The SacRT Mobility Advisory Council (MAC) met on Thursday, September 19.

STAR has taken to attending the MAC meetings whenever possible. We are of course interested in how SacRT supports, or doesn’t support, the needs of the disability community. But the MAC meetings also reveal plans and concerns of SacRT that either never show up before the SacRT Board of Directors, or show up later. As an example, there have been updates on the new low-floor Siemens S700 light rail vehicles, with a level of detail that has never come before the board. We are concerned that the board is not aware of how rough the roll-out has been.

The MAC agenda included:

1. SmaRT RIDE Update (Laura Ham, VP Planning, Grants and Procurement and James Drake, Senior Planner).
2. Cal Integrated Travel Project Update (Casey Courtright, Director Office of Management and Budget)
3. Watt/I-80 Transit Center Improvement Project Update (Jenny Niello, Principal Civil Engineer)
4. S700 LRV Post Launch Update (Anthony DiCristofano, Assistant Vice President, Michael Cormiae, Director Light Rail Maintenance)

Item C was deferred to next meeting.

A. SmaRT Ride: We will have a separate post on this issue.

B. Cal ITP: SacRT has identified providers of reliable readers, and is finalizing the details of implementation. The light rail system will have off-board readers, while all buses will have on-board readers. Along with the readers, there will be an account system that allows for people to obtain the correct fares and to add cash at outlets for people who do not have or use credit cards. ConnectCard and ZipPass will be phased out, but the functions of both will be integrated into the new system. No date was provided for roll-out. The readers which were installed on light rail vehicles as a pilot are apparently not very reliable, hence SacRT seeking different vendors.

D. low-floor launch: The SacRT staff member gave a very brief report, saying that almost everything was going great, and that issues were being dealt with. It is ironic that this was claimed after many members of the public present at the meeting reported serious issues with disability access. These issues include:

• Ramps are not deploying when the ADA button is pressed, thereby resulting in missed stops. This may be in part due to people board pressing the door open button before the de-boarding passenger can press the ADA button, but there are also documented cases of the ramp simply not deploying, and doors not opening. It was suggested by some disabled people that the ramps should deploy on every stop, and/or that the forward boarding ramp, now marked by a detectable tile, should be reserved for disabled people.
• Announcements of the approaching train, low-floor or high-floor, are not consistent and sometimes not being made at all. We have continued to see people having to scramble along the platform and onto or off of the mini-high ramps due to insufficient or incorrect information.
• Though SacRT had claimed that they had enough new rail cars for roll-out on September 3, about half the trains on the Gold Line continue to be old high-floor.
• Though SacRT has employed a number of people, those wearing yellow ‘security’ vests, to help riders, their distribution is very erratic, with multiples on some trains and cars, and none on some trains and cars, and present at some stations, and absent at others. They seem as flummoxed as riders when things don’t work correctly.
• Many disabled people have complained about interference by bicyclists, specifically not vacating the seats which are ‘priority seating’ (which can be used by bicyclists when not needed by those for whom the seats are intended (diabled, elderly, pregnant)), and sometimes blocking the doors on the opening side so not allowing boarding and de-boarding. Some of this behavior may disappear as everyone gets used to the new cars, but probably not all of it will. SacRT made the decision to de-emphasize space for bicycles on the new cars, so conflicts are not surprising.
• Almost all Gold Line trains are running late, in part due to ramp deployment.

• SacRT Mobility Advisory Council (MAC)