UTA abandons 'Connection Protection' ISO program.

The Utah Transit Authority has abandoned one of the key programs that were adopted to help it attain the ISO 9001 certification that was received.

I was told Saturday morning after an incident involving a TRAX driver who effectively only got half the riders off the 811 that arrived at 708am onto his train, and snapped at the rest of us for 'holding him up'. This was an example of 'clockwatching' as noted in an earlier post.

Riders were still approaching the platform when he drove away, but some of us from that 811 were able to board. This likely is responsible for some ill will that may be going around town now about UTA.

Upon calling and talking with Customer Concerns, the agent there said 'Did you know we are no longer using 'Connection Protection'? I didn't get the chance to tell her that it was part of a project to attain ISO 9001 certification, as many there at that department are usually left in the dark about issues like this.

I reported the incident involving the TRAX driver, and began looking after I got back home that night for information. I have now found one, and maybe more data sets that indicate the important role that this has played in the development of a quality mass transit system in a growing Salt Lake Valley, and will yet play on a more significant basis as the bus and TRAX system grows in the next few years.

Here's one study published by the University of South Florida, it seems to indicate that riders were more satisfied if they had a 'protected' connection:

http://www.nctr.usf.edu/jpt/pdf/JPT%208-3%20Cluett.pdf

{Cut and paste the above URL into your browser address bar, it's a pdf so it might take a short time to load).

One of the figures in the study shows how riders and drivers knew if they were going to make it on time to their connections or meet the connections. One method was showing ETAs for trains on TRAX platforms. That has also been abandoned, also the verbal notification that the train is arriving as well.

This study is well worth reading as it is. I'll add more to this post as I find more.