 riders per month.

Ron Garrison, president and general manager of MATA, says the trolleys are a challenge. And he agrees that MATA’s older buses should be replaced, but the budget is limited. He said MATA currently has 60 buses in use with mileage as high as 700,000. That’s 200,000 miles past when they should be retired, according to the Federal Transit Authority. More than two dozen have over 600,000 miles.

“This makes it very challenging to make the buses work as well as they could,” Garrison said. “I have money to replace three buses this year.”

And as buses get older and more miles are put on them, he added, they are more expensive to repair.

“We’ve reorganized our maintenance department,” Garrison said. “I hired a new director of bus maintenance and a new assistant. The department is much better. We’ve found ways we can save money, which we put right back into maintaining buses, but there’s only so much you can do with over 60 buses that are well past their useful life.”

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Bus Riders Union Asks For Improvements at North End Terminal

CREDIT: Memphis Bus Riders Union

It’s doubtful that anyone, not even Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) President Ron Garrison or MATA board member Chooch Pickard, would say the North End Terminal bathrooms are in good shape.

“It’s horrible. It’s like third-world conditions,” said Pickard, referring to the state of the downtown bus terminal restrooms.

Garrison admitted that, although they’ve put extra staff on cleaning duty in those bathrooms, he didn’t think “the extra cleaning being done is adequate.”

Renovated restrooms at the North End Terminal are one of many improvements the Memphis Bus Riders Union (MBRU) is demanding in a new plan addressing what they consider to be inadequacies at the downtown station. Among those are problems with MATA’s contracted security officers, poor customer service due to a lack of personnel, and general lack of aesthetics.

“It’s been a long time since that place has seen some love,” said MBRU’s Bennett Foster. “We’re hoping the MATA board will adopt this plan and that they can set aside some funding in this budget cycle.”

Garrison hadn’t seen MBRU’s plan as of press time since they’re planning to introduce it at MATA’s June board meeting. But he said bathroom renovations at the downtown terminal are already in the works. Renovation work should start before the end of this fiscal year, he said.

“Those bathrooms were one of the first things I saw when I was brand new [last summer] and touring all the facilities,” Garrison said. “We immediately began to look for money in the budget or some way we could keep the bathrooms cleaner.”

Perhaps a more complicated issue in MBRU’s plan addresses issues with security officers from Ambassador Worldwide Protection Agency, which MATA contracts with to provide security at the terminal facilities. Foster said the union has received complaints from riders that officers have harassed riders for wearing sagging pants, and one officer was overheard using a racial slur.

MBRU is demanding that MATA terminate its contract with Ambassador and begin contracting with Memphis police officers for security since the South Main precinct is moving its offices into the North End Terminal this fall. They say that will create better transparency.

“With Memphis police, if we have any issues, we can do an open records request. But with a private company, they don’t have to tell us anything. They can keep us in the dark,” Foster said.

Pickard is pushing for body cameras for the Ambassador security officers, and Garrison said he’s working with Ambassador to correct the problems. Garrison agrees that body cameras would be a good idea.

“I think that would help a lot of things,” Garrison said. “For example, when you know your mom and dad are watching you and you’re 15, you’re probably not going to go in and have a glass of wine or beer in front of them. You’ll be on your best behavior. That’s so the customer will have a higher level of service.”

Other MBRU demands for the North End Terminal include an intercom that would announce when buses arrive, art exhibits, a play area for kids, free wifi, and a new paint job, among others.

Garrison agrees with some of those suggestions. He said he’d love an intercom system if MATA could find the money for it. And in other transit systems where he’s worked, he says he often incorporated art into bus facilities.

“It helps create a sense of place and a sense of wonder,” Garrison said. “This is something we haven’t done yet, but what if we had partnerships with local artists and arts organizations and gave them an opportunity to display their art? That’s what I would like to do.”

The MBRU is also asking MATA to hire more customer service staff system-wide. Garrison admits that customer service “is not what it could be” and says that’s something MATA will be focusing on.

“There are just a few customer service reps, and they do the best they can with what they have. But the only way to solve this issue is to employ more customer service reps and more people on staff who can answer the phone,” Foster said.

Pickard said he’s in agreement with the concerns of the MBRU and that, when the plan is presented to the board, he’ll push for some of these changes. But he warned that change will take time.

“It’s going to take a long time to turn the entire ship around, but we’re going to need to start seeing incremental change very soon,” Pickard said. “There’s been a lot of frustration, but we have a new [MATA president in Ron Garrison].”

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UPDATE: MATA Route to Southland Dumps Riders on Side of Interstate

A MATA bus route to Southland Park for gaming and racing is now dumping riders on the side of Interstate 40, according to a video secretly recorded by members of the Memphis Bus Riders Union.

In the video, the bus driver says that as of about a month ago, Southland Park no longer allows MATA buses to drop off on Southland property. Instead, bus riders are dropped on the frontage road of I-40. With no sidewalks and cars and trucks speeding by, the group then walks or in the case of one wheel-chaired passenger, rolls over an uneven gravel road along the interstate and up an exit ramp to get to the racing park.

Check out the full video:

*UPDATE*

We spoke with Troy Keeping, manager at Southland Park Gaming and Racing, about why MATA was asked to stay off of Southland Park’s property.

“We didn’t ban MATA. What we did is ask them to relocate the bus stop because we were having safety issues in our parking lot,” says Keeping. “We used to have the bus stop in our parking lot and after the Tunica flood and the substantial increase in business we had a couple of potential almost accidents and there were too many people waiting for the bus in high traffic lanes where the bus stop was located so we asked them to relocate it off of our property because of safety issues.”

Keeping says they contacted the city of West Memphis to relocate the bus stop, though MATA resisted the move. According to Keeping, West Memphis asked Southland Park five or six years ago to put the stop on the park’s property.

“It was fine because we didn’t really have the volume of business that we have now,” says Keeping.

“I feel bad that they relocated it in what I would consider a poor area,” he says. “There’s a bus station next to Ford of West Memphis, that’s where we thought they were relocating it, but they’re just dropping them there at the service road in front of Ford. Frankly, in my opinion, MATA has not done the best job.”

When asked how moving the bus stop further away from Southland would be safer for bus riders, Keeping responded, “There’s not a good location on the property so it’s really up to MATA and the city to find a place that’s appropriate for them to stop. Whether or not the MATA bus came directly to Southland or not was not our concern. We don’t want the liability or the risk.”

As for how many customers come to Southland Park via the MATA bus, Keeping says it was enough to create a safety hazard, but in relation to their total customer base it’s not a lot of customers.

“When I saw the video, my first thought was, ‘While it may not be appropriate, people should exercise common sense before they get off of a bus in the middle of the frontage road. The people themselves should be responsible for their own behavior,” Keeping says. “If the bus isn’t taking them where they need to go, then I wouldn’t ride the bus. I don’t know what person would think they should get off on a frontage road in a wheelchair and ride in traffic. I look at a customer that does something like that and I think, really? I wouldn’t do that. I frankly wouldn’t ride the bus and get off there.”

But Brad Watkins of the Memphis Bus Riders Union and the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center says MATA hasn’t posted any information about the changed route at any of their terminals.

“[Keeping] completely misses the point. If you’re already on the bus and that’s your stop and you’re trying to get there — perhaps you work there or perhaps you’re there as a customer — how else are you supposed to get where you’re going?”

For now, Watkins says he has received reports that the MATA route to Southland Park now drops riders off at an abandoned gas station close to the Southland property so that people can go from the gas station to the parking lot of Southland Park.

A representative from MATA has not yet returned our phone calls.

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Memphis Bus Riders Union Meeting To Discuss Gas Tax Referendum

MATA_Plus_bus_Memphis_TN_01.jpg

Members of the Memphis Bus Riders Union are gathering on Saturday, August 11th to discuss the recent gas tax referendum approved by the Memphis City Council. The referendum would ask voters to support or refuse adding a one-cent tax to every gallon of gasoline sold within city limits, with the proceeds going to Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA).

The Bus Riders Union meeting, which will take place from noon to 2 p.m. at the Memphis Center for Independent Living on 1633 Madison Ave., was called because many of its members had concerns regarding the referendum’s content, which some consider to be vague.

“We’re going to be looking at the gas tax proposal and discussing it with the membership to decide if the group will get involved with this issue,” said member Brad Watkins. “We know that there’s a lot of support for it but we have a lot of questions about the language, the oversight to ensure those funds are going to go where we, and a lot of the members of the MATA board, agree that it should go to.”

The city council voted on Tuesday, August 7th in favor of placing the referendum on the November 6th ballot.

Watkins said the organization agrees that there needs to be a dedicated funding source for MATA but are seeking some clarification before they support it.

“In this era of city budgets, where funding comes and goes arbitrarily, this dedicated source of funding would ensure MATA could become the best public transit system that it could be, which is what we hope for,” Watkins said. “But we want to start a community-wide discussion on this to ensure that the gas tax, if passed by the voters, does what it’s supposed to.

The Memphis Bus Riders Union, founded in February, is a grassroots organization that seeks to ensure the needs and priorities of MATA customers are the company’s highest priority.