Smart cards roll out to London paratransit system, with online booking not far behind: LTC

Smart card readers have begun rolling out across the city's paratransit bus fleet, but riders will have to wait another few months before they can hang up the phone and begin booking rides online.

For local disability advocate, Jeff Preston, it feels like the endpoint to a "very, very long journey."

"This has been over two years that we've been advocating here for these changes," Preston said after appearing as a delegation at Wednesday's London Transit Commission (LTC) meeting, alongside fellow advocate Wendy Lau.

During the meeting, commissioners heard that smart card readers had begun rolling out this week to Voyago, which operates the LTC-owned buses, and would be operational on all paratransit buses by Nov. 10.

At the same time, a long-awaited online booking portal was due to go public in February. Currently, the 7,000 to 8,000 people registered for paratransit can only book a ride by phone, a process riders have said is unreliable and ineffective.

"I am hopeful. At the same time, we've been told a lot of dates in the last two years, and so I'm not going to hold my breath, but I'm ready to hold a party in February if I can book online," Preston said.

"I will have a party here at the LTC. I will bring cupcakes for everyone after I've booked a ride online."

The new system was estimated to roll out over the summer — Oct. 14 at the latest, according to a report from LTC staff in March — replacing a system that was sold in 2022, and whose new owners said it would stop updating.

Earlier this month, Kelly Paleczny, LTC's general manager, told CBC News that the process got underway in August and that the vendor implementing the new system had other projects which prevented it from starting work earlier.

"LTC itself does set targets for when we hope to roll out programs, but ultimately, our hands are a little bit tied by the timelines of some of the other parties involved," said Stephanie Marentette, LTC's chair.

Marentette said while the commission can put pressure on third-party vendors, only "two or three" companies provide the required infrastructure.

"I will fully own that that is not an answer that users of this system are keen to hear," she added.

"Our senior leadership team is working as hard as they possibly can to get all this stuff done in a timely fashion. We wish we could move it along quicker."

Marentette said LTC hadn't heard anything to suggest the booking system would be delayed further. It's not clear what the commission is doing to hold the vendor to account if the timeline is missed.

"It's hard for me to answer that question, because some of these things go into complex contract negotiations, and I don't think that I can responsibly comment on that," she said.

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Smart card readers, a fixture on the city's conventional service for more than five years, are only now just appearing on paratransit, something Preston argued didn't reflect a service trying to "ensure accessibility on both sides of the house."

"I am really thankful today to say that I think we actually are starting to see that focus," he said, calling out Shawn Wilson, LTC's director of operations. "I personally feel like we have a champion in that seat in Shawn."

Service improvements rolled out last month, including three new buses, had made a difference, he said. He noted the bus he rode to the meeting took 12 minutes to pick him up, something unimaginable a decade ago.

"The less time people have to wait to try to get a ride, and the fewer times people call in the morning and are told that there are no rides left, the better," he said.

During the meeting, Preston and Lau called on the agency to ensure its website is compliant with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, saying a recent online audit through AccessibilityChecker flagged several issues.

Paleczny told commissioners that the agency's website is updated multiple times daily, and noted that it's checked with an online auditor once a month.

"It's just not possible to do a check every time the website is updated," Marentette said.

"If the website has to be changed quickly, it might not be compliant for just that one piece of information. It's not ideal, but unfortunately, that's just the pragmatic reality of it."