Steve Eldridge, The Examiner
2006-11-29 08:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

BALTIMORE -

Last week, I met with officials from the MTA. They had requested the meeting in response to several columns I’d written that were critical of the agency and the way it responds to customer’s issues and complaints. I was positioned as a way to introduce some of the players within the agency and to (hopefully) establish a better working relationship. I saw it as a way to learn more about how these people thought and to ask some general philosophical questions about their approach to mass transit. Unfortunately, the acting director of communications and the key contact for information was not able to attend because of an illness.

Dedication

The staff who did make it impressed me with their dedication, interest and knowledge of the issues at hand. They explained some of the dynamics that make up the system and described how things work; not by way of making excuses for any shortcomings, which they admitted do exist, but in the sense of process. I must admit that I was a bit surprised to learn that the system for tracking customer complaints that was described in an earlier column has not yet been put into service, even though one of the customer service people made it sound like it would be up and running within weeks, and it’s now been almost two months. This system is important because it will enable the MTA to know where the big problems lie based on repeat complaints. The problem with implementing it, as I understand the explanation, could be in the fact that it will also allow tracking of customer complaints about agency employees. That might be getting some attention from the union that protects these people whether they are doing a good job or not.

Helpful Staffer

I was impressed by the candor of one of the MTA staffers there, as well as by his knowledge of the system even though he’s only been on the job for a short period of time. Even though he does not come to the job with a background in transit, he is able to apply some of the skills he’s learned in other businesses to this job. That makes him unique at solving problems. The sad thing is that this person (whose name I will not use for fear that he will get contacted directly by far too many riders) is an appointee and so may not be with the agency for very long after the new administration comes on board.

The bottom line here is that I think we have started a good dialogue with the MTA, and I hope that that means we will be able to get to the source of any problems that you, the riding public, might have. I can’t make any guarantees, but I think things are going to get better.