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(MA) Cost of rides for disabled soars at T

 
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RailBus63
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 28, 2010 8:35 am    Post subject: (MA) Cost of rides for disabled soars at T Reply with quote

Boston Globe - Cost of rides for disabled soars at T

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Quote:
The MBTA’s specialized service for the disabled, The Ride, is a lifeline for tens of thousands of people in Eastern Massachusetts, allowing those who are too disabled to drive, ride a bus, or take the subway to make their way to jobs, to stores, to doctors, and home.

But the program, visible through its yellow-striped vans and sedans, has become a huge budget concern for the cash-strapped transit agency, which has quadrupled spending on The Ride from $21.4 million to $84.8 million over the past decade.

The Ride, with 36,000 regular users in 60 cities and towns, has grown far faster than any other mode of transportation run by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. The number of trips — nearly 2 million this budget year — has doubled over the past decade, and the program is projected to continue growing as the region’s population ages. Four years from now, the MBTA expects The Ride to make 2.6 million trips, at a cost of $122 million.

As the number of users rises, the cost to the MBTA of each trip is growing even faster. In 2000, the agency spent $20 for each one-way trip it provided. This year, each trip costs the MBTA $43, but passengers pay only $2, the same rate as a cash subway fare.


Quote:
The T began providing special service to disabled riders in 1977, at a time when many transit stations lacked working elevators or escalators. By 1990, with the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act, such programs became a requirement for all transit agencies that provide bus service.

“Very few people take paratransit because they want to take it,’’ said Chris Hart, a consultant and activist who uses a wheelchair and has both sued and consulted for the MBTA. “They take it because it’s the last option.’’

Transportation Secretary Jeffrey B. Mullan said it’s important to recognize that many people flock to The Ride because they need it and “we do a damn good job.’’ And MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said the increase in use of The Ride parallels similar increases “in all transit agencies across the country.’’

Former MBTA general manager Daniel A. Grabauskas said the eligibility requirements for The Ride, which are determined by the federal government, are flexible enough that they may encourage some people whose disabilities would not prevent them from riding subways or buses to use The Ride.

“It’s a relatively low cost [to passengers] for door-to-door service,’’ he said. “We may be carrying more of the population that the system wasn’t necessarily designed to carry.’’


Quote:
There are two questions facing the MBTA: The first is whether it can manage the system it has more efficiently. The second is whether that service can be altered without undermining the rights of disabled residents.

Over time, the T has built a program that favors service improvements over cost containment by, for example, providing incentives and penalties, based on on-time performance, to three private ventures that run the service.

In 2007, The Ride’s costs ranked in the middle of a group of 12 large transit agencies studied by the T. But since then, The Ride’s costs have risen by more than $10 per trip.

Under federal law, the MBTA is allowed to charge users of The Ride no more than twice the amount of the lowest fare on a bus or subway. The cheapest ride on the T is the $1.25 it costs to ride a bus using a CharlieCard, so theoretically the T could charge users of The Ride as much as $2.50. But to keep the percentage increase reasonable, the T board instead raised the rate to $2, from $1.50, in 2007.

The three operators that run The Ride have all been in place since 1995, reflecting a lack of competition that may contribute to the spiraling costs, according to a report issued in December by state Auditor Joseph DeNucci. In the most recent bidding, last year, two of the companies faced no competition.

“There aren’t a lot of companies that do this kind of work,’’ said Paul Strobis Jr., who oversees the contracts for the T.

But the auditor argues that the T has not been aggressive enough in encouraging competition or overseeing costs.

“When you have sole-source bidding, there’s no incentive for containing costs,’’ said Glenn Briere, a spokesman for DeNucci. In general, he said, “there has been a tendency at the T to enter into contracts that have turned out to be more favorable for the contractor than for the T itself.’’
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Rick




Joined: 08 May 2008
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 29, 2010 10:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Similar article in the New York Times a few weeks ago.
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