Pace under the microscope about getting disabled from place to place

When a new task came up in 2005 for the agency that runs suburban bus routes, Pace officials accepted the assignment: take its system of getting disabled riders from place to place and expand it into the city of Chicago.

Fast forward to today and that assignment is more like a daunting challenge with a $24 million shortfall looming over Pace that some worry threatens its core mission of getting people around the sprawling suburbs.

Along with the funding emergency, the Regional Transportation Authority, which has oversight of Pace, is auditing the agency on the heels of myriad complaints from Chicagoans.

"When CTA had the program it was broken. Pace took the broken pieces, smashed them and we're being cut on the slivers," one Chicago rider said at an RTA hearing.

Pace Executive Director T. J. Ross calls the criticisms unfounded. "We're working our tails off," he said. "We've done a lot of positive things with the service."

The bad financial news caused jaws to drop at a recent Pace board meeting, but not Schaumburg Mayor Al Larson's.

"We've gone through crises in the past," said Larson, a member of the board. "Things have worked out."

High hopes

The situation is a far cry from Pace officials' hopes back in 2005 when the General Assembly voted to shift responsibility for city paratransit from the Chicago Transit Authority to the Arlington Heights-based agency. Paratransit is a ride service offered to people with disabilities who are unable to use buses or the subway.

"This is an exciting time for the suburban bus service in that there will be an expansion of service into one of the greatest cities in the country," a Pace newsletter stated. "Pace will now receive proper recognition regarding its role in transit in northeast Illinois."

But changes instituted by Pace have led to dissatisfaction from users about long rides, scheduling mix-ups, unsafe vehicles and poor communication. A new ride scheduling program had an inauspicious start one year ago when the computer system crashed. Only 69 percent of rides the first week were on time and 2,090 complaints poured in during the initial five weeks.

Meanwhile, RTA auditors are going over Pace's books at a cost of up to $129,000, at a time when all transit agencies are short on cash. The report is expected in June. And, Pace has spent about $80,000 on an advisory committee to look into complaints and offer solutions.

"I think they're experiencing a lot of problems that weren't anticipated," said University of Illinois at Chicago transit expert Joseph DiJohn, who was the Pace Executive Director from 1982 to 1998.

Ross said satisfied customers outnumber the critics, adding it took time to build up a successful paratransit program in the suburbs. "Twelve months is a really short time to expect massive changes," he said.

The RTA is caught between Pace's claims, riders' concerns and reality, said RTA Executive Director Steve Schlickman. "Pace feels it runs the system as best they can and when compared to their peers they do well," he said. "On the other hand, we hear complaints regularly from the riding public."

Money matters

When Pace took over Chicago paratransit in 2006, it already was operating a similar suburban program. Expectations were that it could provide a more efficient and economical regional system, state Reps. Julie Hamos and Kathy Ryg recalled.

"The CTA gave it up willingly and Pace willingly took it on," said Ryg, a Vernon Hills Democrat who chairs a House committee on paratransit.

Pace officials said they've managed the budget better than the CTA with efficiencies such as shared rides.

But costs are surpassing original estimates made by Pace, the RTA and CTA in a joint January 2006 Regional ADA Paratransit Plan.

The report projected paratransit costs for both Chicago and the suburbs would be $80 million in 2007, the first year Pace operated the regional service alone. Actual costs came out to $83.7 million.

Expenses in 2008 were estimated at $86.2 million but totaled $101 million. In 2009, the projection was for $92.9 million, the reality is closer to $120 million.

Pace officials say the discrepancies stem from increases in fuel, salaries, insurance and the fact they had to negotiate new contracts with the private carriers that pick up and deliver riders in Chicago.

There's also more people using paratransit. In 2007, ridership in Chicago was 1.8 million people compared to 1.9 million last year, an increase of 6 percent. However, original projections did account for expanded use.

Paratransit itself is a costly service. Pace officials estimate they recover between 36 and 40 percent of the expenses of fixed routes compared to 10 percent for paratransit, which is federally mandated as part of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"It's a victim of its own success," said Hamos, an Evanston Democrat and chairman of the House Mass Transit Committee.

The soaring costs along with disappointing sales tax revenues that pay for paratransit have caused a $24 million shortfall, which could start affecting Pace's ability to pay bills in a few months, officials warned at a recent meeting.

The budget gap hit close to home for some board members although financial staff note that suburban bus and paratransit funds are separate.

"I'm very adamant that we don't use money earmarked for suburban fixed routes to supplement ADA in the city of Chicago," Director Frank Mitchell said.

Pace is working with the RTA - "they're the ones with financial responsibility for the service," Ross said.

For his part, Schlickman noted the RTA could borrow money to help Pace but it's not a given.

"First, they need to show they can manage it well," he said. "The audit will help try to explain that."

And, Pace officials will have to make some difficult calls in the near future to balance its budget that could include unpopular paratransit fare increases, Schlickman added.

'Foster children?'

Under the CTA, the service was far from perfect. For example, people had to get up early to schedule pickups only to wait on hold for hours with limited success, riders said. Pace, however, offers extended hours for people to call in, which riders have praised.

But problems - not accolades - dominated the talk at a RTA listening session March 20. Paratransit riders listed issues such as interminably-long trips, unsafe vehicles, no-shows and rude drivers.

"Before there was a problem and after there was a problem," Chicagoan Denise Parham said. "You ride around for hours. What used to be a 45-minute trip now takes an hour- and-a-half to two hours."

Chicagoan Janet Wielebnowski, who is visually impaired and has juvenile arthritis, said buses have insufficient heating and air-conditioning and don't secure wheelchairs properly.

"How are we as disabled people supposed to feel safe?" she asked. "When the bus goes forward, you go forward."

Pace officials defend their record, noting that they've made high-tech changes compared to the CTA's manual system - computerizing ride scheduling, tracking trips and recording dispatcher exchanges with customers.

So far, the average on-time performance for the last six months of 2008 was 91 percent.

"If someone says a dispatcher was rude, we go back to the tape," Pace Deputy Executive Director for Revenue Services Melinda Metzger said. When the complaint is warranted, "we correct the situation."

One reason rides take longer is that paratransit users are sharing rides, which wasn't the norm before, Pace leaders said.

That may mean vans take a while to pick up passengers and deliver them to different destinations but it's more efficient, Pace Executive Director of External Services Rocky Donahue said, adding the agency's held more than 100 meetings with the public.

"There's a delicate balance between trying to please the passenger and please the taxpayer," he said.

"The nature of public transportation is that you share the ride," Ross said.

Pace cited one example of a Chicagoan who travels from the South Side to downtown on a regular basis. Her trips take from 38 to 68 minutes, while traveling by fixed routes would be 65 minutes, according to the RTA's trip planner.

Ride-sharing's not a problem, said Marcia Trawinski, a visually impaired Chicagoan. What she objects to is being transported "30 blocks south when you want to go north." Far too many trips involve inefficient zigzagging around Chicago, Trawinski said.

She and Jim Watkins, who are co-chairs of the RTA's ADA Advisory Committee, advocate appointing more than just one Chicago representative to the 13-member Pace board.

Watkins calls it "common sense" and as Trawinski sees it, "since we moved from the CTA, we became the foster children farmed out to Pace."

But Ross believes riders are mistaken if they think Pace staff isn't on their side. "I don't know if you could find a more dedicated group of people."

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