The hours ticked on. Unable to speak or walk, Sabrina London was waiting for Broward County’s regional bus service that caters to the disabled.
Eventually her mother was able to come collect her. London, who has cerebral palsy, described the ordeal in an email penned to local government.
Now, following multiple complaints from residents who say the county’s paratransit service had left them stranded, Broward County leaders pledged immediate changes for its door-to-door bus service.
Starting Wednesday, a county director will now to be stationed on site at Transportation America’s facility, which is the vendor hired to run its Transportation OPtionS known as the TOPS! program, “until a sustainable improvement is made,” Coree Cuff Lonergan, Broward’s director of transportation, wrote in a Tuesday night email to commissioners. “We believe this additional oversight will reinforce the seriousness of the issues and further illuminate any additional corrective actions that may be warranted.”
TOPS! made more than 700,000 trips last year for about 6,900 people. The county spends about $32 million each year to run it.
London, of Miramar, uses a computer to help communicate. She had been scheduled for a 2:30 p.m. pick-up April 20 and waited four hours until her mother could come get her. “I was alone and scared,” she wrote the mayor of Coconut Creek, who forwarded along the message to County Commissioner Mark Bogen. London wrote in her email that the TOPS! van finally came about 9 p.m., more than six hours late.
And there are others. County Mayor Lamar Fisher said his office received a phone call this week from a resident who had a scheduled pickup time but TOPS! didn’t show and told him it could be at least three hours before they could make it.
“Obviously, it’s not acceptable,” Fisher said.
A representative for Transportation America told county commissioners they are operating “short handed” since dozens of TOPS! vehicles were flooded in last month’s flood that drenched sections of Fort Lauderdale and some surrounding areas, including northeast Hallandale Beach, and more were damaged from the waters. The county has ordered 40 vans, which are expected to arrive in 30 to 45 days.
“What are we doing today?” Bogen demanded. “People need rides today.”
Flooded vans is not a good explanation, Lonergan wrote in her email.
She told commissioners that there were 78 vehicles damaged by flooding.
London’s issues “had nothing to do with vehicle availability, and everything to do with human error,” she said. The county provides Transportation America with 337 vehicles, but they currently are only using 235 of them. “Therefore, we do not agree with the assertion that vehicle shortages were a contributing factor to the complaint.”
Lonergan said there are enough vans to meet service demands since the fleet “size allows for normal rotation to protect the useful life of the vehicles and ensure we have capacity to meet ridership demands as we continue to return to pre-pandemic ridership levels.”
In addition to a director on site, she pledged “in-field observations at various locations” to monitor performance and hold Transportation America accountable to hire additional staff and provide training.
She also warned the contract allows for “financial penalties” for breaking the contract, and “staff will continue to monitor and apply these penalties when infractions occur.”
Lonergan said the late service is “unacceptable.”
“We are taking this matter very seriously and are committed to holding the vendor accountable to address these deficiencies,” she said in the email.
A spokesperson for Transportation America, Hugh Chen, said Wednesday the company was prohibited by Broward County on commenting.
So far this year the service has made about 200,000 trips. Fares are $3.50 each way.
London had hoped to use the service more regularly but “now I am worried because of what happened.”
She said Wednesday in an email that she was “relieved and happy to know that I will help make a difference in the way this service works.”
Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at . Follow on Twitter @LisaHuriash
