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ChineseGridlock at Union Station
It’s the last day of the month, you need a new Metro Pass, you happen to be at Union Station. Just outside you can see the silhouette of the MTA Headquarters or “the Taj Mahal” at it is snidely referred to because of it’s imposing grandeur. The Gateway Transit Center at the east side of Union Station is filled with spectacular light from the stained glass windows above. A mural representing the diversity of our city welcomes travelers of many races, genders, religions, and all of other possible human categories. The painting seems to come to life below as you see a line of the very people represented in the image, all of them waiting patiently to purchase their Metro Pass for the coming month.
This was the scene I saw last Friday, as I embarked on a mission to buy a TAP card to celebrate its official roll-out. Since I’ve been self-employed I’ve found myself saving some money by not getting a monthly Metro Pass like I used to. This hassles of keeping exact change on hand or stopping at ticket machines was not great enough to justify the extra expense for a Metro Pass at my usage level. When TAP was announced I was initially excited because initial reports hinted that it would act as a debit card, where I could load a dollar amount on to the card that would be debited with each tap of the TAP. In November I found out this would not be the case (at least not yet) and came to the stunning realization that TAP and Metro Rail just didn’t make sense together. Well today we know we are getting fare gates to solve that problem (er… I mean stop terrorists), but curiosity got the best of me (not to mention my position as a self-proclaimed transit reporter) and so I decided to get an official TAP card.
Here’s the thing… amidst all the splendor of Union Station, Gateway Transit Center, and the Taj Mahal, getting a damn TAP pass was not too easy. As I noted, there was a line of people in the Gateway Transit Center, all eager to buy their passes for the next month. This is understandable. What didn’t make sense was why there were only two Metro employees working the ticket office. For those of you who don’t know, the ticket office at Gateway Transit Center (which I would assume is Metro’s flagship ticket office) has three windows for Metro and one for Metrolink. Well, on this day, this day when Metro should know there will be high demand for passes, one of the Metro windows was closed and vacant. It was closed and vacant for my entire 30 minutes in line. If you didn’t catch that, I was in line for 30 minutes. For the last 5 minutes of my wait, only one window was open. I assume lunch time had come and … well and nothing, that’s that.
This is one of the reasons it’s hard to take Metro seriously when they propose spending money on things like fare gates. If they were really interested in improving the experience of the customers, couldn’t they afford to invest a little bit into making buying a pass take less than 30 minutes at their flagship ticket office in the shadow of their multi-million dollar high-rise? It’s really inexcusable to have so few people working at such a high demand time. I wonder how many people gave up and decided to fare evade the next day because they couldn’t buy their passes in a timely manner?
My experience was the perfect example of the disconnect between Metro’s pretty face and its tortured soul. The surroundings could not have seemed more legitimate, from the sparkling architecture to the bold signage, but the customer service experience was so bad that it negated all of the positives provided by the environment. Customer service should be priority number one for Metro. Making the transit experience comfortable, friendly, and efficient will do more for Metro’s image than any PR campaign, sleek designs, or flashy technology.
Speaking of flashy technology, once I bought my TAP Pass (a weekly pass for $17) I was reminded that it’s not usable until Sunday, the start of the week. I shook my head in disappointment, but I wasn’t surprised, the TAP pass offers no advantage at all over any other pass. Why a week pass on an electronic card has to be used for a calendar week, and not just a period of 7 days, I just don’t know. Either way, I had a TAP pass in my hand but had to stop at the ticket machine to buy a ticket.
As I bought my ticket I was reminded four more times of how poor Metro’s customer service is, and where the millions really should go if they are interested in improving the transit experience and their image. Three confused people approached me in a period of a few minutes asking for help on various issues they couldn’t figure out. One woman was who was wondering which trains she had to take to get to the Orange Line. It didn’t take long for me to realize she wasn’t talking about the Orange Line busway in the valley, but the Orange Line Metrolink to Orange County. The woman was about to go to the opposite end of the region if I hadn’t pointed her in the right direction. Next up was a Mexican man who wanted Day Pass but wasn’t sure how to go about it. I showed him how to use the Ticket Vending Machine and he went on his way. A second later a man who I saw waiting in line for passes was having trouble at a nearby Ticket Vending Machine and asked me how to put in the destination (he was used to Metrolink trains). I explained to him how it worked and then told him what he’d need to do to get to Long Beach. Now most of these questions were simple to answer and didn’t take much energy on my part, but these people weren’t stupid, they were just confused as anyone might be by a large transit system. If I was approached by three people in a matter of minutes at one ticket machine, imagine how many others could use someone to help them out with basic questions. How great would it be if Metro employed people with knowledge about the system whose sole purpose was to give people a helping hand.
What do you think? Do you feel like I do, that an improvement in customer service would go a long way to improving the transit experience?
Discussion
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This is hardly an isolated incident. In NY when I bought my monthly NJ Transit ticket to NJ I had to do it at the last minute (because of the Transit Check program, I had to wait until I got my last paycheck of the month if I wanted to use my tax-free stipend). There was always a huge wait. There was never enough windows open.
Then, last July after I was done with Transit Checks (I only worked a half-month in August 2007 I stopped by to buy a weekly pass not on the last day of the month and there were like two people in line in front of me.
The problem wasn’t that they didn’t have enough ticket counters for 975 of the days. The problem was they didn’t seem to want to pay for an extra person on that other day…but of course, any reports they did at the counter showed that there staffing was almost always adequate.
I bet Metro has a similar problem. When they look at their stats, they see that wait times are low. But, if you look at when there are problems, they’re probably at the same time/date every month.
This does bring about one of the few potential positives of TAP as it is implemented so far… next month (er… week), if I choose to reload my TAP, I can do it from a Ticket Vending Machine instead of waiting in line somewhere.
Speaking of which, I wonder how TAP effects getting passes at Ralphs and check cashing places? This might be a hard hitting journalism job (read: requires calling people) for StreetsblogLA. MetroRiderLA doesn’t like people
Got My TAP from Culver City Transit on Jefferson and Duquesne. No Line but it did take about 15 minutes to load 2 TAP cards. FYI Metro’s Main ticket office is not Union Station but at Wilshire and La Brea. I think they have 5 or 6 windows there, not sure what it is like at the beginning of the month. But it is not a convenient place compared to Union Station.
Take Care
- P.
But certainly it would make logical sense (I realize that Metro generally doesn’t adhere to logic) that Union Station would be the “flagship” Metro ticket office seeing as it’s the hub of virtually all transit in the region. If anything, it’s proximity to the Metro powers-that-be should ensure some sort of quality standard which it fails to meet.
It’s at Wilshire and La Brea? Well that’s brilliant thinking. A place you can’t even get to by Metro Rail.
They just foul up on so much simple stuff.
Why aren’t there recordings telling you which train is arriving or when the next train is coming? Why don’t the screens tell you that information too? Why aren’t there vending machines for weekly passes, monthly passes, and TAP cards? Why aren’t there better signs in general telling you how and where to transfer?
And really, why isn’t there an information kiosk with a person manning it in every rail station every day? I understand it’s expensive, but when I’m in DC using their metro system, there’s always someone there to help people with wheelchairs or fix my pass if it got screwed up (again, another reason paper passes are still the best, my DC pass got screwed up all the time, supposedly because I “used it too quickly before the fare gates had fully closed.”)
simon took the words right out of my.. fingers.
The Wilshire/La Brea ticket office is also where you’d pick up lost and found stuff. The location had gone through an artsy makeover. I’m thinking Metro is saving that location for a future station of the Purple Line.
“I’m thinking Metro is saving that location for a future station of the Purple Line.”
The MTA owns the properties where there are future stations slated at LaBrea and Wilshire (The Metro Customer Center), and at Fairfax & Wilshire (Johnnie’s Diner, used only for filming). It;s not clear if they will demolish the Googie Diner to build the station. It was designed by John Lautner and should probably be a landmark.
The Metro Customer Center at LaBrea is not the Metro’s Main ticket office, it is one of several regional outlets. From the Metro website:
MTA Customer Service Centers are located at: 515 S. Flower Street, level C, Arco Plaza Customer Center; 5301 Wilshire Boulevard, Wilshire Customer Center; 3650 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 101B, Baldwin Hills Customer Center; 14435 Sherman Way, Suite 107, San Fernando Valley Customer Center; 4501 “B” Whittier Blvd., East L.A. Customer Center; East Portal, Union Station; and adjacent to East Portal at MTA headquarters, One Gateway Plaza, plaza level.
By the way, TAP passes have not been released to the general public yet. When they are, you will be able to buy them at the ticket machines in all the Mtero stations. The ones you an get now are the pre-release versions, which are still in a (late) testing phase.
Connect the dots…. the carbon-auto industry WANTS transit to suck.
“MTA Customer Service Centers are located at: 515 S. Flower Street, level C, Arco Plaza Customer Center”
Huh? That center in Arco Plaza hasn’t been open for years! In fact, Level C of the “Arco Plaza” (is it even called that anymore, since the building was sold some time ago) has been closed off for the past two-three years or so!
I just dont see the advantage of this tap card over my EZ pass. To me It just seems so much easier than using the tap card. Whic h by your descriotion would complicate me trip. I cant use it on other bus systems that i use(i.e Torrance transit & Montebello transit)
In my opinion, it does complicate the trip Henry. As it stands now, I find that TAP adds very little value to the transit experience for the riders. Bert says it’s still in testing phase, so hopefully there will still be improvements that will add value to it beyond the traditional paper pass, but not much has changed since the “official” testing period in November 2007.
I too wish Metro would get their act together with regards to the TAP pass. People I know, who study this have said it really is an inter-agency institutional issue. However all I can say is keep pushing. When I lived in London the Oyster card(their TAP pass) was awesome. My company reimbursed half my tube pass, but the same amount covered an entire monthly bus pass. So when I moved to a part of town where the bus was more convenient, I could buy my bus pass, and then top up my Oyster card with 50 pounds for whenever I needed to take the tube. Plus the fact that it could be read remotely meant I never had to take it out of my wallet (and lose it cuz I’m scatter brained). I’d just tap the thing on the reader.
As much as everyone complains about the fare gates I really think they are a necessary investment. Hopefully they will allow zone charging on the system, so that you pay more to go farther distances. Also fare gates with information kiosks will improve perceived security. My wife took the red line recently and she said she didnt feel as safe as she did taking BART or MUNI. Even if that person isn’t a cop she just felt safer knowing there was somebody else in the station.
Many (but not all) transit advocates tend to be men and we forget that perceived safety is as important as technical and financial matters when it comes to transit usage by women, children, and the elderly.
you think that’s bad… try the east l.a. metro service center on whittier/ford. line around the corner… if you’re not in the door by six… sorry come back the next day. try it on the last days of the month… even worse when it’s the beginning of a new school year / semester and all the students are coming in with their apps for student cards and don’t have all the proper documents. oh yeah. go metro!
I don’t know where on the Metro website Bert dug up that old list of customer centers, but in the link in the “Rider’s Guide” section:
http://www.metro.net/riding_metro/riders_guide/contact_us-01.htm
And in the link in the Accessibility section:
http://www.metro.net/accessible/accessibility_centers.htm
The old ARCO Plaza and Van Nuys customer centers (both closed) are not listed.
When the rehabilitation of North Hollywood Depot (adjacent to the Orange Line staging area) is complete, the Valley customer center will reopen there.
Hours of transit stores should be extended, at least near the end/beginning of the month.
How about open on Sat & Sun.
We live in a 24/7 envirement now and not everyone can to a transit window, 8-5.
Except, of course, Marcotico, that zone fares are absurdly confusing (Metrolink ceased publishing their fare chart because the spreadsheets are just so huge, but at least most Metrolink riders do the same trip over and over again, whereas people use the Metro Rail to go many different places) and that none of the fare gates are going to be permanently staffed. A couple of poor souls at the Rail Operations Center are going to watch hundreds of different views of fare gates scroll by and, if they happen to catch someone jumping a gate or letting themselves out with an emergency exit, yell at them over the PA system while it takes 20 or 30 minutes for a cop to show up to take care of the problem, whatever that is. That is not going to help any. The proposal was not to put station agents at every station. If it were, then they could act as eyes and ears for suspicious activity. Rather, more cameras at where the fare gates are is the supposed security benefit.
BTW, Foothill Transit actually now has more transit stores than Metro and they are open much longer than Metro. This is an agency that is one tenth the size.
A bit off topic, but all of the Von’s/Pavilions on the Westside sell MTA passes. They sell out much earlier than they used to. There always used to be a couple left after the 3rd, but if I don’t buy mine as soon as they come out, forget it.
Not scientific, but anecdotally I take it that more people are riding MTA and/or more people who do are buying monthly passes.
ive been able to get my monthly pass through work for the last year or so but that’s going to end in april because, like metro, the company i work at makes getting metro passes nearly impossible and for whatever reason i’ve been taken off “the list”. my anger towards the idiots at my work and the pointlessness of HR aside, i remeber how much of a pain it used to be to get metro passes. i used to be forced into leaving work early (something i have no problem with of course but certain bosses found it less acceptable, even tho they “promote” going green and all that bs-oh LA you hypocritical asshole) just so i could make the 5pm window. then when i did make it there the line was too long and they closed the window on any of us still waiting. the slap in the face couldn’t have been more blatent and i left with a hand mark on my cheek.
i’m blown away that in a years time this hasn’t improved and fear the coming of april.
Doesn’t anyone buy their monthly pass from the Metro website? The charge is $1 for the service and it arrives in the mail around the mid 20s of the month (23/24/25) and includes an MTA invoice receipt for tax purposes. The timeframe to purchase from the website is from the 5th - 18th/19th of the month.
Using this service allows you to
*not deal with any lines wherever you normally buy your pass
*always being assured or getting a pass on time
*pay with a charge card (i.e. pay for it when your statement arrives)
*a receipt for tax purposes, as mentioned above
I have used this service for sometime and never have had a problem with the mail. You guys should give it a try, it is really easy.
i tried this the first time i got a monthly pass and it definitely never came in the mail.. i also wasn’t charged. it just didnt work.
Customer Service doesn’t even exist at Union Station. The entire place is a total nightmare of bad signage, non-existent customer service, and dimly lit corridors. Gloomy, depressing, and less-than third rate. Go to any major European or Asian city and have a completely modern experience - while here in LA, in what is a very young city, we have absolutely dismal progress. Union Station is a dump. And while I am very much a preservationist, the place should be gutted and completely rebuilt - starting with the staff.