MARTA change absolutely necessary
Moderated by Tom Sabulis
Today, MARTA’s new leader Keith Parker writes about his first months on the job, what he’s been doing, and where the transit agency is heading. That includes the new five-year “road map” outlining privatization opportunities that could reduce its annual deficits. He has also indicated in public presentations that he’s intent on boosting morale of employees and customer service. The latter problem is something I address in a column below, the message being, it’s worth sweating the small stuff, too.
Commenting is open below my column on MARTA’s customer service.
All options are on the table
By Keith T. Parker
In almost two months on the job as MARTA’s general manager and CEO, I have been highlighting the serious challenges and exciting opportunities our transit agency is facing over the next several years.
Even more valuable to me, however, is the time I’m spending listening to our customers, employees, elected officials, business leaders, the media and the metro Atlanta community about transforming MARTA for the future.
And, make no mistake: MARTA must be transformed.
It’s no secret that the agency is confronting an annual “structural deficit” of roughly $25 million that requires us to fundamentally change the way we do business.
Since the early 1990s, MARTA’s day-to-day operations have been funded primarily by customer fares and sales tax revenues collected in DeKalb and Fulton counties and the city of Atlanta, sources that are often volatile and unpredictable. With the onset of the recession of 2008, MARTA’s revenues have been dramatically reduced, requiring the agency to cut expenses by almost $100 million, eliminate 700 positions, institute fare increases and service cuts, etc. Unfortunately, these measures are still not enough.
MARTA’s current business model – requiring spending from its depleting reserve account to balance annual budgets – is unsustainable. It must be replaced with one that recognizes our new reality.
For that reason, two years ago, the MARTA Board of Directors charged the firm KPMG with conducting a comprehensive review of the system’s operations and finances. KPMG’s initial review broadly outlined strategic transformation opportunities where MARTA could reduce costs, increase efficiencies and generate new revenues. The latest phase of KPMG’s work, a draft “road map” MARTA received last month, details an aggressive plan for the agency to achieve those objectives within the next five years.
KPMG’s road map summarizes opportunities into 12 key areas — including potentially outsourcing functions such as human resources, payroll, accounts payable, cleaning services, customer call centers, information technology and our paratransit service.
KPMG also recommends automating our procurement processes, identifying new streams of paid advertising and adopting policies to address workers compensation claims and unacceptable levels of employee absenteeism.
The MARTA board and staff are evaluating every recommendation in the KPMG report. We will determine which recommendations promise to deliver the most significant benefits at the lowest cost, and then begin implementing them. We will make every effort to ensure insurehigh-quality service for our customers, fair treatment for our employees and respect for taxpayers who fund our system.
I know that change can be very difficult to accept. But for MARTA, change is absolutely necessary, and every viable option to make us more efficient and effective is on the table.
As we move forward, I will continue meeting with any individual or group who supports MARTA’s mission of providing high-quality transit service that promotes economic development and enhances the quality of life for all of us.
I’m also eager to hear from those who harbor unfavorable perceptions about MARTA. Those conversations will give us an opportunity to talk about how public transportation — just like good schools, roads, libraries or fire departments — add value to our community, even if you never need to use them.
I also see many opportunities. We will be completing installation of cameras on buses in the next few months and begin installation on our trains. We will be investing in low-cost, high-impact technological advancements that will improve our efficiency while enhancing the overall customer experience. We are strategically investigating how transit-oriented developments and public-private partnerships can bring new revenues while creating jobs and reinvigorating communities.
We have a lot of work ahead of us, and the KPMG road map has given MARTA a good running start. At every step of the way, my commitment is to continue listening to all stakeholders — and learning from them — so we can do whatever is necessary to make our transit system the very best it can be.
To read the KPMG road map: www.itsmarta.com/reports.aspx.
Keith T. Parker is MARTA’s CEO and General Manager.
Customer service could use some work
By Tom Sabulis
New MARTA CEO and General Manager Keith Parker says he wants to build morale within the ranks and improve customer service on the rails and roads. That’s a worthy goal for the transit agency.
For starters, reducing wait times is a huge key to retaining choice riders — folks like me, who have the option of commuting by car but would prefer to make an urban transit system work within the framework of their lives. Business people simply don’t want to hang around a ghost-town station waiting 15 minutes in the middle of the day for a train, and nearly 30 minutes for a bus. The dead time spent on isolated platforms or benches is when hassles are most likely to occur.
Panhandlers who ask commuters for money are a corresponding concern, particularly of women I’ve interviewed at various stations regarding public safety. Personally, I don’t find the in-car, on-bus cadging all that prevalent, and when it does show up, it’s usually more sad and unfortunate than threatening. To its credit, MARTA has started a marketing campaign targeted to various nuisances (begging, loud cellphone talkers).
But Mr. Parker seems to understand that MARTA may have as much impact coaching up its own employees. That can go a long way.
In the last two-plus years that I’ve been riding a MARTA bus, I find it to be efficient, generally on schedule and a lot more personal than the train experience, at least on the No. 12 route, which travels from Cumberland Mall to Midtown station. Regulars become familiar with fellow route riders. The bus operators, while busy, are usually courteous and accommodating.
But those same drivers are obviously able to freelance more than their train counterparts, for good and bad. One recent example: A few weeks ago, around 8:45 a.m., I was at my stop early and noticed the bus parked 50 yards down the road, with flashers engaged. No big deal. The operator was early, and he was killing a minute or two before arriving at my stop — a major intersection — on time. That’s routine.
What wasn’t routine was when he stopped a half-mile farther south on Howell Mill Road, where he parked and turned the bus off on a busy commercial stretch, partially blocking a lane, and left the vehicle without saying a word. Minutes went by. Soon enough, I was impatient to get going. About five minutes lapsed before the driver reappeared from a gas station-convenience store with a large drink and what looked like a bag of food. Without a word — again, no communication — he started the bus and moved on. I was pretty annoyed. After all, when you get to the train station late and miss your connection, you end up having to deal with long wait times.
According to a 2010 internal MARTA memo, the agency had received complaints about buses stopping and blocking traffic and operators ducking into stores to buy “lottery tickets” and other things. A policy stressed in that memo states that drivers are prohibited from making unauthorized stops any time between 6 and 9 a.m. and 2:30 and 6:30 p.m. “In all cases the bus must not prohibit the flow of traffic.” I’m not sure why “unauthorized stops” are not prohibited at all times, rather than just rush hour. Is this a business — part of “a $6 billion public asset,” as former CEO Beverly Scott used to say — or a jitney service?
When I relayed this story to MARTA, chief spokesman Lyle V. Harris asked me for follow-up information. But questioning or chastising this particular operator isn’t the point; it’s more what it says about MARTA’s culture (and the union’s) and what feels like casual disregard for paying passengers. Harris said MARTA is reviewing its policy and investigating this incident.
Maybe there’s more to the story: I could understand a bathroom break, an emergency pit stop. But if that’s the case, how about telling your customers what’s going on? Or even, you know, “I’m going to run inside for a Coke and a hot dog. Can I get anybody anything?”
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22 comments Add your comment
Robert
February 4th, 2013
5:45 pm
How about replacing full-sized buses with minivans for routes with few passengers? In any case, the current buses are very inefficient in their ratio to size/passengers hauled.
Shamehia
February 4th, 2013
6:45 pm
Mr. Parker, unlike his predecessor, seems to understand what’s going on. Unfortunately there is little that he or any MARTA CEO/GM can actually do to turn things around. The employees’ UNION has been, is and will be the impediment to any real change.
Matt321
February 4th, 2013
6:51 pm
I am not encouraged by any of the things listed here. The comments to the previous MARTA story contain a lot of great suggestions: http://www.ajc.com/news/news/poll-marta-riders-have-stronger-connection-than-no/nT6MS/ – I hope Mr. Parker reviews them.
Instead, Mr. Parker continues to talk about hurting employees by getting rid of their retirement security. When a public employer makes its elderly retirees destitute, that’s not a saving, it’s just passing the buck to government safety net programs and charities. I am proud to support any enterprise that supports its employees. Similarly, the move for “privitization” just means that there will be less accountability, and a private enterprise will seek to cut costs in order to boost its profits. Since the private company cares more about profit than service, cutting costs in the end always means cutting corners and cutting service. Private companies don’t have a magical ability to do the same job for less – if you see something that a private janitorial service is doing better, emulate it! If the private janitorial service is simply offering wages that do not offer a living wage or retirement security, that’s not better, it’s just passing the buck.
You need to be working every day on expanding MARTA’s service and making it more rapid. Everything else is secondary to that goal – a great product will attract customers, even if there are still people talking loudly on cell phones.
What I’m most worried about is that the head of the employee union has already publicly stated that the high absenteeism springs from MARTA’s leave policies. Why is that concern not addressed here? You’re not working to expand MARTA’s reach, you’re not working to make it faster, apparently you’re just trying to take a hatchet to the MARTA employees and siphon public funds to private companies. Not a good 5 month start.
atl0707
February 4th, 2013
6:54 pm
Generally speaking, I truly appreciate the service MARTA provides in terms of rail. I like the displays in the stations and the fact that it is fast, efficient and easy to use. The only inconveniences that I have experienced thus far are long wait times after 8p on the Airport line as the trains run only every 20 minutes and are usually packed. Panhandlers are a definite problem that doesn’t belong to MARTA but rather this state and its Republican-controlled legislature, who have failed to take adequate care of the poor. I will say that DC runs basically the same trains that we do, but they always seem broken and are very far apart and inefficient to use on the weekend. It’s gotten to the point that I rarely take the Metro in DC anymore. ATL still has good service on the weekends, however, and I hope it continues. Let’s just hope MARTA remains a PUBLIC transportation system and not some privatized nuisance that gets worse every year.
Dave
February 4th, 2013
7:11 pm
“But questioning or chastising this particular operator isn’t the point; it’s more what it says about MARTA’s culture (and the union’s) and what feels like casual disregard for paying passengers.”
Is your story typical? If not, you have a nice story and a world of hurt for the driver you casually threw to the embarrassed MARTA officials. If it is typical, I think you need more than the driver who disappeared at the wrong time. That’s called reporting. Get at it.
Dave
February 4th, 2013
7:18 pm
And with more thinking, just what does your bad experience say about Marta culture or the Union? Nothing, without a whole lot more facts; without them you have just authored a hack piece.
Meli
February 4th, 2013
7:58 pm
@Shamehia–I seriously doubt a toothless union who doesn’t even have the power to demand MARTA build in bathroom or food breaks to the bus and train schedules (whose operators are working full 8-hour shifts, mind you) can be such an impediment, especially as the majority of MARTA employees are not a part of the union and they are not authorized to strike.
One change I think Mr. Parker needs to immediately implement, which will greatly benefit customer service, would be to require all new MARTA employees regardless of position to actually use MARTA exclusively for the first 90 days on the job. And I’m not talking about driving the car to a station and parking, then taking the train one stop, unless they can show they live in an area with absolutely no bus service. They need to take the bus, and see how the bus interconnects with the system. They need to stand out in the rain and cold at 5:30 in the morning waiting for a bus that is 20 minutes late, or deal with weekend drivers who think the schedule has an asterisk at the bottom that reads ‘if we feel like it’. They need to know how it feels to have to figure out how to transfer to two buses to get to a train station, ride the train to another station, and then take two more buses to get to work, knowing they still have to go grocery shopping to feed the kids on the way home and hope they can get to the store before they close.They need to be able to figure out how to get off work in time to get to their station to catch the very last bus home, or figure out if home is within walking distance after midnight in some of the worst neighborhoods in the city. In other words, if they have to live like the rest of us do, they will be more understanding when a customer calls to complain about these issues, or needs help in route planning. And let’s not stop with new employees–after the first 90 days, all MARTA employees should be able to show at least 30 calendar days in the previous 12 months of employment where they used MARTA exclusively, just so they don’t forget.
Retired Vet
February 4th, 2013
9:54 pm
Good luck, Mr. Parker, but TV 2 Action News and their suburban OTP cheerleaders(with their self-fulfilling prophecies) will kill your efforts by blinding you with never ending overhyped slighest indiscretions haunting you morning, noon and night that will leave you battling glaring perceptions of everything ITP being bad, bad, bad.
Marco
February 4th, 2013
9:59 pm
So, atl0707, you are claiming that only states with Republican-controlled legislatures have panhandlers? Funny, I remember quite a few panhandlers in New York. I’m pretty sure they’re in California too. Aren’t those controlled by Democrats?
MiltonMan
February 5th, 2013
6:49 am
“Panhandlers are a definite problem that doesn’t belong to MARTA but rather this state and its Republican-controlled legislature, who have failed to take adequate care of the poor.”
Yes, too bad we cannot go back to the days of Democratic controlled legislature when the poor were doing so well under the likes of Roy Barnes.
Praveen
February 5th, 2013
7:14 am
My suggesstions/complaints
1) I agree with the above comment about using minivans on some routes at certain times to make it more cost efficient when passenger traffic dictates so. Maybe you can have a messaging system at bus stops where certain low frequency routes can have suggested times and the vans can even operate as a shuttle service picking up passengers only at necessary stops. This can serve the purpose of consolidating different bus routes in low frequency time periods but providing service to everyone on all the routes based on who clicks a button at the bus stand or messages the station. These are just off the cuff suggestions. With some careful thought, one can come up with a creative solution.
2) How about a convenience store on the platform at most MARTA stations? Could generate revenue and enhance security by having an extra person there.
Why the hell do we have to scan the breeze card at the station we arrive at? It’s not like we have zone based variable pricing.
3) No excuse for MARTA trains not to be on time even at the origin and destination stations. I take MARTA to the airport 10 times a year and it is not the most punctual thing.
4) Also airport MARTA employees are useless and rude. Whenever I ask them when the next train is, they shrug their shoulders. At least MARTA for the past couple of years, finally put up those displays where it countsdown the minutes for the next train. The only problem is the times alternate with other messages on those display signs and if you are in a hurry, it would be nice to pace yourself knowing if you are about to miss a train. In fact, I think all MARTA stations should have countdown timers at the entrance.
5) If you are in North Springs, the frequency has been cut down in recent years. Not really that convenient.
6) If you want ad revenue, how about stores which are near the MARTA stops advertise on the monitors in the trains? Not only is it advertising, it will give riders an idea of where to eat before they get down the train. Don’t go crazy and demand super high advertising rates from the merchants.
7) 50 cents for a MARTA breeze card is unnecessary and seems like a ploy to get some easy money from tourists.
9) Teach MARTA employees to speak clearly. Seriously, the slurring of words is disrespectful to customers. I took the subway in Japan and the english was better.
10) Who is the idiot who designed the front two seats in each side of the cabin? The sideways oriented front seat severly minimizes leg room for the next seat.
blackbird13
February 5th, 2013
10:28 am
A couple of minor but easy to implement solutions:
Stop using the loudspeakers for alerts in the train stations. What’s being said over them is completely unintelligible. Instead, key the alerts in and send them to the status screens and a MARTA twitter account. Can’t be all that difficult to do, and there would be no need to keep the loudspeakers repaired.
Allow licensed vendors inside stations. This seems a no-brainer to me for adding revenue, especially is stations with no nearby merchants outside. I’m thinking Doraville, Lindberg, possibly North Springs…
About the panhandling: Personally they don’t bother me either as I ignore them (much worse are the ranting preacher types polluting the trains with nonsense), but I know that some people are bothered by them. Some of those people have a choice about whether to use MARTA, and if they choose not to because of beggars it hurts the system financially and politically. Harsh as it sounds, begging IS against the law on MARTA. Enforce the law.
Van Jones
February 5th, 2013
11:08 am
When a bus driver can make $92,000/year and a MARTA police officer can make $132,500/year is it any wonder they are over-budget. Get real MARTA!!!!
Nicko
February 5th, 2013
12:46 pm
1) Install train arrival time monitors, like you have on the platforms, at the ENTRANCE of every MARTA station.
2) Retool the current red LED scrolling marquee signs that are a complete waste of money and space. What good are 10 signs that continuously read WELCOME TO MARTA? Why not key in messages such as delays, date, time, emergency delays, weather, traffic snarls etc etc. This is so simple.
3) Get more revenue through better ads and better mediums to deliver those ads. What good is the monitor in the train that doesn’t work?
4) Allow private entities to lease concession stands at the platforms selling candy, gum, newspapers, magazines, etc.
5) Institute a variable pricing schedule based on distance traveled. It shouldn’t cost the same to go from Airport to North Springs as it does to go from Midtown to Buckhead.
6) Privatizing janitorial, IT, A/P, payroll etc. is a really great start. Act like a private entity. Most private entities do not do these things in-house. There are plenty of private entities that make their living providing these services to institutions so those institutions can instead focus more time, energy and money on their core competencies.
7) Clean the stations, they are gross. Arts Center is an abomination.
tsabulis
February 5th, 2013
1:00 pm
Excellent points, Nicko.
MANGLER
February 5th, 2013
1:11 pm
I’m not sure how routes are planned. Are they based on traffic volumes on the roads they travel, or based on employment centers along those routes, or based on historical passenger volumes on those routes, or a little of all of that?
Has MARTA asked people where they need to go for work? For school? For leisure? Where they’d park and ride if certain routes were offered or the timing was changed? Having everything point towards downtown or the airport may not accurately reflect the public will, but rather the riders are forced to make due with what’s on the plate. I’m wondering if they had a way to overlay the public’s actual commute and route needs or wants with the one’s that are offered. The trains follow their tracks, but the buses and vans can meander. What makes sense on paper based on density may not exactly overlap where people who do ride or who would ride actually live, work, and play. Moving a low volume route 1 to 2 city blocks or adding one more stop 1 mile past where the route currently turns around can have a dramatic effect. I think people will gladly click on a map what they would like to see – and that info can be aggregated into the route models.
marta rider
February 5th, 2013
3:39 pm
Perception is reality……If I see a beggar, I think they are there all of the time. (And the truth is, they are there way too much) I emailed about a broken hand rail almost a year ago and ask if some duct tape could be placed on the rail to keep people safe from being poked in the stomach…..well, guess what…the duct tape is still there, in two places now! Escalators squeaking loudly, loud music, no police presence (although they do ride in cars from station to station)….really, I love riding the train to work, but I am a man and can manage myself…..MARTA has a long way to go…..good luck!
IVO
February 5th, 2013
4:18 pm
We have better train service in Zagreb. Where are the police when the morning rush ends? I never see them. Also noone under 18 without a parent or guardian should be allowed in the system. To many bums and kids with either ADHD or lead posioning.
IVO
February 5th, 2013
4:20 pm
Also I never see white people on MARTA>
The Last Democrat in Georgia
February 6th, 2013
1:03 am
Nicko
February 5th, 2013
12:46 pm
Really good suggestions.
dobee58
February 6th, 2013
7:53 am
@ Nikko
1) Install train arrival time monitors, like you have on the platforms, at the ENTRANCE of every MARTA station.
– Great suggestion. What about an app with the arrival time monitor information?
2) Retool the current red LED scrolling marquee signs that are a complete waste of money and space. What good are 10 signs that continuously read WELCOME TO MARTA? Why not key in messages such as delays, date, time, emergency delays, weather, traffic snarls etc etc. This is so simple.
Amen and amen
3) Get more revenue through better ads and better mediums to deliver those ads. What good is the monitor in the train that doesn’t work?
Good point and make the ads current. Macy’s christmas ads are still up in many cars.
4) Allow private entities to lease concession stands at the platforms selling candy, gum, newspapers, magazines, etc.
To all who suggest concession vendors/snack vendors etc. – My concern is that if you think the stations are “gross” now, what about when people are throwing paper down on the ground rather than using the trash cans and yes, they will, not everyone but it will happen, spilling drinks, spitting gum out on the “ground.” Also, it is against the law to eat and drink on MARTA, maybe not enforced now but it is the law.
5) Institute a variable pricing schedule based on distance traveled. It shouldn’t cost the same to go from Airport to North Springs as it does to go from Midtown to Buckhead.
6) Privatizing janitorial, IT, A/P, payroll etc. is a really great start. Act like a private entity. Most private entities do not do these things in-house. There are plenty of private entities that make their living providing these services to institutions so those institutions can instead focus more time, energy and money on their core competencies.
7) Clean the stations, they are gross. Arts Center is an abomination. (See comment 4)
Jm
February 6th, 2013
9:01 am
Sounds like Parker is on the job. Which is great.
I would emphasize two points.
MARTA should be partnering with Google to investigate driverless trains (first) and driverless buses (second). Would also help fix Tom’s problem. The technology exists and is already being tested. MARTA should be a part of this innovation and efficiency improvement.
My second point is: MARTA ultimately has to expand transit on dedicated right of ways, either by trains or busways. Yes, frequency is an issue. But trip times are the major issue. No matter what there will have to be wait times. But transit can’t compete in travel time unless it can bypass the congestion caused by cars. That means: more rail and dedicated busways everywhere possible.
Where does the money from this come? In addition to the previously outlined savings, eliminating underutilized bus routes is a must and give regular low income riders relocation cost vouchers (which is cheaper than running a “bus to nowhere”). Savings will have to be plowed back into a real capital fund (when times are good) and the system can still break even during tough times. Those funds can then be used to invest in capital expansion for rail.
Hopefully MARTA will finally right itself under Parker.