At the end of the first week of the Jacksonville Transportation Authority’s Route Optimization Initiative, officials said there’s still some learning that needs to be done, both for customers and for the authority.
Effective Dec. 1, every route in the system changed. Buses go to new destinations at new times. Many bus stops were eliminated. Even the numbers and names identifying bus routes are new.
Bus service was offered free for the first five days of the transition, which led to many more riders than usual, said Brad Thoburn, JTA vice president of long-range planning and system development.
On an average day before the new routes were put in place, about 40,000 people used JTA. With bus rides offered free, the system logged 43,000 passenger trips Monday, Dec. 1; 45,700 on Tuesday; 51,500 on Wednesday; 49,800 on Thursday; and 50,400 on Friday.
“Some buses were overcrowded. To respond, we had to put extra buses on some routes,” Thoburn said.
The level of change has led to confusion for many riders and to double the call volume at JTA’s customer service telephone line.
In November, before the new system went into effect, customer service representatives answered the phone an average of 1,400 times each day. Volume during the first few days of the new system was an average of 2,900 calls per day, JTA spokeswoman Leigh Ann Rassler said.
While the data regarding how many of the people who called customer service complained about the new system isn’t yet available, Thoburn said he wouldn’t be surprised if most customers who contacted the authority last week weren’t pleased with their new mass transit experience.
“When you make a change like this, you have more complaints than compliments,” he said.
Thoburn on Friday described the transition as “smoothing out” and said people were learning how to use the new system to reach their destinations.
“We knew it would be a lot of work to help people understand the system,” he said. “It’s much quieter out there in terms of people asking about their routes.”
Rassler said feedback is being collected at customer service locations at Rosa Parks Station Downtown, transit hubs and high-use stops throughout the system. Based on riders’ experience with the new routes and schedules, it’s possible that changes might be put in place in 90-120 days.
“We will look for common themes and trends,” she said. “It’s a learning process.”
Customer service representatives were stationed at hubs and at high-traffic stops throughout the system during the first week of the change. Rassler said the representatives will be available at least through the end of this week. Route and schedule information also may be found online at jtafla.com and at transportal.net.
@DRMaxDowntown
(904) 356-2466