Boston riders rail against MBTA

Boston riders rail against MBTA
By Marie Szaniszlo / Herald Exclusive | Friday, September 19, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage
Photo
Photo by Patrick Whittemore

Fifteen months after vowing to crack down on churlish employees, the MBTA is still being bombarded with thousands of complaints about subway and bus drivers doing everything from chatting on cell phones to cursing at riders, a Herald review shows.

One passenger on the Route 501 bus called the agency to complain that “the operator is constantly angry, always has an attitude and makes a lot of faces at people,” according to T records.

“Customer stated the (bus) operator saw someone running for the bus, he slowed down and then just pulled off.”

Douglas Armstrong, 48, of Roxbury recalled being berated by a Route 28 bus driver because he didn’t have the right fare.

“I said, ‘I have $5. Can I ask someone for change?’ ” Armstrong said Wednesday. “She said, ‘No, you’re supposed to have it when you get on. If you don’t, get the (expletive) off.’ ”

When another passenger gave him the change, Armstrong said, the driver told him, “ ‘Next time, (expletive), you have the right change when you get on my bus.’ ”

From April to August, the MBTA received 14,335 bus, subway and commuter rail complaints in all, up more than 13 percent from the same period last year, when the T began tracking complaints electronically.

Subway complaints climbed the most - 25.58 percent - followed by commuter rail (17.10 percent) and bus beefs (7.77 percent).

All told, riders registered 3,460 complaints about T bus drivers, 751 about subway workers and 521 about commuter rail employees.

To address obnoxious employees, the T said in June 2007 it had replaced its “Positive Performance Counseling Program” with an actual discipline policy.

Yesterday, spokesman Joe Pesaturo said offending employees get a written warning, followed by a progression of one-, three- and five-day unpaid suspensions, with a final warning on the third and, afterward, firing.

However, Pesaturo could not specify how many had been disciplined as a result of complaints, adding that the number of complaints compared to the number of T riders each day is “infinitesimal.”

The agency recorded 134,456,000 trips from April to July, up from the 129,968,000 trips in the same period last year.

“I would imagine the number of complaints would increase with the number of riders we’ve seen,” T boss Daniel A. Grabauskas said. “My goal is to maintain the increase in ridership and decrease the overall complaint volume.”

Asked this week if he had any complaints of his own, 39-year-old commuter Anderson Gray of Dorchester said, “Where do you want me to start?”

Gray recalled a recent incident in which a bus driver refused to lower a ramp for a disabled woman struggling to get on board.

Then on Wednesday, he said, he was on a half-full Route 23 bus when the driver picked him up and proceeded to bypass the next stop, leaving people there waving at her to no avail.

“Other drivers will be on their cell phone and almost miss a stop and slam on the brakes so you almost fall,” Gray said. “But when you call to report something, a lot of times all you get is a recording, or you’re on hold for so long, you hang up.”

Asked how the T could be improved, Jen Boyden, 23, of Arlington said, “Maybe an attitude adjustment.”

Boyden recalled a 45-minute delay last week on the Red Line. By the time the full train reached Kendall Station, she said, the conductor was “yelling at people” over the intercom.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1120069