This month, the Gateway Cities and Westside Central Service Councils will hold a joint meeting dedicated to the West Santa Ana Branch Transit Corridor (WSAB) project. The Draft Environmental Impact Statement/Report (DEIS/R) for the WSAB project was recently released; more information can be found here.
At their July meeting, the Westside Central Service Council requested more time to review their Annual Work Plan, and agreed to meet in August to adopt the FY22 version. The rest of the Service Councils are taking August off, and will resume regular meetings in September.
Also this month, the Service Councils will convene for their first Meet and Confer with new CEO Stephanie Wiggins. The Meet and Confer meetings are quarterly gatherings of all five Regional Service Councils to meet with the CEO and discuss items of interest to the entire Metro service region.
These meetings will all be held on Thursday, August 12 as follows:
Meet and Confer with CEO – 2 to 4 p.m.
Joint Gateway Cities-Westside/Central Service Meeting for West Santa Ana Branch Transit Corridor Project briefing – 6 p.m.
Westside/Central Meeting to adopt FY22 Work Plan – 7:30 p.m.
All Service Council meetings will continue to be held virtually through at least September. With that, the Service Councils would like to know: have you attended a Service Council virtual meeting? Do you think the meetings should continue to provide a virtual option to the public once in-person meetings resume? What would encourage you to attend, or make it easier for you to attend a Service Council meeting? Let us know your thoughts, as the Service Councils will be discussing these topics in upcoming months.
Service Council meeting agendas are always posted here at least 3 days before the meeting, with links to the presentations and to submit comments to be read during the meeting, as well as information on how to call and comment by phone during the meeting. A link to stream the meeting goes live here when each meeting starts.
To submit public comments to the Service Councils, you can:
· Submit an online comment before or during the meeting through the links on the agendas posted here. Click on “comment” for the item you’d like to submit remarks for. This feature remains active throughout the meeting.
· Send an email to servicecouncils@metro.net. Please include which Service Council and agenda item number your comments are for.
· Mail your comments, noting the Service Council and agenda item number to:
Regional Service Councils
One Gateway Plaza MS: 99-7-1
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Online comments are accepted throughout the meetings. Email and mail comments must be received by 5 p.m. the day before the meeting to be read into the public record during the meeting.
Want to receive links to the agendas when they’re posted? Send an email to servicecouncils@metro.net with the Council you’re interested in receiving agendas for.
Categories: Transportation News
The NextGen Plan is getting more worst of join the movement, no more era by creating with that NextGen Plan idea but everybody knows Metro does not care. Apparently, right after phase 3 service changes so the Metro needs to start preparing for restore the Rapid Bus Lines proposal or if not the Metro will not be restore of the Rapid Bus Lines proposal right after phase 3 service changes so then it gets lot of worst. The Rapid Bus Lines is higher frequency of better service for commute and not local bus lines. Just what happen the NextGen Plan with restructing of due to cancelation and truncated on the Rapid Bus Lines. The Metro should be holding off and reject NextGen Plan in first place with down to 80%. For example, why the Metro is not keeping some of the bus lines are temporarily suspended during the pandemic until demands returns of further notice just like other transit agencies such as OCTA and RTA without NextGen Plan result. That’s why the Metro need be focused and start to listen and doing right thing before the pandemic. I know some of people doesn’t like the NextGen Plan movement because it was inconvenient and tried to leaving one seat to another seat by forcing transfer to the other bus lines.
When exactly will metro extend the 182 to Indiana/Olympic or will the 665 stay in service?
MTA should not need passengers’ reports of late and missing buses because MTA has a tracking system that could be used to determine which lines and operators are a problem. For many of us frequent bus riders, late and missing buses have long been a major concern. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for MTA. I don’t recall MTA touting its excellent bus on-time rates or stating that they were striving to improve them. The passenger surveys they used to hand out on MTA buses asked about all manner of things, but *not* how often the buses arrived on time.
After years of submitting written complaints about late and missing buses (and other issues) it has recently occurred to me that MTA does not care. And that’s because they have no meaningful oversight, no critical media reporting, and no rider advocacy groups to hold them accountable. Until they do, all the individual rider complaints in the world won’t make a difference.
Hi Sellers;
FWIW, we did ask about bus arrival times on surveys — you can see past surveys here and please see page 2 for the question about arrival time: https://media.metro.net/projects_studies/research/images/infographics/fall_2019__onboard_survey_results_and_trend_report.pdf
Before I go further, you have every right to complain and I’m sure your experiences are valid. I do, however, think it’s worth mentioning that our new CEO Stephanie Wiggins make it abundantly clear in Operations Committee in July that she wants a more customer-focused agency. The pandemic has not been easy — the spring 2020 surge and winter 2020-21 surge resulted in staff absences that in turn resulted in missing trips. And there has certainly been staff turnover (as many employers are experiencing).
Not excuses, but perhaps some context. Thanks for riding and writing,
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
Hi Sellers—
I wanted to drop in to say that I chair one of the Service Councils that meets monthly and reviews the bus on-time data, and I for one do care quite a bit about the timeliness of arrivals (and your individual experience running late, as well).
From my vantage point on the Service Council and during our meetings, our usual data looks more like a report from Metro about the number of missed connection complaints filed (as opposed to me hearing your story in a staff report). That said, the complaint number as tracked by the agency should be low and dropping. We both know plenty of people miss their buses each day and don’t formally notify Metro, but when someone takes the time it should count.
This bus system belongs to all of us and needs to serve us all well, but I’m most interested in late or absent buses that should run through the Gateway Cities, because that’s my position. Also, the meeting being advertised above should give riders a chance to engage around all negative experiences in any part of the network. I hope the Council can be in partnership with you to improve the ride.
Hi Danny,
Late and missing buses aren’t just a problem for riders going to jobs or making connections to other conveyances. They also cause difficulties for people who need to arrive at their destinations as soon as reasonably possible for any number of reasons. Maybe they have dependents waiting for them, or they must limit their time in the heat, or they’re exhausted and need to rest at home. Late buses also create a safety risk when operators shorten or skip their layover breaks in an attempt to get back on schedule.
MTA creates the schedules and has bus tracking data that could be used to pinpoint on-time failures. Operators, if free to speak without fear of reprisal, are best able to explain why they fall more than ten-minutes behind schedule. Management should use that information to make necessary changes like adjusting schedules, providing better operator training, making sure operators begin their shifts on time, offering bonuses to operators who work routes that are difficult or unpopular, etc. None of this requires passenger input.
Passengers have a right to on-time service in all but the most unusual circumstances. This *should* be a core MTA tenet.
I haven’t ridden MTA buses often enough in the past 16 months to know what on-time issues remain in my area. Like many former frequent MTA bus riders, my current concerns center around remaining Covid-free and coping with the service cuts and bus stop cancellations MTA began enacting in December 2020. Hundreds of comments, complaints, and recommendations from MTA customers regarding these and other issues can be found on MTA’s Facebook pages and websites.
Ms. Sellers
Lets talk about buses just not showing up. First, the 115 on a saturday evening. No show. The next morning, and owl run (40) totally ghost. As I type this, a 108 has not showed.
I depend on this system to work, and this is killing me after being out of work for months and just being able to catch up on rent. I am afraid I am going to lose my job because of these snags.
I used to work in transportation and my job was eliminated/automated so my quality of life has been reduced drastically. This is really depressing since I felt like there was a little bit of momentum since the “great reopening”, but we are in deep trouble in this city. Deep deep trouble.
Not to mention when buses do show up, we CANNOT SOCIALLY DISTANCE!!!!!!!
Hi Real Transit Rider;
I’m sorry to hear about the no shows. If you have the time, could you please email me the details of the no shows you describe at hymons@metro.net? Thank you,
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
Service, what service? For the past month I have tried to contact the Metro Board Secretary to see when the renting of Union Station
to the Academy of Motion Pictures for ONE MONTH and to the inconvenience (I was there) of as many as two million Metro customers (Metro’s figure) was discussed at a Board meeting? After leaving five messages on the Secretary’s message machine, I never got an answer! So in frustration, I called CEO Wiggins’ office today. Ten minutes later the Board Secretary called me and asked what I wanted? What she told me was that the rental ($910,000–Metro’s figure) was never discussed by the Board and thus the public never had a opportunity to voice an opinion, one way or the other, about the wisdom of tying up Union Station for the entire month of April! OUTRAGEOUS!