September October In Transit 2015 A NEWSLETTER FOR KING2 COUNTY01 METRO4 TRANSIT EMPLOYEES FROM THE GENERAL MANAGER’S DESK HR ramps up hiring What upsizing looks like This is the issue in which we honor our Wall of Fame nominees, a stellar slate of employees who have made outstanding contributions to Metro’s efforts and initiatives over the past year. It gives me great pleasure to thank all of the nominees for their excellent work and draw your attention to our Wall of Fame listing on pages 4-5. It’s no coincidence that our Transit Human Members of our hardworking HR team take a moment to celebrate their success so far Resources group figures prominently this year. From left to right are: front row—Elisha Mackey, Jamie Robinson, Jen Montoya, in both this year’s Wall of Fame (in Patricia Stinehour, Shanette Landes. Back row—Edye Edwards, Jose Dominguez, Mara the person of Acting Service Delivery Sims, Yolanda Madry, Ralph Cady. Not pictured: Ivette Martinez-Morales. Manager Susan Eddy) and in our lead story in this issue of In Transit. The fact Demand is growing fast for the services of continues without break, and Metro is also is that this group has managed to take Transit Human Resources. The group has had recruiting mechanics, equipment service its normally superb performance up to shift into a hiring overdrive to support workers, and many other classifications another notch as it moves to fill positions current and planned service expansions. needed to support our services. in support of all the new services we’re After years of running lean on staffing levels, Already this year (through August) we’ve being called upon to deliver. we now have an unprecedented 75 different hired 322 transit operators and more than job classifications in the hiring mix. After years of hiring freezes, staff 300 people for other positions, which reductions, and calling upon our This also means many new faces in HR meant processing over 1,990 transit employees to do more with less, itself as they grow to handle the hiring operator applications and more than 6,325 we’re suddenly asking HR to fill an load. Just since March, they’ve added nine applications for other Transit positions. unprecedented number of positions people—with a few more coming soon. We’ve also promoted 58 employees into across a wide range of job classifications new positions. The greatest demand for new hires is and staff/management levels. We need coming from Transit Operations and Vehicle Metro cannot, and will not, compromise this hiring to be done both efficiently Maintenance. Earlier this year, Transit HR on the quality of the people we hire. We and quickly as we work to deliver completed the hiring process for seven new can’t afford to. It’s a matter of public safety promised new services to the public. transit chiefs in Operations. The demand for and security, good stewardship of public I’m sure this pressure is not altogether both part-time and full-time transit operators funds, and institutional pride. comfortable for our colleagues in HR, but they have risen—and continue to CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 rise—to the challenge. IN THIS ISSUE 2 COMFORT STATIONS 6 KUDOS 3 PERFORMANCE CORNER 8 SECURITY SENSITIVE CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 4 STRATEGY & PERFORMANCE GROUP 9 NEWS BRIEFS 5 WALL OF FAME 11 SAFETY NOTES In April, we Comfort Station welcomed our CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 permanent Program makes coordinator, General Manager headway Ruthann Already during this ramp-up we’ve Dunn. Among found ourselves at times short of her many When most of us decide what projects operators, mechanics, and coaches. qualifications to tackle at work, we don’t have to take We simply could not put out the is the fact that the availability (or not) of a restroom buses and operate the level of service she previously into consideration. It’s a different story our ridership demanded. Unable to worked for for our bus operators. Many of them— increase service where and when it Metro as a especially full-time drivers—tell us they was needed, we saw our on-time Ruthann Dunn part-time think about the locations of comfort performance lag. We had to cancel operator, so stations when they pick their work. some trips, and buses became even she has a first-hand undestanding of the more crowded—all things that hurt These are our front line employees. We importance of her new role. “I view my our customers, the people we’re call upon them to navigate large vehicles position as one that not only administers trying to serve. in congested traffic, while also watching the program, but ensures that the needs out for distracted drivers and pedestrians of our operators are met,” she said. As our financial circumstances and interacting with customers. They “Drivers know what they need on the improve, we’re addressing these deal with challenges most of us never road, and I encourage them to share shortfalls by working furiously to get encounter at work. Finding a usable that information with me. My goal is to quality people onboard, in numbers comfort station when they need one deliver whenever possible.” that will do the job for us. And all the should not be among those challenges. while, HR is also keeping its focus on Operators can now fill out and submit succession planning—strategizing Comfort Station Reports online. All Metro has had a Comfort Station for how to replace the many valued operator complaints, suggestions, and Program since the 1970s, but at times people at Metro who are leaving us communications get a response, usually our focus has wavered. As we faced for well-deserved retirements. massive service cuts last fall, we were within 24 hours. And Dunn is now being cited by the state Labor and Industries included early in the process of planning All this hiring is a good place to be, Department for falling short in several for new route terminals. Her input has especially considering where we were areas related to providing bathroom enabled service planners to make system only a year ago. But it puts a lot of facilities to our drivers. Our managers changes that improve operator access to demand on our HR staff. It’s a good immediately began taking steps to comfort stations. thing we have such an exceptional address the deficiencies. One of these group of dedicated employees doing “As an agency, Metro is committed to was to create the new full-time position that work. the Comfort Station Program. While we of Comfort Station Coordinator. recognize we have a long way to go, we —Kevin Desmond, General Manager The first person to fill this role—on an look forward to the day when our drivers interim basis—was Michael Baruso. no longer have to be concerned about While Metro searched for a permanent getting access to a restroom.” coordinator, Baruso worked to add comfort stations at terminals that didn’t Plain or fancy (these have them. In one case, he established examples are in Queen a valuable relationship with the YWCA Anne and at the Overlake near Othello Station for Route 36 Transit Center), the most drivers. Since the beginning of the year, important thing about a Metro has added over 45 new comfort comfort station is to have stations—more than 25 of them at route one available when you terminals that previously lacked stations. need it. 2 SEP / OCT 2015 PERFORMANCE CORNER RapidRide fare enforcement Part of what makes RapidRide services so Fare evasion rates on RapidRide lines efficient is that RapidRide customers can and former Metro routes pay their fares before boarding via the 2010* off-board ORCA readers at high-ridership 4.0% RapidRide stations. Passengers who have 2014 already tapped their ORCA cards at these 3.5% readers can board through any of three 3.0% doors without needing to tap again. Those who have valid paper transfers can 2.5% also board through any door. 2.0% Teams of fare enforcement officers monitor RapidRide buses, randomly 1.5% rotating through the lines and stations. The officers ask passengers to show 1.0% their proof of payment. If the passenger 0.5% used an ORCA card, the officers use a portable ORCA reader to verify 0.0% payment. If the passenger used a paper A Line B Line C Line D Line E Line F Line transfer, the transfer is their proof of payment. Passengers riding with no *Metro routes that were later replaced by RapidRide lines proof of payment are subject to citation and fine. In 2014, fare enforcement To examine the effectiveness of respondents said they had officers contacted 470,000 passengers, fare inspection on fare evasion, we been asked to provide proof of which represent about 3 percent of all compared these statistics with the payment (C Line, 83 percent; RapidRide boardings that year. Of those results of a 2010 study of fare evasion D Line, 83 percent; E Line, 81 contacted, just over 2 percent had not on RapidRide-precursor routes and percent). A large majority felt fare paid a fare. found that fare enforcement has inspection made no difference in reduced fare evasion by roughly half on their customer experience (60, most of those routes (see graph). 57, and 53 percent, respectively) and significantly more riders felt RapidRide customer surveys show that it made their experience better In Transit riders are generally satisfied with the than worse (24 vs. 16 percent, level of fare inspection on RapidRide Current and past issues of In Transit are 26 vs.