Alexis Dowsett hasn’t been able to get a ride with Niagara Transit since July 2.
Alexis, 43, is quadriplegic and uses a power chair, relying heavily on transit to go about her day-to-day life.
As of July 2, Niagara Transit, which adopted Niagara Specialized Transit and NRT OnDemand, now functions under a new service provider, Voyago.
Niagara Specialized Transit provides shared-ride services for Niagara residents who have disabilities and can’t use conventional bus services.
Since the transition, Alexis and her mother, Ruth Dowsett, have encountered several problems that inhibit her ability to complete daily activities.
“My daughter has not been able to get one ride. One ride,” Ruth Dowsett told The Lake Report.
As per a board report from August, the Niagara Transit Commission is well aware changes need to be made — and they are underway.
The BTS Network, the former service provider for Niagara Specialized Transit, was “absolutely wonderful,” said Dowsett.
Alexis could book a specialized bus trip as short notice as a day in advance to do things such as go to the mall, visit a friend or go to a doctor’s appointment, Dowsett said.
Now, the Dowsetts have trouble getting a ride at all, even weeks in advance.
After calling Voyago for help, a dispatcher told Dowsett to try and make reservations two weeks in advance, at 12:01 a.m.
“I said, ‘You want me or my daughter to get up at 12 a.m. to book a ride?’” Dowsett said.
The lack of access to transit has affected more than just Alexis’ social life, her mom said.
“She was involved in independent living and they had all sorts of activities she would go to — can’t get rides,” she said. “She volunteers at Niagara Longterm Care on Thursdays— can’t get rides.”
Neither Alexis nor her mother have been able to get through to Voyago or Niagara Transit for solutions.
“I just don’t know what to do anymore, because nobody will speak to you,” Dowsett said.
At one point, Dowsett tried instead to book a ride with OnDemand, however, with the two services now under the same umbrella, she encountered another roadblock.
“When I ask them about OnDemand, they said we don’t have OnDemand: it’s called Microtransit. I asked them how to book Microtransit and they said it’s all the same system. So, you can’t get a ride.”
Alexis said she is left feeling frustrated.
“With the old service, I was friends with some of the dispatchers. I could call them up and they’d try to get me a ride,” she said.
Missing out on volunteering is a huge source of frustration, Alexis added.
“If we can’t get this resolved, I can’t get back to work.”
The unification of Niagara Specialized Transit and NRT OnDemand came after Niagara-on-the-Lake council, along with six other municipalities in the Niagara region, voted in favour of amalgamating all transit services across the region in 2021.
With amalgamation approved by the required majority of municipalities, Niagara Transit took over multiple existing transit contracts, including NRT OnDemand and Niagara Specialized Transit.
MJ McGraw lives in Old Town and had also been using the service formerly run under BTS to get her to and from medical appointments for the last five years.
“They knew, just from their familiarity with the clients based on the number of times they had to pick them up, what they had to do to keep them safe,” McGraw told The Lake Report.
McGraw is fully mobile and doesn’t require wheelchair accessible buses for her transit — and has had a much easier time booking rides.
Voyago is a passenger transportation company based in Ontario, acquired by Transdev Canada in 2019 — one arm of Transdev, an international company that operates public transport services in several countries worldwide.
When the service initially transitioned to Voyago, McGraw said BTS employees weren’t allowed to share any information with clients about how to use the new services.
“It meant that everybody, including Alexis’ mom, were wandering around trying to figure out what the hell to do with this,” she said.
She had no luck getting through to Niagara Transit to speak directly, until she tried calling after hours — either before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m., McGraw said.
“You have to keep gathering these little seeds and I tell Alexis’ mother these little seeds that I’m learning. You have to sniff around the system,” she said.
When using the app instead of the phone, McGraw said she can book rides with a few days’ notice, rather than two weeks in advance.
She understands how Alexis may have a hard time getting a ride though, McGraw said, adding that she has only seen one wheelchair accessible van during her recent rides.
In fact, many of her rides are accompanied by college and university students using their free transit pass.
“They use it regularly, like you would an Uber,” McGraw said.
People using vans without access are in a different category of need than Alexis, she said.
Voyago seems to have realized they made a mistake in taking on these transit services, McGraw said.
In addition to the increase in vans, she thinks clients will see Voyago increasing their fleet and beginning to properly train drivers on how to handle clients.
“They probably now know that those (vans) they got are not suited to carry people that are sitting, plus people in a wheelchair,” McGraw said.
Leah Tracey, Niagara Transit’s communications consultant, sent The Lake Report the Niagara Transit Commission board report from Aug. 27 outlining what changes will be implemented to fix ongoing issues — and how.
“Niagara Transit Commission staff have investigated the operational and logistical challenges that have impacted both the Niagara Transit Commission and its customers,” the report said.
The report recognized without proper service, clients could become isolated and miss out on potential life-saving treatments.
The challenges outlined in the report include: vehicle capacity, high-demand periods and extended hold times, unconventional payment methods, abandoned and delayed rides, on-time performance confusion, new customer base and other issues.
More than 100 new clients applied for specialized services immediately following the launch, the report said.
To help mitigate the problems, Niagara Transit is promising an increased vehicle count, booking platform improvement, abandoned and delayed ride mitigation, multi-modal integration and increased staffing.
“Starting Oct. 1, we will have an additional seven wheelchair-accessible vehicles in service,” Tracey said in an email to The Lake Report.
This is in addition to those vehicles already in service. The full fleet will operate across the region, including in NOTL.
In response to a question regarding ride booking, Tracey still suggested clients book 14 days in advance.
“We encourage riders to plan ahead and if possible, book outside of peak times to ensure a better chance at securing a ride,” she said.
Tracey requested contact information for both McGraw and the Dowsetts and said Niagara Transit would be in touch with them to ensure all improvements made since July 1 had been relayed.
