Transit Plus riders waiting on hold more than 2 hours to book rides

Soaring wait times for people calling to book a ride with Transit Plus have forced Winnipeggers like Peter Tonge to spend hours on the phone.

A notice on the city's website says a staff shortage at the Transit Plus call centre has pushed the wait time for callers to more than two hours.

"It means my life becomes very planned and very restricted," said Tonge, a small business owner, disability advocate and wheelchair user.

Wait times began creeping up about six months ago, when he he said wait times were about 10 to 15 minutes.

Now when he calls, he has to carry his phone around on speaker while tries to go about his work, waiting to book a ride.

The impacts of long wait times extend beyond the day when he calls. In an effort to avoid calling multiple times, he has to plan his entire week before he makes the call.

"And it takes away a great deal of flexibility," he said. "So not only … I can't jump in my power chair and trip off to the mall, or whatever. I have to plan my entire life seven days in advance."

The city says the call centre has five vacant positions out of a total of 22. Transit Plus has requested the city hire another 2.6 full-time equivalent employees to reduce the waits.

Waverley West Coun. Janice Lukes, chair of the public works committee, said the call centre isn't the only city department experiencing staff shortages.

"I don't think it's an unknown secret anywhere that there's a challenge getting employees," she said in an interview with reporters on Tuesday. 

"Modernizing and improving [the booking system] so we can use technology to book appointments, I'm really supportive of that."

Patrick Stewart, a consultant with the Independent Living Resource Centre, wants the city to bring in an online booking system that would eliminate the need for calls.

"They can enter two addresses at a time … or a time that they want to arrive, which is a technology that's not new," said Stewart.

"Many other cities use it, and we're familiar using that to book taxicab rides or Uber."

The city is currently preparing a request for proposals for an on-request service with Winnipeg Transit after a year-long pilot project.

This will replace its current dial-a-ride transit service, known as DART, which operates during off-peak hours and allows people to call and speak directly to the driver to arrange pickup.

In August 2021, the city launched the pilot on-request service, which allow riders to request a bus using a smartphone app.

The contractor hired to provide the on-request service will also operate an online booking system for Transit Plus. That new system won't be in place until at least September 2023.