MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Longtime Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) riders are sounding off about long wait times and poor conditions on buses and at bus stops.
Despite the transit authority announcing significant upgrades from federal grant money, riders say they haven’t seen many improvements.
MATA makes about five million passenger trips in a year across 280 square miles.
One rider said, despite promises of new buses and routes, her wait times as of late have more than doubled.
“This is a very important bus system for people,” Cynthia Bailey, co-chair of the Memphis Bus Riders Union, said. “Make sure that ridership comes first. People have to be at work early in the morning. So, at seven o’clock if the bus doesn’t show up to seven thirty that means people are late."
For Bailey and thousands of other riders each day MATA is their critical lifeline to get from point A to point B.
Bailey - who has relied on MATA for three decades - says reliability is at an all-time low.
“This is the worst that I've experienced," Bailey said. “I’m not sure if it’s because of the management team or it’s just the scheduling and route planning.”
Other MATA riders agreed, pointing to what they view as poor communication with drivers and constantly delayed routes.
“One time I sit on the bus stop for an hour and forty-five minutes,” MATA rider L.C. Hogan said. “Taking my daughter to school, the bus be late; my daughter be tardy.”
Though MATA improved its digital communication in recent years riders sat that's also not always reliable.
“That’s convenient unless you don’t have access to that type of technology, or you don’t know how to use that technology,” MATA rider Kevin said. “And when you call in on the automated system it doesn’t work. It’s been down for over a year.”
In August of 2022, MATA received four grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation, totaling $139.8 million, which MATA said is the largest federal investment it has received in its 47-year history.
MATA officials said the money will be broken down like this:
$54,000,000 for a new operations and maintenance facility
$22 million for buying Clean Electric Buses and installing charging stations
$63.8 million for the Memphis Innovation Corridor Rapid Transit System to connect downtown to the Medical District and University of Memphis area.
But Bailey says nearly eight months later she sees no meaningful change.
“Where is the money at,” Bailey asked? “We don’t see where the money is going. They say they received the money. But now everybody’s really puzzled; like, how’s the money really spending.”
MATA CEO Gary Rosenfeld sent ABC24 a statement saying;
"To date, MATA has only received a portion of FTA grant funds earmarked for facility maintenance and electric buses and bus rapid transit. We have conducted a series of community engagement meetings to share funding options and are excited to roll out our electric buses in Spring 2023. We continue to make rider experience and innovation a priority by restructuring our team with veteran public transit leaders to focus on service delivery and vehicle maintenance, and to prioritize rider communication, unveiling our expanded dispatch center on February 24.’’