New London paratransit booking system causes confusion

London Transit debuted a new booking system this week, causing confusion among riders who say they weren't properly informed about the changes. 

"I ended up sitting in a wheelchair, in a parking lot in the cold, waiting for the bus for an hour because of this new system," said Penny Moore, 61, who uses an electric wheelchair to get around. 

"I got all these calls saying this ride was cancelled and this one was rebooked, and I didn't know what to make of it. It just told me my time has changed but not what time. The driver told me his manifest was screwed up, and he had two pickups across town from each other at the same time." 

The new system was launched on Sunday, with staff using it to answer phone calls and book calls for Wednesday. All paratransit rides have to be booked three days in advance. 

Wednesday was the first day that drivers were using new tablets with the new system, said Kelly Paleczny, the head of London Transit. 

"Wednesday was the first day that some of the new features kicked in for customers, for example trip notification. The system will automatically call the night before to give a reminder that they have a trip booked," she said. "You get a reminder the night before, a half hour before. That's something the old system didn't do." 

The system also scans for openings and can call users who didn't get a ride if an opening comes up, Paleczny said. 

But Penny and other paratransit users said they didn't know any changes were going to happen and were thrown off by a new automated message system. 

"Wednesday was a bit hectic. There was some hair being pulled out by staff, for sure, like with any transition. But at the same time, we delivered service, and all the drivers were able to log in, and everything worked," Paleczny said. 

Jody Goldhawk's daughter Madeline uses paratransit to get to work, go to the gym, and do other activities. 

"When I talked to the customer service rep last week, she didn't tell me that there was a new system coming out. My daughter called me to say she was getting these weird calls from a weird number saying things were cancelled," Goldhawk said. 

Online booking coming in Feburary

"It's disappointing that there was no communication to the users about what's going on. You need to communicate to your users, and not just through Facebook because not everyone has that." 

The new booking system is the first step for paratransit users to finally be able to book rides online, something they've been asking for for years. That will roll out in about a month, Paleczny said, and will allow users to configure what type of reminders they get and how often. 

"That's coming and we will roll it out and communicate about how customers can customize it for what works best for them," she said. 

"They'll be able to log in and see all the trips they've book, they'll be able to make requests for trips in the future online, they'll be able to cancel trips." 

Currently, paratransit users have to call three days ahead of time to book a trip. Often, that means calling right when the call centre opens at 7 a.m. to ensure the time they want, Goldhawk said.  Sometimes, the lines are so busy that it takes half an hour of calling and hanging up and calling again to get through, he added.