Keolis Transit North America, which operates bus services in Northern Nevada, is facing criticism from some riders. It says it's experiencing growing pains after taking over RTC’s bus routes, but expects the issues to be resolved in time.
Keolis' takeover of RTC's bus operations has been a rough ride for some of those who use mass transit. “They're still late. They're still not very helpful,” said bus rider Hayley Catlow. “You have to wait out there an hour or two and its freezing,” said bus rider Jesse Grenamyer. “Right now the bus system seems to be faltering. It's not as reliable as it was,” said bus rider Tammy Wilson.
Keolis general manager Abul Hassan says they inherited many of their problems from the bus system's previous operator. “Every single day postings were going up about dozens of dozens of trips that were just not going to happen,” said Hassan.
He says that one of the causes for those issues was simply a matter of manpower. There were only around 130 employees. “Our requirement internally was that we were always going to need to be at or near 170. Right now as it stands, we have 170 employees,” said Hassan.
Problem is that it takes some time for the new employees to finish their month of training and get used to their new positions. “We had to have classes of dozens of people every 3 weeks to make this successful,” said Hassan.
He says that it will take some time to get all the employees up to speed, and add another 10 to 20 employees as insurance in case some don't work out. “What you're seeing is that transition happening. Usually when a vendor takes over to run services, it takes roughly a 12 month period,” said Hassan.
Daily bus rider Tammy Wilson says she believes additional training just may provide the solution to the issues of lateness and customer service. “The operator should work with the drivers that they have on getting them accustomed to their route,” said Wilson.
Hassan says he expects Keolis to have the bugs ironed out by July which is a year after when it took over the routes.
