BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The NFTA has called on riders to share their rider experience.
The agency hosted a public meeting Wednesday night to learn directly from its riders how to make its Paratransit services more accessible.
According to the NFTA, the number of Paratransit riders has grown in recent years.
More than 219,000 riders relied on the service in 2023.
On average, the agency makes 800 paratransit trips daily but the NFTA said it would like to expand its service and improve those trips for riders with varying abilities.
That is why dozens who rely on the services gathered to share their voice.
I attended Wednesday night's meeting to bring those voices to you.
Riders and disability advocates told me the NFTA needs to expand services as soon as possible to as many people as possible.
Community leaders voiced a need for further transparency on plans moving forward and the NFTA shared why they feel this expansion is so necessary.
"It's a shame. You got 70 percent disabled in there. She's been fighting for about 10 years and it's gotten nowhere," Disabilities community ally Joseph Farris said.
"Very sad, very disappointed and very frustrated," Martha Perez added.
That was the consensus Wednesday night at the Schiller Park Senior Center.
"The 2030 timeline is the timeline for completing everything: new facility, 14 new vehicles, hiring operators, making shifts in big bus service. That is what the goal is," NFTA Metro Director of Public Transit James Morrell said.
Morrell said the expansion that was explained Wednesday night, would expand hours from 4:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on weekdays and 5:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. on weekends.
However, Mike Billoni, Communication Liaison for the Stephanie Speaker Bill, said that is not what the community is asking for.
"Expanding the core service from what they talked about, from early in the morning to late at night, that's good but that's not the mile and a half that's in the bill that's in Albany. They need more than that and that's why we need to get to the table to talk about the issues that were brought up here," Billoni said.
"They're not listening to what we're saying right now," Perez added.
Perez, who has epileptic seizures, has been using Paratransit for four years and said for starters, the service is not reliable.
"I had to reschedule my appointment because Paratransit had no show at all," she said. "I think that was wrong. Luckily, at that time, I did not have a seizure."
Farris said he wants to see action after seeing his fellow friends suffer for so long.
"You can see by all the disabled people. All they want to be is normal," Farris said. "The NFTA should be held accountable. Like a few of what the other people said, it needs to get done now. Not five years from now. Now."
"This community needs this. This bill has been hanging around for 10 years," Bolino added. "Somebody has got to show the disabled community a whole lot of respect."
According to NFTA Metro, the final report of this study will be released in October.
