Prometheus The Supremo
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'No easy fix' for Wheel-Trans
Even though Wheel-Trans is escaping the budget chopping block, service is overloaded, underfunded
August 18, 2007
Helen Henderson
Living Reporter
Welcome to the nightmare known as paratransit in Toronto, a system that every year carries 2.1 million passengers who cannot use regular subways, buses and streetcars to get where they need to go.
Reliable transit is crucial to giving people with disabilities the access they deserve to such things as medical appointments, community events, education and jobs.
Yet workers using paratransit throughout the GTA "cannot assure that they will be on time," says Stephen Largy, manager of Mississauga Practice Firm 4 Persons with Disabilities, a job-finding program.
"It's common for them to wait anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes because their scheduled ride is running late. They also can be relatively sure they won't be able to get to work on days when weather provides even the smallest delay."
Worn-out vehicles, already older than their scheduled lifespan, have been restricted to carrying no more than three wheelchairs at a time. Managers say they want to ensure vehicles can be evacuated quickly and safely in the event of a breakdown.
When customers try to complain about service, they say they get nowhere. "My complaints are acknowledged," says Di Virgilio, who has written everybody she could think of, right up to Premier Dalton McGuinty. "But nothing is ever done."
In a cash-starved city demanding hefty cuts to the overall Toronto Transit Commission budget, Wheel-Trans has been told its current $64 million budget is not at risk. But that is cold comfort to those who, unlike their able-bodied peers, say they can never be sure they'll get the ride they need because the system is already overloaded and underfunded.
"This sends a message that where I need to go and what I want to do is not important," says Terri-Lynn Langdon, a PhD student at York University. "It carries with it the pervasive attitude that persons with disabilities can just stay at home and, further, that the endeavours of people with disabilities are trivial."
Efforts to add elevators and other equipment necessary to make all subway trains, buses and streetcars wheelchair accessible are priorities, says councillor Joe Mihevc, head of Toronto's disability issues committee. "With a population that's aging, the political commitment is high at all levels."
But even if everything proceeds on schedule (35 of 68 subway stations have elevators, and three to four are added every year), it will be 11 years before the work is complete. Meantime, Wheel-Trans is the only alternative. And demand for its services will rise as the risk of disability increases in step with the average age.
"Without the province stepping up funding, we can't do anything to improve Wheel-Trans service," says TTC chair Adam Giambrone. Additional staff is needed to help meet all requests for rides, he says. "This is a separate issue (from funding for regular transit). We need to make it a separate `ask.'"
So don't be surprised to see people with disabilities stepping up efforts to get the message out as Ontario prepares to go to the polls Oct. 10.
Twelve years ago, Wheel-Trans' scheduling system was ranked as one of the best in the world by the prestigious Smithsonian Institution, says general superintendent Bob Thacker, the guy with whom the buck stops. Today, Thacker admits, that system is as badly outdated as the buses it runs.
"People are right; they do wait too long," Thacker says. "It's always a question of balancing cost and quality."
In fact, Wheel-Trans users figure a trip that would take an able-bodied commuter one hour may take them three to four times that. That's because they must build in added time, including, realistically, an extra 30 to 60 minutes either side of their pick-up window.
Thacker says Wheel-Trans is working on a redesign that includes global positioning locators on buses and a new "batch" scheduling capable of organizing hundreds of trips instantly. It also hopes to hire additional staff to help handle reservations and will be providing more services through the Internet.
He says the group has been scouring the continent for low-floor, wheelchair-accessible buses to replace the current fleet. New vehicles are being ordered. But it will be years before they are all on stream.
In the meantime, maintenance superintendent Ian Jordan and staff work literally day and night to keep what Wheel-Trans has up and running.
For customers who have some degree of mobility, Wheel-Trans uses sedans and vans under contract from 11 private taxi companies. Although the taxi drivers must undergo special training to be assigned Wheel-Trans clients, many customers complain they lack sensitivity.
Wheel-Trans is by no means alone in failing to meet all the challenges of providing an efficient, customer-friendly paratransit system.
The problems experienced in Toronto today were commonly expressed during a series of hearings in the United States following the passage 17 years ago of the Americans With Disabilities Act, which mandates equal opportunity and accessibility throughout every aspect of life.
Since then, service in the U.S. is said to have improved overall. But, as Wheel-Trans officials point out, south of the border the federal government provides 80 per cent of funding for paratransit.
It's a very different story in Canada, where disability advocates argue that underfunding of reliable transit is one of the reasons as many as 80 per cent of people with disabilities are underemployed or unemployed, according to the Canadian Association of Independent Living Centres.
Largy, manager of the Mississauga job-finding program, concedes there is "no easy fix" for accessible transportation until society understands the importance of meeting the needs of people with disabilities.
The TTC's advisory committee on accessible transportation, which includes members with disabilities, meets monthly to consider all aspects of the problem, such as making sure the gap between platform and subway train is safe for wheelchairs using the main transit system.
Even if Toronto's entire fleet of buses, subway cars and streetcars were wheelchair-accessible tomorrow, Wheel-Trans would still be needed for electric wheelchair users on inclement days, on certain types of routes and for certain customers.
But Thacker envisions the time when most people with disabilities use the main system most of the time and the service now so overburdened has room to show just how good it could be.
In future, instead of taking customers across town, "we'll take you to the subway," he says, "and we'll phone to tell you we're 10 minutes away from picking you up."
Already, he says, $200,000 has been budgeted to develop a travel-training system to help those nervous about switching to mainstream transit.
But Di Virgilio, whose education at York gets back into high gear in September, fears change won't come soon enough.
"The problems run so deep," she says. "And I have a haunting feeling that accessibility will be the thing that suffers as budget cuts take effect."
"We are in crisis," says one observer of the whole operation. "There's nothing wrong with admitting that. Nothing will change until we do."
BY THE NUMBERS
50,000
Number of registered Wheel-Trans clients
30,000
Number who actively use the service
3
Number of clients allowed on a vehicle at any one time
$64 million
Annual budget
2.1 million
Riders a year
458
Employees
15
Taking reservations at peak periods
148
Buses
140
Accessible vehicles under contract
______________________________________
it's depressing.
11 years is too long of a wait.
Even though Wheel-Trans is escaping the budget chopping block, service is overloaded, underfunded
August 18, 2007
Helen Henderson
Living Reporter
Welcome to the nightmare known as paratransit in Toronto, a system that every year carries 2.1 million passengers who cannot use regular subways, buses and streetcars to get where they need to go.
Reliable transit is crucial to giving people with disabilities the access they deserve to such things as medical appointments, community events, education and jobs.
Yet workers using paratransit throughout the GTA "cannot assure that they will be on time," says Stephen Largy, manager of Mississauga Practice Firm 4 Persons with Disabilities, a job-finding program.
"It's common for them to wait anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes because their scheduled ride is running late. They also can be relatively sure they won't be able to get to work on days when weather provides even the smallest delay."
Worn-out vehicles, already older than their scheduled lifespan, have been restricted to carrying no more than three wheelchairs at a time. Managers say they want to ensure vehicles can be evacuated quickly and safely in the event of a breakdown.
When customers try to complain about service, they say they get nowhere. "My complaints are acknowledged," says Di Virgilio, who has written everybody she could think of, right up to Premier Dalton McGuinty. "But nothing is ever done."
In a cash-starved city demanding hefty cuts to the overall Toronto Transit Commission budget, Wheel-Trans has been told its current $64 million budget is not at risk. But that is cold comfort to those who, unlike their able-bodied peers, say they can never be sure they'll get the ride they need because the system is already overloaded and underfunded.
"This sends a message that where I need to go and what I want to do is not important," says Terri-Lynn Langdon, a PhD student at York University. "It carries with it the pervasive attitude that persons with disabilities can just stay at home and, further, that the endeavours of people with disabilities are trivial."
Efforts to add elevators and other equipment necessary to make all subway trains, buses and streetcars wheelchair accessible are priorities, says councillor Joe Mihevc, head of Toronto's disability issues committee. "With a population that's aging, the political commitment is high at all levels."
But even if everything proceeds on schedule (35 of 68 subway stations have elevators, and three to four are added every year), it will be 11 years before the work is complete. Meantime, Wheel-Trans is the only alternative. And demand for its services will rise as the risk of disability increases in step with the average age.
"Without the province stepping up funding, we can't do anything to improve Wheel-Trans service," says TTC chair Adam Giambrone. Additional staff is needed to help meet all requests for rides, he says. "This is a separate issue (from funding for regular transit). We need to make it a separate `ask.'"
So don't be surprised to see people with disabilities stepping up efforts to get the message out as Ontario prepares to go to the polls Oct. 10.
Twelve years ago, Wheel-Trans' scheduling system was ranked as one of the best in the world by the prestigious Smithsonian Institution, says general superintendent Bob Thacker, the guy with whom the buck stops. Today, Thacker admits, that system is as badly outdated as the buses it runs.
"People are right; they do wait too long," Thacker says. "It's always a question of balancing cost and quality."
In fact, Wheel-Trans users figure a trip that would take an able-bodied commuter one hour may take them three to four times that. That's because they must build in added time, including, realistically, an extra 30 to 60 minutes either side of their pick-up window.
Thacker says Wheel-Trans is working on a redesign that includes global positioning locators on buses and a new "batch" scheduling capable of organizing hundreds of trips instantly. It also hopes to hire additional staff to help handle reservations and will be providing more services through the Internet.
He says the group has been scouring the continent for low-floor, wheelchair-accessible buses to replace the current fleet. New vehicles are being ordered. But it will be years before they are all on stream.
In the meantime, maintenance superintendent Ian Jordan and staff work literally day and night to keep what Wheel-Trans has up and running.
For customers who have some degree of mobility, Wheel-Trans uses sedans and vans under contract from 11 private taxi companies. Although the taxi drivers must undergo special training to be assigned Wheel-Trans clients, many customers complain they lack sensitivity.
Wheel-Trans is by no means alone in failing to meet all the challenges of providing an efficient, customer-friendly paratransit system.
The problems experienced in Toronto today were commonly expressed during a series of hearings in the United States following the passage 17 years ago of the Americans With Disabilities Act, which mandates equal opportunity and accessibility throughout every aspect of life.
Since then, service in the U.S. is said to have improved overall. But, as Wheel-Trans officials point out, south of the border the federal government provides 80 per cent of funding for paratransit.
It's a very different story in Canada, where disability advocates argue that underfunding of reliable transit is one of the reasons as many as 80 per cent of people with disabilities are underemployed or unemployed, according to the Canadian Association of Independent Living Centres.
Largy, manager of the Mississauga job-finding program, concedes there is "no easy fix" for accessible transportation until society understands the importance of meeting the needs of people with disabilities.
The TTC's advisory committee on accessible transportation, which includes members with disabilities, meets monthly to consider all aspects of the problem, such as making sure the gap between platform and subway train is safe for wheelchairs using the main transit system.
Even if Toronto's entire fleet of buses, subway cars and streetcars were wheelchair-accessible tomorrow, Wheel-Trans would still be needed for electric wheelchair users on inclement days, on certain types of routes and for certain customers.
But Thacker envisions the time when most people with disabilities use the main system most of the time and the service now so overburdened has room to show just how good it could be.
In future, instead of taking customers across town, "we'll take you to the subway," he says, "and we'll phone to tell you we're 10 minutes away from picking you up."
Already, he says, $200,000 has been budgeted to develop a travel-training system to help those nervous about switching to mainstream transit.
But Di Virgilio, whose education at York gets back into high gear in September, fears change won't come soon enough.
"The problems run so deep," she says. "And I have a haunting feeling that accessibility will be the thing that suffers as budget cuts take effect."
"We are in crisis," says one observer of the whole operation. "There's nothing wrong with admitting that. Nothing will change until we do."
BY THE NUMBERS
50,000
Number of registered Wheel-Trans clients
30,000
Number who actively use the service
3
Number of clients allowed on a vehicle at any one time
$64 million
Annual budget
2.1 million
Riders a year
458
Employees
15
Taking reservations at peak periods
148
Buses
140
Accessible vehicles under contract
______________________________________
it's depressing.
11 years is too long of a wait.
