Seniors worry about the future of Westmoreland Transit's shared ride program

Marionne Croake is a firm believer in the Westmoreland County Transit Authority's shared ride program but worries about its future.

The Senior Shared Ride Program provides door-to-door transportation to senior citizens 65 and older. It is funded through PennDOT and allows seniors to use taxi cabs at a reduced rate.

“I am desperately in need of this program,” said Croake, who is in her 70s. “I am really dependent on this program.”

What has Croake concerned is a change in the paratransit system consolidating it to one provider, National Express of Cincinnati. National won a three-year contract to handle the Shared Ride Program for Westmoreland County for three years at a cost of $14.2 million to the authority. It will start July 1.

Cutting providers

Until now, the program divided the county into thirds. Byers Taxi of Vandergrift covered the northern section of the county, including New Kensington, Arnold and Lower Burrell. Veterans Cab of Latrobe handled Latrobe, Ligonier and the southern end. National Express took care of the central communities such as Greensburg, Irwin and North Huntingdon.

“They (users) shouldn't expect to see a change in the service that they get,” said Alan Blahovec, transit authority executive director. “They are still going to call our office to get a ride.”

“It won't be scheduled any differently, but they may have someone different coming to pick them up, and the vehicles picking them up will also be different,” he said.

Julia Byers Martin, owner of Byers Taxi, said she has provided service under the program for about 30 years. She said she could see the authority moving toward a one-provider system and tried to prepare for it.

“About as prepared as you can be for losing half of your income,” Martin said. “I'm probably going to be laying off 10 to 12 people. I'm not sure yet.”

She said some of her drivers have applied for jobs with National Express.

A local base

“We hope to have no disruption of service whatsoever. We are working very diligently toward that, ” said Mike Rushin, National Express' chief operating officer.

“We'll have three different points of services — New Kensington, Latrobe and Greensburg.”

“In New Kensington, we are going to have a facility where we park all the vehicles; they will be parked indoors,” he said. “Presently, we are in the process of advertising for drivers from the New Kensington area, and we'll have a training program for them before July 1.”

He said that will be done in Latrobe. National has a facility in Greensburg.

Rushin said operating a county-wide paratransit system is not new to National. The company runs such systems in six locations across the country, including Colorado Springs, Colo., and Boston.

The idea is that one company will improve the system's efficiency and save money, Blahovec said. Keeping the service divided would have cost the authority about $16.1 million, he said.

“We figure what it is expected to cost for the year, and then we come up with our fare structure, and that structure is supposed to be able to cover the costs,” Blahovec said. “But the past two years, it hasn't even come close. We've been covering the deficit with reserves.”

Expected fare hike

Blahovec said the authority budget is being prepared, and he expects there will be a different fare structure.

“I do expect it is going to have to change, but I'm not sure to what extent,” Blahovec said. “The fare structure that we come up with will still have to be approved by PennDOT. I think what we will probably end up with is a fare structure based on the number of trips.”

He said passengers probably will have to pay more for longer trips covering 10 or 15 miles.

The paratransit system had been operated by human services programs in the county until the authority took it over two years ago. Problems soon followed as the system's clients complained about things such as trouble scheduling rides and the times rides are available.

“My problem is with what has happened the last three years. It is a progressive constriction of the services ,and it decreased the number of riders,” Croake said.

She and her husband, Lawrence, used the system for the past eight or nine years. He is in an Indiana Township nursing home, and she relies on the program to visit him. Overall, Croake said she uses the program for about 10 trips a week.

Croake mentioned a policy of prohibiting drivers from assisting passengers with walkers and packages as one thing that discourages ridership. However, she said most of the Byers drivers ignored that. Blahovec said drivers are allowed to help a passenger to his or her door but were advised to be careful because it likely meant leaving passengers in the vehicle.

“The drivers were always allowed to help. Some of them just took it to mean that they couldn't do anything,” he said.

‘Will call' returns

A problem Croake noted was the elimination of “will call” return pickup trips from locations across county lines. Instead of calling and scheduling a pickup when she finished a medical appointment in Tarentum, for example, she has to schedule a trip home in advance for two or four hours later to ensure a ride.

“The ‘will call' is very good, and the elimination of it from Allegheny County was a definite hindrance to people using the program,” Croake said.

Blahovec said the “will call” service is being reinstated for people living in areas close to the county line.

“We wanted to open that up because it wasn't fair to people in Arnold and New Kensington because they live so close to the county line,” he said. “We were thinking of about a 10-mile limit.”

He said some of the changes that were made were done to save money but adversely impacted ridership.“(Croake's) right because doing those things discouraged people from riding, so it had some unintended consequences, as well.” Blahovec said.

“We're all hoping that the program is better and more human,” Croake said.

Tom Yerace is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-226-4675 or tyerace@tribweb.com.