Tag: Ron Garrison

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Opinion The Last Word

New Destination

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Memphians are facing a public transit crisis.

Ask anyone who relies on our bus system to get to work or school or uses it to run routine errands, and they’ll tell you the same thing: Buses are unreliable, the rides are too long, and, in many cases, their routes are nonsensical. Riders from neighborhoods that were previously served by routes like the 31 Crosstown now find themselves without a dedicated bus route, which means a long walk to the closest bus stop and an even longer ride to their destination. Routes to major employment centers are basically nonexistent from these neighborhoods, furthering the economic segregation that, you guessed it, intersects with race: Black Memphians in particular make up 90 percent of bus riders, and over 30 percent of these Memphians live in poverty. The median annual income of workers who use public transit is just over $16,000, and transportation expenses consume 27 percent of their median household income.

Memphis Area Transit Authority CEO Ron Garrison agrees that there is a public transit crisis. In separate columns in The Commercial Appeal and The Memphis Flyer, Garrison painted a dire picture of MATA’s ongoing financial state. According to his most recent column, MATA is underfunded by more than $20 million in comparison to peer cities’ transit systems, due in large part to decreased ridership and targeted budget cuts during Mayor A C Wharton’s tenure. Garrison acknowledges that these factors have forced MATA to make some tough decisions — such as consolidating the routes of the 31 Crosstown, 43 Elvis Presley, and 10 Watkins into the new 42 Crosstown route — that have further impacted ridership and increased ill will between MATA and bus riders. Garrison’s Flyer column ends with the MATA CEO imploring riders and other concerned citizens to contact their elected officials and ask that they give more consideration to MATA’s funding issues.

Justin Fox Burks

Members of the Memphis Bus Riders Union (MBRU), an advocacy group of bus riders founded by “Mother” Georgia A. King, will point out instances where previous significant funding awards were dedicated to reinstating the downtown trolley system instead of restoring key services to underserved neighborhoods and increasing the overall effectiveness of routes outside of downtown. Members of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 713, who have partnered with the MBRU, agree. In his Commercial Appeal column, Garrison identifies the restarting of the trolleys as an important goal for future MATA operations. MBRU members are long past disappointment at these statements, instead attributing the seeming dismissal of their concerns to a longstanding philosophy that prioritizes the concerns of business-minded developers over those of everyday citizens.

The Memphis Bus Riders Union has called the 31 Crosstown “a lifeline” for thousands of Memphians who often could not afford the cost or upkeep of a vehicle and lived in segregation far from their jobs or schools. MATA employees credit the 2012 Short Range Transit Plan (SRTP), conducted by Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates, as key to their decision to consolidate old routes into the new 42 Crosstown route. The SRTP did indeed call for consolidation of routes that used the same thoroughfares. It also positioned downtown Memphis as MATA’s strongest market for riders, criticized circuitous neighborhood routes, and identified MATA’s current funding woes vis-à-vis cities with similar populations and transit system considerations. But the SRTP also cited North Memphis, South Memphis, and Frayser as rapidly increasing transit use neighborhoods and advised MATA about the necessity of broad geographic coverage for riders.

I am a former bus rider. My first time catching the 31 Crosstown bus was when I was 8 years old: I rode it to school. In times when my family didn’t have a car, we relied on it to get to work and run household errands, like buying groceries and paying bills. I caught the 31 Crosstown at a stop on the corner of Firestone and Tully — a stop that does not exist on the 42 Crosstown’s current route. My ride on the 31 Crosstown would end at the intersection of Vollintine and Watkins, where I would then cross both streets to catch the 10 Watkins to Delano Elementary School. If I had to catch the current bus, the 42 Crosstown, I would have to find some way to get to the Vollintine and Watkins stop, the closest stop on the 42 Crosstown’s route to my home in North Memphis. If I were a student trying to get to Manassas High School from New Chicago, which my younger brother currently does, I would have to walk a mile down Firestone, a street full of industrial blight with few safe crosswalks or sidewalks. Students of the former Northside High School who have been re-zoned to Manassas face an even longer walk to their new school.

The increased difficulty of student access has undoubtedly led to closures of historic neighborhood schools like Northside and Booker T. Washington. People who live in the neighborhood now called Uptown have no real route out of their community and into employment or shopping districts of the city. I imagine that the same reality exists for residents of the Riverview-Kansas neighborhood that bookended the southern end of the 31 Crosstown’s route. Reinstating the former routes or creating new routes that more adequately serve neighborhood residents would be a start to fixing this. Investing funding toward repairing these routes in addition to repairing the trolleys would work as well.

Memphis cannot continue to provide inadequate transit services to its riders. Our ineffecient, underfunded transit system contributes to the massive economic and racial segregation that affects countless citizens in this city, and we continue that segregation to our own detriment. According to a 2015 report from the American Public Transportation Association, every dollar we spend on a safe, effective public transit system can generate $4 in economic returns. Public transit drives the local economy and directly generates business sales, revenues and new private investment through ridership expansion and an increasingly mobile workforce.

Memphis is enjoying a period of exciting growth right now, but continued equitable development depends on a strong, reliable public transit system that adequately serves all citizens. As is the case with so many other public concerns, true change in this area will require work from everyone, not just those concerned or an affected few.

Troy L. Wiggins is a Memphian and writer whose work has appeared in the Memphis Noir anthology and Make Memphis magazine.

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Opinion Viewpoint

MATA Needs More Funding

In response to The Memphis Flyer cover story: “Bus Stopped: The Battle over Route 31” published on December 1st, there is one key point we all can agree on: Memphis needs and deserves a reliable and efficient transportation system.

As chief executive officer of Memphis Area Transit Authority, it is my mission to be able to deliver this.

But public transportation requires a healthy investment. We all recognize that when public transportation is properly funded, it yields the results the community desires, including access to work, school, recreational activities, the doctor’s office, worship, and to visit family and friends. It also delivers a healthy boost to economic development throughout the community.

Since my arrival in Memphis two years ago, I have been emphasizing this point to our elected officials, community leaders, customers, general public, the news media, and anyone who will listen.

Ron Garrison

I understand the frustration many feel over the decision several years ago to eliminate the 31 Crosstown. For those who may not be familiar with the history behind the 31 Crosstown, when the decision was made to eliminate Route 31 in 2013 and provide other routes that served the same communities, there was quite a bit of ongoing dialogue even well after the decision was made. Many meetings — including those hosted by MATA and even one-on-one discussions — were held with members of the Memphis City Council and community groups.

When the dialogue about Route 31 resurfaced this summer along with the recent petition drive, I wrote a guest column that was published in the September 25th issue of The Commercial Appeal about the 31 Crosstown to explain the decision again. (Although I was not contacted by the Flyer reporter to comment specifically for the “Bus Stopped: The Battle over Route 31” article, I am glad Ms. Watts included parts of my views that were previously published in the CA.)

The lack of a dedicated source of funding, however, has caused the unfortunate result of trimming service and creating alternative solutions, as we did with Route 31. But we understand our alternative solutions may work for some residents, but not for all.

I deeply respect Georgia “Mother” King and her passion and dedication over this issue, along with the other citizens who have signed the petition, but the main obstacle to restoring Route 31 Crosstown is a matter of dollars and cents.

MATA is underfunded by more than $20 million annually compared to Memphis’ peer transit cities like Louisville.

If this group could help us convey to all of our elected officials that MATA needs a consistent source of funding to help restore public transportation to the level that we need and deserve in the Memphis area, I welcome their assistance.

Right now, it is imperative that we drive the conversation around that single important issue: discovering more funding. After all, public transportation in a city the size of Memphis is an absolute necessity for economic viability, opportunity, and sustainability.

Ron Garrison is the CEO of Memphis Area Transit Authority.

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Cover Feature News

Bus Stopped: The Battle over Route 31

Georgia A. King, 76, is a Memphian who needs her floral-decorated cane to assist in her instantly recognizable, purposeful stride. Whenever she steps out of her apartment near Victorian Village, she is likely to encounter grins and hugs from other Memphians as she makes her way around to her various destinations.   

Most call her “Mother King,” a moniker earned from her reputation, built by decades of organizing work for Memphis’ poor and her involvement with the civil rights movement.  

Since she herself relies on public transportation, pushing for equitable public transportation is high up on King’s exhaustive list of interests and pet projects.

Shortly after the Occupy Memphis protests of 2011, King formed a Transportation Task Force, which would become the Memphis Bus Riders Union in early 2012.

later evolve into the MBRU.

No matter where she is in Memphis — or what else is occupying her time — she watches the Memphis Area Transit Authority buses. “I watch for everything. Is the bus let down for disabled passengers? Does the driver look tired? Are the buses running when they are supposed to?”

King is not alone in her vigilance. She is joined by the other members of MBRU as well as the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 713. Together they monitor the pulse of MATA, and right now one of their major concerns is restoring access to the historic, and once well-used Route 31 Crosstown, which was discontinued in 2013.

Crosstown 31 ran primarily along Cleveland and connected many North and South Memphis neighborhoods. For months, members of MBRU have been knocking on doors in tucked-away neighborhoods that used to bookend the 31. Demographically, these neighborhoods are majority black and marked by the all-too-familiar poverty that disproportionately strangles many black neighborhoods in Memphis.  

Armed with clipboards, volunteers with MBRU have been asking residents to sign their name to a petition and endorse the restoration of Crosstown 31.  

So far, they have more than 1,700 signatures, roughly 900 or so shy of the estimated number of riders that rode Route 31 daily for work and to get necessities, such as groceries, before it was discontinued.

The signatures are important, but they can only change so much, which is why Mother King is hoping city officials are watching and listening to the efforts of the two unions. After all, she says, “If the only people protesting are the ones that need this route, nothing will get done.”

Ron Garrison, CEO of MATA, stands in front of a trolley.

The Cut

When the decision was made to eliminate the 31 in 2013, MATA was facing a $4.5 million deficit in its yearly operating budget. MATA’s then chief executive officer, William Hudson, said that route eliminations would be necessary in order for MATA to continue to operate. Among other route changes that were made that year, a new route No. 42 Crosstown was created that combined and replaced Route 10 Watkins, Route 43 Elvis Presley, and the Crosstown 31.

At the time, Hudson defined vulnerable routes as ones with a low ridership, specifically 25 or fewer customers per hour. However, study findings in the Short Range Transit Plan, a transit study produced by independent consulting firm Nelson/Nygaard just two years prior to its cut, showed Crosstown 31 as Memphis’ third highest-used bus route, with an average of 2,600 riders daily. The route was second only to the 43 Elvis Presley, which funneled 2,700 daily riders between the heart of the city and South Memphis neighborhoods.

If you spread 2,600 riders over 19 hours of operation, the 31 had an average of 136 riders per hour. Unless there was a drastic (and undocumented) decline in Route 31’s ridership in the two years between the study findings and the route’s elimination, the old Crosstown route didn’t fit Hudson’s definition of low ridership.  

A few years later, it wasn’t the number of daily riders that MATA officials pointed to in defending the cutting of Route 31. Rather, it was a finding of the same SRTP study that said MATA would save funds by combining two of its five highest-used routes.

Very Long Walks, Very Few Stops

In a September 2016 guest column in The Commercial Appeal, MATA’s CEO, Ron Garrison, acknowledged the movement to restore Route 31 and pointed to the SRTP study findings that said “at the time” MATA would save money forming the new No. 42 Crosstown — which also connects North and South Memphis — by eliminating duplicate routes while still being able to adequately serve customers on both ends.

“Fast forward to today, and MATA still serves those communities with Route 42 and six other routes,” Garrison wrote, specifically referring to the New Chicago and Riverview-Kansas neighborhoods.

At last count, there are 1,700 petition signatures that say otherwise.  

“There’s definitely no proof of that,” said Carnita Atwater, the executive director of the New Chicago Community Development Corporation. “Because the 42 won’t circle around some of these neighborhoods.”

Atwater keeps frequent tabs on the residents of the New Chicago area through her work at the NCCDC. Half community center and half museum, the NCCDC is a bustling hub within an economically depressed area. From the building, you can see the towering smokestack of the long-closed Firestone Tire and Rubber Company — a reminder that steady jobs were once considerably more plentiful in the area. Now many of the residents are dependent on the bus to reach their jobs.

Atwater says MATA’s new route isn’t working. “I can tell you that many people have lost their jobs because of [the elimination of] Route 31. We did questionnaires after, and we can verify that.”

Like King, Atwater’s concern is focused on the dozens of smaller neighborhoods that the new Crosstown route doesn’t directly extend to and that feeder routes don’t regularly reach.  

“Most people out here don’t even own a bicycle, and walking to the nearest stop certainly isn’t always an option,” Atwater says. And jobs aren’t her only concern.

“Another major concern is families not being able to go into other communities to see family members. And churches. If you live in North Memphis, but your church is in South Memphis, you’re out of luck, come Sunday.”

According to Google Maps, 60 churches are directly on or within a few blocks of the old Route 31.

Down the line in South Memphis, the Riverview-Kansas neighborhood tells a similar tale. Just like New Chicago, recent census data shows the South Memphis neighborhood to be majority black and with a disproportionate amount of residents living in poverty and with a high unemployment rate.

The Riverview-Kansas area wa s once the south loop for Route 31, and it shares the challenges that New Chicago has with MATA’s 31 replacement plan: lots of residential pockets that would require a resident to either walk an hour or more —  and cross over an interstate — to access the new Crosstown route, or use multiple bus transfers.  

Neither one of those options work for those facing some degree of immobility, or for those who are so financially strapped that transfers must be carefully budgeted.

In fact, data gathered by the Center for Neighborhood Technology, a research-based think tank for urban sustainability, shows the costs of public transportation for residents living in both neighborhoods comprises more than 20 percent of their take-home income.

Coming Soon to Crosstown …

The opening date for the Crosstown Concourse in the former Sears building has been set for May 2017, and among what have been dubbed as the “founding tenants” is Church Health Center, which has as its primary purpose serving the working poor. Its new location in the Concourse means that affordable health care is shifting a few blocks north from the health center’s current location on Peabody, to a location more in the middle of the Midtown/downtown area.  

For the new Crosstown bus route, the question becomes whether or not the route and its feeders can efficiently and economically bring residents from New Chicago and Kansas-Riverside to the Concourse for health-care access, not to mention the hundreds of jobs that will be available in the area once the Concourse opens.

“Crosstown, interestingly enough, was called Crosstown because it was once the easiest place to get to in Memphis,” says Church Health Center founder Scott Morris. “It was once where the trolley lines crossed, and so it was the easiest place to get to in Memphis.”

In Morris’ view, current public transit deficits have resulted from a mixture of decades of underfunding and a lack of creativity and cutting-edge solutions from previous administrations.  

“I’ve looked at their finances over time, and I don’t know how they do what they do,” said Morris.  

For the purposes of the CHC, Morris is more concerned that Memphians reliant on public transit have the routes they need to get to school and work.  

“The number one predictor of anyone’s health and outcome is their education, not their doctor,” says Morris. He says that most of the CHC’s patients, at the very least, have their transportation to work figured out, since a person must be employed to receive services from the CHC. But Morris is still concerned about the problems associated with the loss of Route 31 and the problems concerning MATA as a whole.

Referring to Garrison as “intriguing,” Morris says he has spent enough time around MATA’s leader to determine that he “doesn’t have his head stuck in the sand.” While Morris isn’t entirely familiar with all of the dynamics of restoring Route 31, he says it’s a conversation that neither he nor Garrison is ignoring.

Morris says that solutions offered in lieu of Route 31 work for some, but not all. He adds, particularly around Crosstown, that people are “thinking long and hard and deep about this issue.  

“I met with Garrison last week, and I was saying, ‘We have to make this work for everyone at Crosstown. It can’t be just about the middle- and upper-class people who are coming there to work,'” said Morris, who continued to say, “I was singing to the choir when I was talking to him. My personal feeling was that he got it.”

Elena Delavega, PhD, University of Memphis Department of Social Work. Research published August 15, 2014.

What Everyone Agrees On (Money, Money, Money)

What’s to be done — if anything is to be done — about communities affected by Route 31’s elimination remains to be seen.

But, if there’s one sentiment that MBRU, Local 713, Morris, and Garrison can all agree upon, it’s that decades of inadequate funding of Memphis’ buses have created a swath of problems without clear solutions.

Route 31 has become a focal point for conversation and action, but it’s also just one problem in a public transit system that’s beleaguered by an aging fleet, outdated infrastructure, inadequate bus stop shelters, and sometimes inconsistent stops on established routes.

Where there are inadequate transit services, poverty is sure to follow, as we know from mountains of data compiled over the years. The most recent poverty figures (compiled in 2014 by data guru Elena Delavega at the University of Memphis) shows a startling income disparity between those who drive to work and those who use public transportation.  

Residents living in the major Memphis metropolitan area who drive to work have a median income of $34,199. The median income for those who use public transit is just $16,450.

If that bus rider’s median income supports more than one person, they are officially below the poverty line. While, it’s unclear how many children living in poverty rely on a public-transit dependent adult, the links between transportation access and earning capacity are statistically quite apparent.

How much can Garrison do to fix the system? His course of action is ultimately tied to how much money the city council is willing to put into MATA’s budget.

In the meantime, the city’s two transportation unions plan to keep pushing to publicize the challenges facing citizens dependent on public transportation — and for the money to address the issues.

Until that happens, citizens like Georgia King plan to keep watching the buses. “This isn’t about one person, this is about us as a city,” she says. “We’re locked in together. We’d love to get out, but we can’t … so here we are.”

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News The Fly-By

MATA President Won’t Give Start Date for Trolley System

CREDIT: Joshua Cannon

The good, the bad, and the confusing: That seemed to be Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) President Ron Garrison’s theme when he provided new details — but no start date — on the progress of the trolley system’s rehabilitation.

“It’s all about telling the truth,” Garrison said at a trolley update meeting last week at Leadership Memphis. “It’s not easy work. There’s no way to do it any faster while doing it safely. Everything we’re doing will make it so that we are the standard for the rest of the country. That’s the standard the Federal Transit Administration is holding us to, and that’s a very good thing. When you get on the trolleys, you’ll be safe.”

Since two fires on the Madison Line shut the trolley system down in June 2014, MATA has taken steps to implement an updated system. Funding shortfalls, however, and a lack of experienced workers have stalled the process. But, as MATA enters a six-phase plan that will result in 11 certified trolleys being back on line, the transit authority might almost be on track.

Joshua Cannon

Ron Garrison

Garrison, additional MATA representatives, and Memphis congressman Steve Cohen recently met with Federal Transit Administration (FTA) administrator Carolyn Flowers in Washington, D.C. MATA left the capital with $3.3 million to purchase new trolleys. The city of Memphis voted to give MATA $1 million to purchase a trolley as well.

“FTA is doing what they can to help us,” Garrison said. “They are coming here to meet with us in July. They advised me not give a start date even if I had one.”

Reluctance to announce a timeline is in part due to 181 documents that MATA must produce throughout the rehabilitation process. So far, 96 documents have been submitted, but only about 15 are completed.

“They have to go through a certified … national railroad consulting firm, of which we don’t have but need to get,” Garrison said. “Then it goes to FTA, their consultants, and their engineers. Then it goes to the Tennessee Department of Transportation, their consultants, and their engineers. Then it has to go through FTA Safety in Washington D.C., their staff, and their two consultants … Then we have to do it again, it goes out again, it comes back to us again, and we have to finalize it through a safety certification committee.”

Much of the trolley rehabilitation will happen in-house, Garrison said. The trolleys will receive outward-facing doors, new pantographs that will reduce the risk of fires, fireproof insulation, and a safer, low-voltage wiring system. Memphis will be the first in the country to move their entire system to low-voltage wiring, Garrison said.

“Right now, we have two trolleys that have been rehabilitated,” Garrison said. “We’re taking every single aspect of these trolleys and making them like new. From here on out, it would be nearly impossible for anything like what happened to happen in the future. What we’re putting in place will probably be the safest in the country.”

Rehabilitating the trolley’s trucks, which carry the cars along the tracks, is costly. MATA sent eight trucks to be rebuilt off-site, each costing about $47,000. The overall rehabilitation goes hand-in-hand with restructuring the standards of the trolley system. Garrison said MATA’s maintenance staff are being retrained and certified.

At the beginning of each month, MATA will post progress reports to their website until the last document is complete. The transit authority will then perform a four- to eight-week simulated service to ensure the trolleys are safe.

“I came to Memphis to fix this because I believe it’s the right thing to do,” Garrison said. “Memphis has been in my heart since I started coming here in the ’60s. I have a photo of my daughter, who just turned 17 years old, when she was 2 years old on the trolley when Peabody Place was still running. It might be providence.”

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News News Blog

MATA, MPO Create Survey To Improve Bus Stop Standards

The Memphis Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (Memphis MPO) and the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) have partnered to improve the quality of bus stops throughout the city.

Complaints pertaining to bus stop standards prompted the organizations to create a survey. The survey will close on July 31. MPO and MATA will assess the answers and form a new set of guidelines to make the bus stops more comfortable and accessible for citizens. 

Take the survey here. 

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News The Fly-By

MATA Board to Consider Service Changes

Following an announcement from Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) CEO Ron Garrison that the city’s bus system could collapse without additional funding, the transit authority will vote on various service changes as MATA prepares for an upcoming fiscal year looming with uncertainty.

“We are mostly concerned with the future,” said Sammie Hunter, the co-chair of the Memphis Bus Riders Union. “This is nothing compared to what we might face in July if MATA does not receive the funding request they made to the city. People need access to the whole city to have better options and improve their situation.”

Three timing changes, six service changes, eight routing changes, the removal of the President’s Island route (which carried less than five riders for all of February), and five new routes are tucked away in MATA’s proposed changes. MATA’s board will vote on the changes on March 21st, and, if approved, the changes will go into effect on May 1st.

The changes are a cost-neutral plan to address Memphians’ concerns about on-time performance and bus connections while MATA awaits Mayor Jim Strickland’s budget proposal in April.

“Additional funding would negate the need to cut bus service in July 2017,” Garrison said. “Instead, MATA will be able to improve on-time performance and make service more reliable.”

Garrison has been vocal about MATA’s need for increased capital funding, as they have relied on capital dollars to satisfy operational needs. When the new fiscal year begins on July 1st, Garrison said MATA would need an increase of $7 million for the operating budget and $5 million in capital funding.

“Not only are we way underfunded, but we have buses that should have been retired years ago — probably to the tune of about 60 buses,” Garrison said. “Some of them have over 700,000 miles. We had to borrow money from the city twice last year and bridge funding we had to pay back just to make payroll.”

The bus rider’s union’s worries center around route cuts and inadequate shelters at the new transfer locations, Hunter said. One proposal would make the Frayser Plaza Shopping Center a major connection point. Hawkins Mill Route 18, a new feeder route, would replace the north end loop on Crosstown Route 42, which has the second highest ridership, according to Hunter.

“Without increasing service and building adequate shelters at these new transfer locations, folks will be waiting for their transfers out in the elements,” Hunter said. “Those who can only afford a one way pass will be forced to pay twice as much as they normally pay per day or walk the rest of the way.”

MATA touts 9.3 million passenger trips per year and currently operates 109 buses. Justin Workman, a 31-year-old food industry worker, has relied on the bus system since the age of 18. Scheduling a trip across town is often unpredictable, Workman said.

“The routing and scheduling make it nearly impossible to rely on it as a sole means of transportation,” Workman said. “Try to take a bus to Wolfchase Galleria from downtown or Midtown — I hope you have the entire day.”

The bus system could see a few positive changes by the end of year with MATA’s Short Range Transit Plan, which was announced last week. It would streamline routes, add express service, and make the system easier to navigate and understand, and they say those changes can be made without significantly increasing operating costs.

But, overall, MATA’s service will abate or improve based on the city budget when the clock restarts this fiscal year, Hunter said. Solutions, such as having Shelby County chip in, he says, need to be addressed.

“The city has got to look at its budget with compassion for the working class people,” Hunter said. “No amount of police or downtown development will solve the problems we have. We can start by allocating the funds to MATA that it needs to make it through this fiscal year without more cuts. Then we can look at long-term solutions.”

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News The Fly-By

MATA Plans Trolley Return

CREDIT: Memphis Area Transit Authority

While the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) is building a trolley system “that will never allow anything unsafe to happen again,” its leaders say they are working even harder on procuring new buses to replenish its aging fleet.

Two weeks ago, the Memphis City Council approved MATA’s purchase of a fully restored trolley that looks identical to MATA’s familiar, larger trolleys. The price tag was just north of $950,000, but the council also allowed MATA access to its full, current-year trolley budget of $2.25 million.

MATA president Ron Garrison said the move will leverage the $2.25 million into the equivalent of $11 million to purchase three or four trolley cars, after a set of funding maneuvers through state and federal channels.

Memphis Area Transit Authority

MATA has purchased this rebuilt, vintage trolley to add to its fleet.

Limited rail trolley service could begin again here, he said, with a couple of trolleys working in conjunction with the trolley buses. Those buses could be retired if MATA had 10 rail trolleys up and running, Garrison said.

MATA has the resources to rebuild or buy “nine, maybe 10” trolleys at present, he said. To operate at full capacity, the Memphis trolley rail system requires 20 trolleys.

Trolleys are just one piece of the overall fix for the Memphis rail system. The other pieces are parts of the rail system itself. Garrison said since the trolley system was closed in 2014 after two trolley cars caught fire, MATA has repaired and upgraded portions of the trolley tracks, the catenary lines that run over the trolleys and provide them power, and power stations along the entire rail system.

“What we’re putting in place is a system that will never allow anything unsafe to happen again,” Garrison said. “What we’re putting in place is what the rest of the country will look to when they want to do vintage trolley start-ups.”

Garrison said he’d like rail trolleys to run again here this spring but said “it’s going to be much longer than that,” noting it would be “foolhardy” to come up with a date for the trolleys’ return.

Over the past few months, members of the Memphis Bus Riders Association (MBRA) and others have voiced frustrations on the perception that MATA has prioritized trolleys over buses.

“Just last month a bus was burning on the news,” said Cynthia Bailey, MBRA co-chair. “You only get so many favors from these legislators, and I’m afraid they’ve been spent getting funds for the trolleys. We don’t see any five-year plan to get millions for these buses like they’ve done for the trolleys.”

Garrison said he’s aware of the criticism, but he said that as hard as MATA is working on getting trolleys, the agency is working even harder to purchase new buses, calling that project “our main goal.”

MATA needs about 55 new buses for its fleet, an order that would cost about $24 million, Garrison said. To get there, Garrison said he’s talked with Mayor Jim Strickland about the need and will soon meet with individual city council members. Also, MATA is investigating new sources of funds to buy the buses.

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News The Fly-By

Transportation Forum Finds Citizens Want More Pedestrian-Friendly City

Crumbling sidewalks, underfunded public transit, and disconnected bike lanes were at the top of the list for Memphians who attended a public forum at the Benjamin L. Hooks Library last week to discuss the transportation needs of the city.

“We need to keep the role of the government in mind,” said Dennis Lynch, the transportation chair for the Tennessee chapter of the Sierra Club, which hosted the discussion. “If the things we’re doing aren’t for the people, they aren’t the right things. We need to push for the things we think we need.”

Attendees brainstormed various ideas to alleviate what many believe is a situation in dire need of a solution. Among the proposals: buses that run on time and to more locations on a frequent schedule; sidewalks and streets that are safe for all citizens; more availability to rent tandem bicycles; for Congressman Steve Cohen to support the local allocation of federal funds and allow more local power over how those funds are spent; and to install more parking meters to encourage people to use public transit as a way to save money.

Lynch said the input would be taken to Mayor Jim Strickland, the Memphis City Council, the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA), and the Metropolitan Planning Organization.

Broken, uneven sidewalks and missing curb ramps leave those like Steve Collins, who is disabled and relies on his wheelchair and public transportation, at a disadvantage.

Collins’ route is contained to Poplar, where he’s pinpointed at least 19 “problem spots.” At Poplar and White Station, Collins said there are four corners and only two curb cuts, which forces him to travel into the street.

The issue of damaged sidewalks is not so black and white. In Memphis, property owners are responsible for sidewalk repair. A 1967 city law states that owners of properties abutting any public street are “required to provide and maintain adjacent to his or her property a sidewalk.” The city has made efforts to assist low-income residents, but the problem is still open-ended for Memphians like Collins.

“We have met with the city about this, and they tell us that it is the state’s problem because [Poplar] is a state highway,” Collins said. “The state says it is a city problem because it is Poplar Avenue. My question is this: If I die at that intersection, where does my widow send the bill for the funeral?”

Kyle Wagenschutz, bicycle and pedestrian program manager for the city of Memphis, said obstacles within funding resources, or the lack thereof, can leave “some things waiting in the wings.” Bike lanes, for instance, are routinely added as streets are repaved. However, the city will soon begin construction on a grant-funded project to update more roads with bike lanes.

“These are all roads that are not being repaved but that new bike lanes are going to be installed without repaving,” Wagenschutz said. “All of those were chosen based on the idea of connecting the missing pieces and missing segments of the network.”

Developing dedicated sources to fund MATA is key, said Suzanne Carlson, Innovate Memphis’ transportation and mobility project manager.

“There’s a lack of funding to go around,” Carlson said. “Right now, [MATA] goes to city council and [receives] federal funds. Some are guaranteed, and some are competitive that they might not get every year.”

Though they have continually received budget cuts over the last few years, MATA President Ron Garrison said they are “in the process of rebuilding MATA.” After the 2010 census numbers were released, MATA lost upwards of $1.6 million dollars in federal funding as well as some state funding. But this fiscal year, they have a “tiny bit of money” left over, Garrison said. Additionally, Garrison said MATA is implementing new ideas such as partnering with Uber and TransLoc.

“Over the next two years, you’re going to see tremendous improvements,” Garrison said. “Over the next five years, we can make MATA a great transit system again. We’re fixing on-time performance, changing the culture, and correctly funding our facilities, buses, and transit stops so that our customers have a very positive experience.”

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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 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].”