Nashville station investigates Greyhound treatment of passengers, driver comments on situation

Since Greyhound was sold in 2021, the Greyhound passenger experience has deteriorated considerably. Although they still service Erie, they permanently moved out of the Intermodal Center in 2022 without even telling landlord EMTA what they were doing.

A Nashville TV station recently did an investigation on the situation, and in their November 18th report they share comments from a Greyhound driver, as well as the awful response from regulating agencies. 

Intercity bus service is important to a lot of people, and to the country as well. Understood that the pandemic would have caused some problems but the new Greyhound owners need to be held accountable for some really irresponsible and negligent behavior. 

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Greyhound responds to FOX 17 News for the first time since passenger complaints by Kaitlin Miller WZTV November 18th 2024 Updated Tue, November 19th 2024  https://fox17.com/news/local/greyhound-responds-to-fox-17-news-for-the-first-time-since-passenger-complaints 

Erie's Transitway Mall 1973-1993

Erie's Transitway Mall was built in 1973, and demolished in 1993. If you'd like to know more, check out these sources:

Lou Tullio's Transitway Mall  by Debbi Lyon, Old Time Erie Feb. 14, 2014

The Complicated Saga of Downtown Erie's Transitway Mall  Ed Whitbred, B..S. Presentation at Jefferson Educational Society July 19, 2023

Transitway Mall  Erie's History and Memorabilia 

Flashback Friday – April 1993, Demolition of Transitway Mall (YourErie June 2013) 

Transitways   National Association of City Transportation Officials

A month's worth of EMTA email rider alerts

I have been trying out the EMTA email rider alerts that you can sign up for in MyStop. 

The alerts are the same as those posted on the MyStop site, except they come to your email.

There is a text option but it was not working in the three times I signed up. I'm not sure what the problem is, but if it is available, EMTA needs to activate it, since a lot of riders would find it more useful than the emails.

I tried it out in three different email accounts. The screenshot below was from an account I signed up for January 26, 2023, and I stopped it at February 26. As far as I can I received them all, though it seemed like there was a curious gap for a couple weeks, maybe everything was running smoothly. 

Delivery issues

Alerts coming to each of the three email accounts had delivery issues. Outlook and Gmail sometimes delivered the alerts to another file. Yahoo Mail is still posting every single alert at 12:00 AM. ... every single one. None of them ended up in Spam so far. Again, having the text alert option might eliminate this goofiness.

Another advantage to alerts delivered to your device

Having an alert delivered to your device gives you a record of an issue that might have caused you a problem with getting somewhere. Your employer, instructor, doctor, etc., might accept your excuse a little more readily if you show them the alert that made you late. The alerts on the MyStop page disappear as soon as they are over, but you have the alert as a record. 

Click here for instructions on how to sign up for alerts

Click to enlarge  

Mall bus stop at JC Penney, not Boscov's, starting July 17

Starting Saturday July 17, JC Penney will be the only bus stop at Millcreek Mall. 

Buses will no longer stop at Boscov's.

This was apparently Boscov's decision, not EMTA's. 

The stop will have a marker. 

ALSO: EMTA to extend Saturday service 7/17.

EMTA Free Fares FAQs

• When will the free fare period begin and end?
  • Temporary free fares will begin July 5th and end August 29th.
• Do masks have to be worn on EMTA buses?
  • Yes, despite the lifting of restrictions in Pennsylvania masks must still be worn on buses as per guidelines set forth by the FTA and will expire September 13, 2021.
• how is the cost of the service covered?
  • EMTA will provide the temporary free fare service period with funds provided by the CARES as a part of the economic recovery initiative.
• Why launch free fare service now?
  • The EMTA Board passed the resolution June 28th to authorize the temporary free fares to build ridership momentum as the Governor lifted the pandemic restrictions. EMTA did not provide free fares during the pandemic as social distancing guidelines would not allow for increased number of riders.
• What EMTA services are included with free fares?
  • The free fare service includes fixed route rides and the LIFT paratransit service.
• Why provide free fares?
• As a demonstration that EMTA is doing its part to return riders to work and back to social engagements with lifted restrictions.

https://ride-the-e.com/2021/06/30/emta-free-fares-faqs/ 

 

Updates - May 6, 2021

Today I spoke with Ed Torres, Director of Fixed-Route Operations at EMTA . I asked him for updates, and also clarifications of issues.

LAID-OFF DRIVERS. Are they being called back? Ed said "nothing is set in stone but once we need them we'll be calling people back." They won't know specifics till after drivers take their scheduled vacations, which are coming up soon. They may also need drivers for the school year

WILL SUNDAY SERVICE RETURN? Ed said even before the pandemic that ridership was low. Sounds like this remains up in the air for now.

ROUTES

• Presque Isle Express is returning
• Route Upgrades coming around June 12. Routes 25/30 and 21/28 will each have an additional trip added on Saturday.

Pandemic Layoffs at EMTA

This is an update on driver layoffs. The EMTA employees already know about this, so I’m directing at riders and others.

▪️On Monday July 27 the drivers union and EMTA reached an agreement about pandemic-related layoffs.
▪️Service wont be affected by the layoffs, though some drivers livelihoods definitely will be.
▪️22 drivers will be on layoff.
▪️The decision about who gets to stay appears to be completely about seniority.
▪️In March of this year, largely because of the pandemic, ridership dropped by 85%. Service had to be cut and 39 drivers were laid off.
▪️Company has called back approximately 17.
▪️The agreement was hammered out and arrived at between union and company.
▪️Although the rider support and concern were appreciated by affected drivers, it is hard to imagine that in this particular issue they could have made a difference, because of what the parties had to work with.
▪️As I understand it, the drivers who are laid off may still be called back within 24 months?
▪️Very sorry for those who are among the laid off at this time. Hopefully this whole situation that caused this will be turned around soon. 🙏
~deb

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Note: The agreement between ATU Local 568 and EMTA is a bit more detailed than this. However, as I said, this was written for riders, and I wrote it for ease of understanding what was going on. Also, I know the company and union describe the agreement a little differently than the other, and I tried to stay as basic as I could. ~deb