The San Benito County public transit system received criticism
from local senior citizens for lack of punctuality and bad employee
behavior this week during its annual unmet needs forums.
Hollister – The San Benito County public transit system received criticism from local senior citizens for lack of punctuality and bad employee behavior this week during its annual unmet needs forums.
COG held two unmet needs forums this week; one at the Jovenes de Antano senior center on Tuesday afternoon and one Thursday night at the County Board of Supervisors’ chambers. All of the complaints expressed at both meetings were made on behalf of senior citizens who said the county busses were leaving them stranded for hours at a time and that the dispatchers treated them rudely.
Susan Jaime, who works at a grocery store on Airline Highway, told the COG board Thursday night her store had received numerous complaints from elderly customers about how they were treated while taking the bus home from a shopping trip.
“Some people have to wait one to two hours for a bus, but some only have to wait 15 minutes, depending on who you are,” Jaime said, suggesting dispatchers sent busses to pick up passengers promptly only if they were well-known in the community. “The dispatchers are rude to the callers and the passengers, and I know this because we have called on behalf of customers before.”
Jaime relayed a story of one elderly customer with a broken leg whom dispatchers told he would have to walk down the street to Blockbuster to get a ride. When Jaime called the dispatcher to explain the man’s situation, she said, she was told “That’s not our problem.”
County Express General Manager Harry Roscoe assured the board he had no knowledge of these incidents and would begin looking into the problems immediately.
“If you receive unsatisfactory treatment, you need to let me know right away,” Roscoe said.
Jaime also told the COG directors her customers were tired of having to pay for their grocery bags when they boarded the bus. Currently, the transit system charges five cents for every bag a passenger brings on – which can add up for elderly riders who have no way to get to the grocery store, Jaime said. As a result, her customers often load bags past capacity to save money, but cannot carry the overstuffed bags onto the bus.
“We’re trying to encourage people not to bring very many bags on the bus,” Roscoe explained, saying too many bags could create a safety hazard onboard. County Express is currently revamping the system, he said, and will soon allow a maximum of eight grocery bags: The first four will be free, and each after that will cost 25 cents to bring on the bus.
“To me, it seems like somebody’s not taking care of the farm here,” COG Director Robert Scattini told Roscoe in response.
At Tuesday’s meeting, seniors also expressed confusion over why they often waited two hours – sometimes in the rain – for busses to pick them up. One resident told the directors through an interpreter that the color-coded busses were not clearly marked and were hard to distinguish from each other.
In recent weeks, the local public transit system has been under fire from the COG board, particularly COG Director Anthony Botelho. At the end of last month, Botelho asked COG staff for a full report showing how much money it costs to run its fleet of 17 buses throughout the city and the county, how many riders actually use the system, and what percentage of the operating cost is actually covered by passenger fares.
“I’m very concerned about the money it takes to run this transit system and how little net return we receive back. I don’t think we have the need for such a large system at this time,” Botelho said Friday. “But we’re going to discuss it, and I’m requesting that it get on the (San Benito County Board of) Supervisors’ agenda for March 1 for discussion. The issue is that the bus system is losing $60,000 -$80,000 a month. We need to figure out what amount of fare recovery merits the expenditure of that type of revenue.”
Jessica Quandt covers politics for the Free Lance. Reach her at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or at [email protected].
