EMTA’s communication was terrible during snowstorms
Kudos to Erie Metropolitan Transit Authority bus drivers, who showed up for work during the New Year’s weekend snow emergency and did the best they could getting riders to their jobs and other important destinations.
As for EMTA management, they deserve a big bag of coal cinders.
During this emergency there should have been a live person available from start to end of the bus operations for those days to provide desperately needed information to riders regarding detours, stuck vehicles, tracker glitches, whether or not a route was still running, whether or not a driver would be able to get into a certain stop, or whether or not the buses were still running at all.
Riders couldn’t do that because there was nobody at the EMTA office — not on the Facebook page, not on the website, not on the phones. And the online bus trackers had their own shortcomings during the storm.
Also, during the Wednesday, Dec. 27, storm, dozens of desperate inquiries were left unanswered, and EMTA apparently stopped Facebook updates after the office closed at 4:30 p.m. Riders kept asking the Facebook page what was going on, only to be answered with silence.
For people desperate to find out how to get to work, or where they should wait, or wondering why their bus never came, this must have been beyond upsetting. In many cases, it could have had real consequences regarding work, pay or physical health.
Earlier this year EMTA management seemed surprised when the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation found that EMTA had a significant loss in ridership. This sort of unconscionable disregard for the people relying on EMTA should help to clear up that mystery for them.
— Deb Spilko, Erie
Link: http://www.goerie.com/opinion/20180118/emtas-communication-was-terrible-during-snowstorms-letters-to-editor
