The pilot program was met with excitement by the grassroots transit advocacy organization Clevelanders for Public Transit. Unlike the transit ambassadors, who will be paid from the RTA police budget, the community outreach specialists will be paid from grant funding, though those grants have not yet been secured. These are designed to be trained social workers who can perform mental health, homelessness, crisis and substance abuse outreach and defuse crises while also directing passengers in need to resources. They are meant to deter fare evasion and to provide eyes throughout the transit system to assist with customer service needs and to relay information to RTA police as necessary.Īdditionally, RTA will employ community outreach / crisis intervention specialists. Ambassadors will be full-time employees working first and second shifts, seven days a week, and will be a regular presence on buses, trains and at transit stops. The Health Line's "all door boarding" system had been a major contributor to its operational efficiency.īut according to a presentation by RTA's new police chief Dierdre Jones at Tuesday's board committee meeting, a six-month pilot program will employ unarmed ambassadors to inspect fares and assist passengers with navigating the transit system in 2022.
RTA CLEVELAND DRIVERS
Since late 2017, the Health Line has reverted to a system in which passengers purchase fare cards or show their mobile tickets to drivers at the front of the bus, resulting in significant delays and bunching on Euclid Avenue. RTA has nevertheless failed to implement a civilian fare ambassador program. Groves noted in her decision, however, that if RTA were to use unarmed civilians to enforce fares instead of police officers "decorated in the color of law," the constitutional breach would no longer exist.
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