Metro ordered MetroAccess drivers not to pick up elderly and disabled riders unable to pay full fares for the paratransit service — but then reversed itself within days after disability advocates and drivers worried the policy would strand vulnerable riders.
The transit agency sent MetroAccess drivers a memo dated Aug. 1 telling them they could no longer pick up riders who did not pay a full fare starting on Monday.
“If the customer does not have the fare for a given trip, they are not allowed to board the vehicle and take the trip,” the memo obtained by The Washington Examiner said. “This applies to all trips, including those that are the second leg of a round trip.”
Metro’s Accessibility Advisory Committee raised concerns about the policy in a meeting on Monday night, said disability rights advocate Doris Ray.
And some drivers said they weren’t going to leave disabled passengers on the side of the road who just underwent dialysis treatment, even if that meant the drivers had to pay the fares themselves.
MetroAccess is the federally mandated service within Metro for people unable to ride buses and trains.
Metro has been facing a dilemma with its MetroAccess service. The transit agency is required to provide service to disabled riders under the Americans with Disabilities Act, but the expensive service has been growing rapidly as the population ages, helping to drive up the agency’s budget because each ride costs Metro about $38 to deliver.
Still, drivers said many of their passengers live on fixed incomes and can’t always afford the new higher fares enacted this summer, which start at $3 and max out at $7 each way. In the past, MetroAccess drivers who encountered customers who couldn’t pay the whole fare could fill out a “no-pay” or “low pay” form that both the driver and passenger would sign. The driver would then make the trip. But the weekend memo told drivers that such slips would not be allowed starting Monday.
“I have a big heart. I can’t do that,” driver Roberta Henry told The Examiner before the policy was reversed. “That could be my mother, my father who is riding MetroAccess. … I’m not going to leave that person there.”
Drivers say they then got a message over their vehicle computer system late Tuesday afternoon telling them to ignore the first memo. A second memo that Metro said it sent Wednesday afternoon told drivers that its “no-strand” policy “supersedes the fare collection policy until further notice.”
MV Transportation, which provides the service for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, distanced itself from the first memo. “WMATA instructed us to send a letter,” MV Transportation spokeswoman Nikki Frenney told The Examiner. “It’s not an MV policy.”
Metro said Wednesday it is now in the process of working with the Accessibility Advisory Committee and developing a written policy to formalize payment collection if a rider is unable to pay the fare when boarding. “We are looking at best practices and how other paratransit providers across the country address this issue,” said spokeswoman Angela Gates. “Once the policy is finalized, we will share it with all MetroAccess customers, drivers, operators, staff and the general public.”
It’s not clear how many riders were affected under the policy while it was active in nearly two days of service — or if any were stranded.
MetroAccess driver Candice Jones said that an elderly man who she picked up Tuesday morning asked for a “no pay slip” to get to an eye doctor’s appointment. She said she told him about the new policy and he asked his wife for the money.
“She had to go next door to get $3,” Jones said Tuesday. “But when it’s time to come home, how’s he going to get home?”
