Passenger Bus, Rail and Motorcoach Industry News

Van drivers rallied at Metro Mobility Management, the county’s paratransit provider, to protest low pay, 12-hour workdays and tight schedules. The protest comes on the heels of Metro Mobility getting a one-week trial period after receiving several complaints of late or no-show vehicles in 2012.

The move comes in reaction to more than 2,100 complaints over the past six months, ranging from lateness to no-shows to harsh treatment by drivers. The retooling includes transferring all scheduling to Palm Tran employees.

This bus will be used on Route 1, which travels via US1 from the Palm Beach Gardens Mall to Camino Real in Boca Raton during the month of January in support of the fight against breast cancer.

This is the fourth consecutive year that fixed-route ridership increased and the third consecutive year that new ridership records were set.

Riders and Palm Beach County Commissioners confronted the agency’s executive director about delays and long rides for the elderly and others with serious health issues, resulting from a new paratransit contract. The contractor convinced Palm Tran that its vans could, on their own, handle the Palm Tran Connection contract, a job previously done by three companies.

Metro Mobility Management Group is using 60 MV-1 vehicles to provide door-to-door Palm Tran Connection service.

Company said it would save the county $16.7 million over five years.

Palm Tran plans to keep an express bus service that is drawing few passengers and has cost the transit system the majority of a $3 million state grant. It will drop some routes and expand others.