Joe Hill LTD Project
Ridership Increasing
It has taken four months for LTD to post the performance reports on their website so that taxpayers and employees can know how good their mass transit system is doing. But the stats are there. LTD Ridership is up and up by quite a bit for June, July, and August.
What are the reasons? Why did ridership go up? I have four main reasons to suggest. The first reason and most important is the professionalism of our drivers. Their continued high quality service that we provide our CUSTOMERS (this is not Disneyland, although Goofy has been sent to us). We can all be proud of this.
Reason Two: What ever economic recovery that has occurred in Lane County has resulted in lower pay for workers in their new jobs. We are no different than the rest of the Country in this regard. Simply put, these lower paying jobs are putting more people in our seats.
Reason Three: The price of fuel that remains stubbornly high. Folks I think we will be living in the light of two dollar gas for a long time to come. The war is causing the oil spot market to flutter all over the place depending on the terrorist attacks. Oil is getting in shorter and shorter supply as China's demand for oil increases. Scary times about oil for sure.
Reason Four: Lets give credit where credit is due. Marketing has done a nice job in their advertising. We are present in the market and that has helped without a doubt. Why did it take years for LTD to get back to this in an aggressive way. It also should be a credit to our union members who played starring roles in the TV commercials. Good on ya.
Now if we stopped that stupid BRT project and restored service coupled with the new station in Springfield, LTD could take off. But this would be way too smart for our management.
Joe Hill
JH 59
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2 comments:
Please! don't forget the folks at customer service, they too are on the front lines just as much if not more then the drivers. They always seem to get left out of the recognition. Thanks
You know sometimes you just can't see past your nose. Even Joe Hill has this problem from time to time. Customer Service Employees do deserve credit for the increase in ridership. Think about it. They are assisting people on the phones to figure out our system. They help riders adjust to the reduced schedules. They sell fares and serve the public in polite and professional ways. Lets not for get the facility itself. Customer Service people are at the station with Diane Peterson keeping the facility safe and clean - two major elements of rider satisfaction.
So I don't get in trouble with the Maintenance - you too deserve credit for ridership increases. The buses are more reliable because of maintenance and road calls are fewer. The buses are cleaned by a very dedicated crew with one of the worst work schedules at LTD. Rarely are the cleaners recognized. The GS Workers who fuel and wash buses - I will bet most of us don't even know their names. We thank all of these wonderful workers for your dedication and commitment to work. The ridership increase is our proud accomplishment in spite of managements bad decisions to cut service.
The fact is LTD does not reconize any of the Union workers as being responsible for success. Hammbert says he is trying to create Team LTD - well Goofy, we had it long before you arrived at this great place. Your efforts to make us Disneyland are failing and you should look to the team that you had before you set about to destroy it by creating one in your image.
And so that we don't forget, these ridership increases are increases compared to last year, a down year from the two previous down years. We are climbing out of the hole but not because of Hammbert and the managers. It is we, the workers who make the difference.
In Solidarity to All,
Joe Hill
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