Paratransit Recovering From Recent Failures, Officials Say

A rider boards a paratransit van on N. 10th Street. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

Milwaukee County transportation officials said the county’s transit program for residents with disabilities is recovering from service failures in August that brought the system to a point of crisis.

The county’s paratransit program, called Transit Plus, is in the process of switching from two vendors to one for its van program. The system began shifting rides to Transdev, the new sole contractor in August. As its share of rides grew, the French multinational company quickly found that it did not have enough drivers.

Overwhelmed, TransDev was missing pickups or arriving hours late. County residents who rely on this service to get to work, health care appointments and to run errands were being stranded across the county and others began canceling trips as the service became unreliable.

More than a month later, staffing and on-time pickups are both improving, transportation officials said Thursday at a meeting of the county’s Paratransit Task Force. And a new contingency plan is being developed in case service begins to flounder again.

TransDev has improved its timing, Fran Musci, director of paratransit services said. The company is holding steady at 91% of rides being on time. This means that a van arrives within 30 minutes of the scheduled time.

The company has made a hiring push as it prepares to shoulder the county’s entire paratransit program, Musci said. The company held an open house in late September and offered jobs to 90 people, she said. As of the meeting Thursday, the company had 17 people in the classroom portion of training and another 11 training “behind the wheel.”

Though, many applicants aren’t even making it to training, Musci said, “We lose about 50% of them right off the bat because they can’t pass the background check in the drug screen.”

The contract for the county’s other paratransit provider, National Express, expires at the end of October. In the meantime, National Express employees are leaving for other employment and they are beginning to experience a staffing squeeze, said Sandra Kellner, Milwaukee County Transit System chief administrative officer.

Paratransit drivers are represented by the same union that represents MCTS operators: Amalgamated Transit Union Local 998 (ATU). MCDOT officials are working with ATU to keep as many National Express drivers on staff as they can until the very end of the contract, at which time they will shift to TransDev.

“We have a contingency plan that we’re working on to use MCTS resources, drivers and vehicles, to pick up riders if necessary,” Musci said. “If it looks like National Express isn’t going to be able to do it, then we will go out and pick people up so that we are making sure everyone is getting back and getting where they need to go.”