CLEVELAND — Milia Early is just one in a group of RTA riders who were left surprised and disappointed after trying use the temporarily closed Red Line between Tower City and Stokes-Windermere Station.
News 5 was on the scene as Early found a locked door at the RTA Cedar-University rapid station, unaware the Red Line had been shutdown for upgrades from April 2 through April 29.
“I went to go obviously try and catch the train and the doors are locked, I didn’t know about it at all, on the app or anything it does not say it's closed," Early said. “I think that they should be texting people, or something should have been out here posted. I ride past this place every morning.”
According to Clevelanders for Public Transit Chair Chris Martin, Early is far from alone. Martin told News 5 better RTA communication with riders is an issue across the board.
Martin said RTA needed to do a better job communicating such a massive shutdown of a significant portion of the Red Line from Tower City to the Stokes-Windermere Station. Additionally, Martin said the public transit system needs to re-establish text communication with riders, which was dropped in 2017, and re-boot NextConnect video screens with significant real-time information.
“We’ve seen reports of folks showing up at stations on East 79 and East 34 which are not taking any Red Line train riders right now," Martin said. “You used to be able to text RTA to be able to find out route information, that function is no longer available but should absolutely be brought back.”
Martin believes the RTA shuttle bus service established during the temporary Red Line shutdown is simply not enough to insure riders have timely transportation to work and crucial medical appointments.
"Those shuttle buses come just every half hour instead of every 15 minutes like the Red Line," Martin said. "So if you’re counting on a particular train, it’s not going to come.”
Martin told News 5 Clevelanders for Public Transit is hoping at least one rider will be appointed to the RTA Board of Trustees, with Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne expected to fill three new seats on the board in the coming weeks.
“I don’t see why it’s taken county executive Ronayne so long to name these three people," Martin explained.
The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority defended it's communication with riders during the Red Line renovation, issuing the following statement:
Communications for the current Red Line rail service shutdown were implemented with signage at all the stations a few days after the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, on Transit App, GCRTA’s website, and GCRTA’s social media channels. Communications support has also been provided by local media traffic reporters during their morning traffic reports.
66R buses are operating on a 30 minute frequency during this rail service shutdown. Red Line riders may also ride the HealthLine bus between Tower City and Stokes-Windermere Stations as an alternative.
The RTA also released information on how riders can best use public transportation to get to the Cleveland Guardians baseball home opener at Progressive Field on April 7. The rider information can be found here.
Still, Clevelanders for Public Transit believes RTA must make broader systemic changes when it comes to providing timely rider information.
“There was one notice on Twitter on I believe on March 23 and then they basically ignored the shutdown of the Red Line from April 2," Martin said. “When you’re shutting down the Red Line for a month and not doing a good job communicating to riders about that, they’ve got a long way to go."
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