Trimess

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Supervisory reports

·     RQ-Holladay platform hardening fare inspection approach
·     ‘Ask Me’ volunteers supplemented CS ranks and provided solid staffing at key former Free Rail Zone stations (eastbound: Yamhill District & Old Town; westbound: Lloyd & NE 7th th).
·     Media mention of “fare required” for Blazer games generated more awareness and compliance than we’ve previously seen.
·     Substantial drop in number of arriving customers at RQ who did not have tickets.
o     Had 97 arriving customers without fares. Previous low this season was 210.
·     Seemed to have customers (east and westbound) deboard at Convention Center to avoid inspection.
o     We sent one CS there on the post to see the dynamic, but there were fewer than two dozen customers using the station post-event and they had fares.
·     TPD presence for about 20-30 mintues at the outset of the pre-game inspection effort
·     Game went overtime, and most fans remained inside until the end
·     Although attendance was announced as a sellout, we had fewer riders than usual
o     Could have been result of “Monday night” light ridership, sports fans who opted to watch national college football championship, or customers who didn’t ride with us due to the publicity about our inspection efforts.
·     Post event exit went well. Despite the overtime causing game to run long, crowd came out when service was helpful.
·     Only customers with an extended wait were eastbound Green & Red customers who did not arrive at platform for the first of those trains on the post-event.
·     Crowd was well behaved and prepared to show their fares. 
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    Lloyd Center: 
°     Well worth staffing, with quite a few customers traveling from this location.
°     None of the TVMs (EB or WB) were accepting bills; our G4S Security Officer reported this to Control just as I was arriving.
°     Only about a dozen customers were unaware that the Free Rail Zone had ended; those were mainly folks heading to Disney on Ice
°     Had just a few folks grumble about the cost of fares.  One couple chose to walk to Rose Quarter, and one family of four chose to drive/park.
°     MAX frequency was great, and all customers had room to board trains.
·     A bit of confusion re: G4S assigned to Gateway TC when we weren’t staffing there.

Post-Event:
     WB Booth – Lauren & Stephanie     WB Middle – Beth
     EB Booth – Julie     EB Middle – Pamela

·     Had solid staffing with Field Supervisors, Transit Police, G4S Security and us.
·     Game ended in a tie around 5:40 pm.
·     MAX service kept up with demand.
·     Crowd was manageable. Less drinking and quite a few young kids with parents this time.
·     Despite our path-finding signs, there were still a fair number of folks needing to be directed from WB to EB platform and vice versa.
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  “RQ-Holladay Platform hardening” inspection effort. First of those we’ve done on a Sunday
·     Only had 5 CS, so focused on RQ and the Lloyd/7th corridor
·     Had 210 customers arrive at RQ who were sent by inspectors to buy Day tickets from us.
o     That number is toward the low end of what we’ve had sent our way on ‘platform hardening’ nights. Earlier in the season it was in the 400 range
·     Game attendance was again below capacity
·     Some crowd exited early in fourth quarter (Blazers had large lead) but game became close and most others remained until the very end.
·     Sunday level service kept up with the demand. Supervisors held trains as needed to allow customers to make it through the post-event inspection points
·     Noticing a greater percentage of customers prepared with fares. And now have a pool of repeat customers familiar with the inspection effort, which helps make the process flow smoother. 
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    “Lloyd Patrol” fare inspection effort
·     CS had 4 staff (devoted other staff to the Clackamas Holiday bus reroutes)
·     Sunset had combination of Blazers and Zoo Lights customers. Cash machine was not working, so was beneficial to be there
·     Lloyd & NE 7th were again worthwhile locations. Each station had some customers who were traveling for first time since Free Rail Zone ended
·     Another capacity crowd
·     Game remained close until the end, so most customers remained until the finish
·     Timing of their exit worked well however, as supervisors held trains and we efficiently moved large numbers off the platforms.
o     With the exception of eastbound Green & Red customers, we cleared the event in about 30-35 minutes.
·     Saturday northbound Yellow service was about to go 35 minute headway as game ended. Supervisor held train # 60 for about five minutes (crowd was exiting the game as the train arrived, and then an extra service bus was sent to take the remaining arriving customers.
·     We did not harden the Holladay platforms on the post-event, but still had good post-event sales.
o     Our announcements are stressing that customers shouldn’t get on the train without a ticket, and that they are risking a substantial penalty if they don’t have a valid fare. 
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     “Convention Center patrol” fare inspection approach (first time we’ve done that).
o     CS focused pre-event staffing on the Lloyd-RQ corridor
o     Also covered Sunset at the last minute due to out-of-service cash machine there
·     Holiday season resulted in a noticeable number of customers who were traveling for the first time since Free Rail Zone ended
o     Some chose to walk from Lloyd & NE 7th. Some others expressed their displeasure with having to buy a ticket.
·     One CS staffed Convention Center on the post-event (with inspector & G4S) to see if customers were going there to evade paying fares at RQ. High percentage of customers either had fare, or bought one when they saw TriMet staff at the platform
·     Game lasted 2:02, one of the quickest we’ve had.
·     Blazers won by a large margin, and fair number of customers left early.
·     Post-event westbound service went well, extra was well used
·     Eastbound service had a brief challenge
o     Train 66 which had mechanical issues earlier in the evening came through out-of-service (heading back to Ruby) at RQ around 21:30.
o     Its follower (Train 35) was also taken out of service as it arrived
§     Staff at platform had no advance notice of that, and we had to off-load while also preventing a full platform from boarding the train
§     Train was then sent to Doubletree and became Train 66 heading back to CBD
o     We apologized for the back-to-back out of service trains, and gave updates re: location of the subsequent trains.
§     Customers heading to Gresham were the most inconvenienced by this (35 had been a Cleveland Blue), but were generally understanding and were on their way about 15 minutes later.
·     Post-event announcements re: end of Free Rail (“Don’t step onto the train without a ticket”) resulted in some people doing u-turns to buy a ticket. 
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 “RQ-Holladay platform hardening” inspection approach
o     CS pre-staffing was: RQ (4); Lloyd (1); Yamhill (1)
·     As with previous game, Holiday timing resulted in many customers who were riding for first time since Free Rail Zone ended
·     Yamhill District activity was the busiest we’ve seen this year.
o     Despite the fact that about half of customers already had their fares, our sales were 50% above previous high.
o     30+ customers unaware that Free Zone ended. Some groups chose to drive to the arena. Some reluctantly bought fare. Most people grateful for the assistance and information.
·     RQ-Holladay sales included sales to Winterhawks fans who were heading home from their afternoon game.
·     Game ended quickly (2:02) and despite most of the crowd remaining until the end, we cleared the platform very efficiently.
·     Post-event inspection effort went well, with generally well-behaved customers who were prepared to show their fares as they approached the platform.
o     Did not have TPD presence
·     Most NB Yellow Line customers made it to platform before service went to 35 minutes at 21:24
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(Assigned to Eastbound Ped gates pre & post event)

Overall a successful event. 

It bears being said again:  IT IS EXTREMELY HELPFUL when the Controllers have “volunteered” to give next train data to the supervisors at the event.  Many Kudos to those who do this.

Controllers: Suggest adding to Train Order that “trains not leave RQTC platform(s) until cleared by the supervisor at your window”.

Due to the congestion on the platforms, operators are receiving/interpreting mixed signals from the rear of the train as “close & roll”, when these are actually signals being given to the supervisor at the window involving crowd control.

Green Line trains are roughly 35 minutes apart this time of night so it is beneficial to hold them several minutes longer than normal to ensure as many people can catch them as possible.  On nights with bigger platform crowds it also helps tremendously to be able to hold trains (in both directions) until their follower is at the platform (or on the bridge) behind them if needed
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Operator J Violated rule B601, route and schedule adherence rule. Operator did not arrive at his scheduled time of 8:23am at Gresham TC on 12/29/12. Operator took it upon himself to short line from Powell garage to 181st and Division without permission from dispatch or a supervisor. Supervisor Davis made contact with operator  at 9:16am Downtown Portland. 
He could not air up his bus in the yard at Powell Garage. He tried calling dispatch but did not get a response.
Operator needs a follow due the fact that he left 7 people at Gresham TC, in the cold weather. Some passengers were late for work. This is not acceptable.
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Sent Julie and two code folks up to the WB OCC to get the folks that decided to go by RQ to avoid paying.  That worked well and thankfully we had enough help to do this.
We has an EB train come thru not in service due to mechanical, then the next blue line EB we loaded up only to unload that train due to it needed to fill for another that when out of service. So we had some upset folks complaining about two trains taken out of the loop.  Thing happen and are unforeseeable.  Then a red line was next to appear and then green and blue, these came pretty close together and cleared the group that had to wait.
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