TRIMET Supervisory reports

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On Street effort

·         On Street CS staff deployed as soon as we rec’d initial page @ 10:05

o   Timing worked well because all six On Street staff were either on duty, or about to report

·         Began by covering RQ, Jeld-Wen, sent roamers into CBD

o   Roamers swept First Avenue, gave attention to all platforms near Pioneer Square

o   Staff advised to look for Airport-bound customers and to not be overly optimistic with trip time estimate (i.e. err on side of suggesting a cab if necessary)

·         Adjusted staffing when bus bridge was shortened to RQ to 3^rd/Morrison

o   Remained at Jeld Wen until several trains went through and all bus bridge buses dropped their passengers

o   CBD staffing: 1^st/Oak (per Control’s request), 3^rd/Morrison shuttle drop-off & 2^nd/Yamhill shuttle pick-up

o   RQ staffing had 2 CS

§  Using Broadway siding as the turnback location was helpful

·         Allowed a consistent message re: where eastbound trains would board

o   Rotation of shuttle buses kept up with demand,

·         Adjusted again when Yellow Line incident occurred

o   Conferred with Lead 9909 (Ryan Hughes) to understand the service plan

§  Shuttle buses were no longer serving CBD…re-deployed to provide Yellow Line bus bridge from IRQ to Expo

§  Westbound Red & Blue trains at RQ were sent into and out of CBD via 5^th & 6^th Avenues

o   RQ staffing remained at 2, with one assisting shuttle bus boarding at Interstate RQ

§  Message to Westbound customers changed:

·         From: “board shuttle buses to downtown”

·         To: “for trips beyond downtown, transfer to westbound trains on Morrison”

o   CBD staffing:

§  Remained at Yamhill District for several trains to off-load trains, until we had staff in place at Square South & Courthouse

§  Staffed Square South & Courthouse

·         Off-loaded eastbound trains and re-directed those customers to Courthouse

·         Because shuttle buses were no longer in CBD, goal was to intercept those customers at Square and have them use 6^th Ave trains as their means to go to RQ

·         Variety of messages for customers at Square/Courthouse

o   Yellow customers told to take any train to RQ and walk to shuttle buses at IRQ

o   Blue & Red customers were given option of waiting for their train at Courthouse (arrival sequence was uncertain), or to just get across the river by taking first train and transferring at RQ or Gateway

·         Message became simplified when First Avenue service resumed

o   Yellow Line was the sole focus

o   CS staff redeployed to 6^th Ave platforms

o   Staff remained until several northbound Yellow trains served the CBD

Call Center impact

·         Our 238-RIDE and SIP staff rec’d a steady number of calls throughout the event (at times one out of three calls was related to the event)

o   Most people just interested in understanding what was happening

o   Some people with complaints, primarily people upset with lack of about the event, and/or people who were delayed in the initial phase of the two disruptions

·         After-hours email/voicemail.

o   Rec’d about 20 complaints thus far.

§  Virtually all were about the spotty service during the evening commute

·         More than half were about two trains that off-loaded during the commute: an EB Green @ NE 7^th and a WB train that began as a Blue downtown but was then turned back as a Red @ Beaverton TC.

o   Customers felt the communication related to these turnbacks was poor: wanted to know the reason for off-loading, and wanted to know location of their next train.

o   Rec’d one email commendation, and On Street staff who worked downtown on Thursday reported more than a half-dozen positive comments about TriMet’s response to the disruptions.

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I put myself at the NW corner of SW 5^th & SW Market so I can manage the streetcar coming into that corner(arriving)and board the customers onto the bus bridge buses on SW 5^th Ave at SW Market.  Overall we met every streetcar coming in by schedule except train 9381 @10:22am due to the streetcar 9381 no showing.  I learned from follower it was a no show but did not know reason for no show and had a bus sitting/waiting until I kicked it out 4 minutes late.  I contacted my lead  to see if he could let the Streetcar Superintendant when there is a no show or a train very late, etc… if they could let our Dispatch know so I know and can respond accordingly with my bus bridge buses.   called back a few minutes later and let me know the Superintendant was apologetic and will inform us next time…”its all good.”

The only issue I had was with Operator  who was not happy with the short breaks every trip and wanted a full ½ hr or 1 full hour of lunch in his run.  I spoke with Ryan again and we agreed the breaks were good with coffee shops and food near the SW 6^th & Mill layovers and we would not cover him a full lunch break and interrupt service or accommodate that amount of time.  Mr. was not pleased with decision and said he could call his Union which would give him his lunch of ½ to and hour full but he decided not to pursue that option with me.

I explained to Mr.  that if he does take an unauthorized lunch break of that amount of time past the breaks on the schedule of his run then he better let me know in advance his intentions so I can resond accordingly.  I did tell him I have to do my job and we need to meet these streetcars and only have 3 buses out for this special duty and each bus has a schedule to meet each streetcar.  There is now wiggle room for additional minutes on any particular break/layover time.  Mr. was not happy with the answers but did continue his work with the exception of being about 10 minutes late on this SW 6^th & Mill timepoint of 12:13pm.  He actually left about 12:23pm and left at SW 5^th & Market @12:29pm intstead of his scheduled 12:20pm timepoint for Streetcar.  This did cause me to entertain and settle folks down waiting for his bus to continue south on the bus bridge.  Somehow I managed to get all the customers to understand(observed by facial expressions and talk) although I can tell we were not making them happy with the late bus at the time I gave the news.  Schedule writer actually came by to say hello and see how the bridge was doing then he got to see this Mr. episode first hand.

I did let this one time slide but if it would have happened again then I would have written him up and went down the possible road of “insubordination”.  Fortunately I was able to keep it all good on the next trips with Mr.  and he was back on time as well. 

Ihave no complaints about the bus bridge itself.  I went well for my AM shift duty overall.

I did give plenty of people heads up that this would be Friday 10-12-12 as well for another day of bus bridging on the south end.

“That’s all folks”

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    Sunset TC – B

    

·served as IC and was very engaged in getting the barricades set up and staff deployed for fare inspection on both platforms.

·     We had Transit Police presence from around 6:15 on.

·     Most of the arriving Timbers fans were prepared with Day Passes, but still a fair number of citations were issued on the WB platform, not many on the EB.

Post-Event:

     Eastbound – J (Booth) & P (Center)

     Westbound – B (Booth) & S (Center)

·     Some Timbers fans exited early, but most stayed until the end of the game.

·     MAX service frequency was good in both directions and met customer needs without any lengthy wait times.

·     Transit Police and G4S officers were active and helpful, along with our Inspectors and Supervisors.

·     Aside from some folks being pretty tipsy, things went smoothly, and the nice weather made for pleasant duty.

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Pre-Event:

     Sunset TC – L

     Galleria – J (& T doing Fare Change outreach on trains in CBD)

     JELD-WEN - B & C

Post-Event at JELD-WEN:

     EB Booth – J. (& Cnear cash/card TVM that wasn’t accepting bills)

     WB Booth -- B. & L

·     The beautiful weather and early game time was appreciated.

·     Due to so few available Inspectors/Field Supervisors, the decision was made (by E believe) not to set up bike rack barricades for fare inspection at JELD-WEN, either pre- or post-event.  Had we known this in advance, we likely would have planned our pre-event staffing differently.

·     TVM #103 at Galleria was completely out of service, so it was good that I was there for cash fare sales, even though there weren’t many people boarding at that location.

·     Fare sales activity at Galleria and JELD-WEN would probably have been better if fares were being checked as folks arrived for the game.

·     Pre- and post-event MAX service met demand.

·     Ed R. was not in the mix with us for this event, due to Race for the Cure Health Expo staffing at the Convention Center (w/ Pamela W. & 3 ‘Ask Me’ Volunteers).

·     With the circus at the Rose Garden, Saturday Market near the Waterfront and an event of some kind at Pioneer Square, there were quite a few Lloyd-JELD-WEN MAX riders out and about.

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Transit Tracker was still unable to provide real-time arrivals due to the signal damage from 10/4/12’s auto collision. All TVMs still not accepting credit/debit cards. EB functioned for cash/coin; WB only for coin.

Stephanie and G4S contacted Rail Control from Sunset TC due to biohazard in the elevator.

  Pre-event sales were minimal. About half of the Lloyd Center customers were surprised about needing a fare. Some were displeased; others were happy for the help. Occasional TVM issues there as well; Gateway and Sunset customers already pretty well trained for needing fare and how to obtain it (TVMs functioning well at both locations).

·     Persistently deafening alarm going off in Trolley Barn for hours. Made for difficulty in setting and wrapping up; fortunately, we brought poolcar 819 in order to transport the extra tent for tomorrow’s hardening of platforms.

·     Eastbound for post: trains mainly on time; many folks missed the Gresham train that left before the event broke, so some were waiting up to 30 minutes for the 23:03 one.

·     Westbound for post: initially a bit of a wait, but then trains were lined up and cleared one after the other.

·     As with many concerts, noticeable portion of customers were new or infrequent riders; they appreciated the platform presence and extra assistance. Crowd was well behaved. 

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This event was too much for regular service. Passengers were using the yellow line to go to PIR. Many I am sure did not pay for fare. No fare Inspectors were assigned to this event and normal sat supervisors are not equipped for this many passengers. Train were reporting passing up passengers both before start of event and after event. The Pioneer Sq. platform on 6^th was even packed for north bound trains. When I talked with Jay Jackson he said 10% (1600) projected to use the max service. I am sure three times that amount used max. There were even reports of TVM’s not operating at Delta Pk.

Sugestions:

1.     Customer service persons selling tickets.

2.     Fare inspectors.

3.     Extra service, trains or busses.

4.     Event planners are required to pay a portion of the fare for public use/fare. When an event is in such a closed off location such as PIR and the time of the event is going to cause the public to want to use public transit it only makes since to contribute to the service that gets used. Without a mass effort by Tri-Met fare inspectors we just lost thousands of dollars in revenue.

On the plus side event planners on the parking side did a good job of directing traffic to PIR parking. Parking lot at Delta Pk. For the most part did not get used.

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This event was too much for regular service. Passengers were using the yellow line to go to PIR. Many I am sure did not pay for fare. No fare Inspectors were assigned to this event and normal sat supervisors are not equipped for this many passengers. Train were reporting passing up passengers both before start of event and after event. The Pioneer Sq. platform on 6^th was even packed for north bound trains. When I talked with J he said 10% (1600) projected to use the max service. I am sure three times that amount used max. There were even reports of TVM’s not operating at Delta Pk.

Sugestions:

1.     Customer service persons selling tickets.

2.     Fare inspectors.

3.     Extra service, trains or busses.

4.     Event planners are required to pay a portion of the fare for public use/fare. When an event is in such a closed off location such as PIR and the time of the event is going to cause the public to want to use public transit it only makes since to contribute to the service that gets used. Without a mass effort by Tri-Met fare inspectors we just lost thousands of dollars in revenue.

On the plus side event planners on the parking side did a good job of directing traffic to PIR parking. Parking lot at Delta Pk. For the most part did not get used.

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I believe there were many more participants in this event than anticipated. There were no extra trains or buses planned for this event. It was not in the Operations Order for me (the district bus supervisor) to be involved. J  got a hold of me to inform me that rail was getting overwhelmed leaving people behind. He asked me to make arrangements to have our one and only extra service bus in a position to help out with the post event crowd at 11:30am. That bus ended up being needed to fill a run so we had no extra resources. It is my opinion that one bus would probably have not made an impact on the crowd though. After becoming aware of this issue, I began making my way up to Delta Park Max Stop. I noticed, along the way, there were many participants walking northbound on Interstate (I assumed these were folks who could not fit on our regularly scheduled trains). I also observed approx. 20-30 people get left behind at Lombard/Interstate by a northbound max. This was around 9:30am I believe which was after the event was scheduled to start. Once I knew we were not going to have any buses available to help, I informed F (the district rail supervisor) of this and told him that I would be in the area if he needed my help for anything. Around 11:00am I was at Rose Quarter and saw some of the participants arrive so I assumed the event had let out some time ago. I drove back up as far as Lombard again and observed 3 consecutive southbound trains that were completely packed. I was not at Delta Park so I don’t know what that looked like. I don’t know if the crowd finished all at once or if it was a steady flow of finishing participants as the event let out. We should arrange for a few extra trains or a series of shuttle buses for pre and post event next year.  

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After getting the ops order staffed as it needed to be, we had enough folks for the task. Requested a train or two to go to Hillsboro, but no takers.

Specific incidents (if any) and actions taken in response

NO TRAIN ORDER IN PLACE had issues with controllers in implementing the closure of the center platform for eastbound trains not opening their doors, D had to give a order to implement it period, no response from Controller of them copying the order, so I had the rail supervisor alert each train and give them the do not open signal some got it some didn’t.  It finally was issued at 7:30 pm when we broke for lunch, and I suspended it until 21:30 then it worked after that.

Many customers voiced discontent with the way it was set up and felt unconvinced but tried to explain what they needed to do and how it worked made them understand the reason it was being done.

The eastbound entrances could use the poles with information where to enter and these are in the trolley barn, at the location they were entering it might make it easier to see where they need to go (visual aid).  And having the Bus supervisor at the corner of Holladay and Wheeler is a very good thing. They help not only the buses get thru but directing the passengers to the street area for boarding on the eastside. 

And having G4S folks there is a must, and W stated that only 4 were requested for pre-game and we both determined that at least 6-8 are needed to keep people off the platform (Center) and having them run around east and west ends as well as the bus traffic location.

He wasn’t sure if he had the resources with the pre-sale location coverage, but is something he would check into and we need to discuss, and get back to him.

We did have some folks walk up to convention center for sure, and others when they got off a RQ and seeing us deciding to get back on the train as not to be checked. 

CS were very helpful and did a great job, may riders were young girls with mothers who even though are expected to have fare, many were given the option of purchasing day tickets instead of a citation of $175.00. 

This is the first time I’ve dealt with the closure or hardening of the RQ platform and as time goes on it should get easier, and run like Jeld-Wen did by the end.

With the fact of the delayed trains we were at some times 10-15 min waits, and in the future maybe a Westbound extra service would be warranted especially when the blazer game start up.

And maybe some signage to hang in the center platform alerting folks it’s closed, I can see if marketing can arrange for some, as well as more of the fare required and pre-purchase before.

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·     Pre-event sales were minimal. About half of the Lloyd Center customers were surprised about needing a fare. Some were displeased; others were happy for the help. Occasional TVM issues there as well; Gateway and Sunset customers already pretty well trained for needing fare and how to obtain it (TVMs functioning well at both locations).

·     Persistently deafening alarm going off in Trolley Barn for hours. Made for difficulty in setting and wrapping up; fortunately, we brought poolcar 819 in order to transport the extra tent for tomorrow’s hardening of platforms.

·     Eastbound for post: trains mainly on time; many folks missed the Gresham train that left before the event broke, so some were waiting up to 30 minutes for the 23:03 one.

·     Westbound for post: initially a bit of a wait, but then trains were lined up and cleared one after the other.

·     As with many concerts, noticeable portion of customers were new or infrequent riders; they appreciated the platform presence and extra assistance. Crowd was well behaved. 

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As expected, crowds are large today heading to this run at PIR. Trains are full and minimal pass-ups have been experienced. Train 66 is now picking up any left-over passengers and getting them to the event.

1.       It was a decision by SETS not to add extra service trains to this event due to the amount of capacity we have on Saturday mornings on the Yellow Line. I believe that decision is supported by what we are seeing at this time.

2.       I have talked to Rail Supervisor F to monitor and advise for post-event. We do not have an extra operator or train at this point until after 11:00 AM which will be too late.

3.       I have discussed with the controller, TJ, about this event as well.

4.       We will not have a lead on until around 1 PM today to monitor the Timbers games.

5.       I have discussed with R district supervisor to monitor along with F post-event. He will make contact with F and they both will monitor.

6.       We do have one extra service bus that could assist. I have advised Rto let the operator know – folks need to pay and this is not a ‘free’ ride into town.

Both supervisors and control will keep me posted on this event and how it goes. My real concern is post-event when these people leave. Not so much capacity as their cloths will be covered in chalk dust from the event, hopefully, not trashing our trains which will then require us to pull them from service.

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