|
Hillsborough Area Regional Transit
Have a HART-Felt Thanksgiving!
|
November 2011 |
|
 | |
Karen Jaroch
HART Board Director |
It's About Customer and Service
HART knows that travel by public transit is a process that involves more than simply people moving about on buses. HART invests time and energy to provide the best service possible, because our transit travelers invest their time and energy in the course of using public transit: they walk from their beginning point, wait to board, ride, make a transfer, and walk (or bike) to their final destination. There are a multitude of opportunities -- no matter how large or small a transit system -- to earn customer satisfaction. In addition to route scheduling and reliability, other high-quality attributes HART strives to provide are safety and security, facility access and information, and amenities.
Read on and you will find out how HART works day AND night to receive high marks from customers. The HART overnight maintenance crew plays an important role in making sure HART meets its performance goals, which are revisited and revised yearly to make sure HART is on the right track.
I am proud to announce that this past year, HART improved in the areas of productivity, efficiency and on-time performance. Moreover, this upcoming year, HART is further challenging itself and raising the bar in these areas. This is no small feat, and we hope you take notice of these improvements. More importantly, we hope to continue earning your support.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!
Karen Jaroch is a professional engineer and was appointed in August by Hillsborough County to serve as volunteer member on the HART Board. |
|
| Calendar | |
Now - November 30
Now - December 8
November 24
November 25
December 5 Regular Meeting of the HART Board of Directors
December 10 |
|
|
HART on the Move:
HART at Work, Day AND Night |
Ever see "Last Bus Tonight" on the front of a HART bus?
That means bus route operations are wrapping up, but a busy night is about to get started for the HART overnight maintenance crew.
"On weekdays, buses and vans start rolling out at 4 a.m. and the last ones pull in by 1:30 a.m.," said Steve Taylor, HART director of maintenance. "Needless to say the overnight maintenance crew is a beehive of activity as they get the entire fleet of about 200 ready for the next service day."
From dusk until dawn, this team of about 50 gets all vehicles through the service lane, where they are tidied up inside and out, inspected for safety, fluids are checked, and gas tanks topped off.
"Every night, we go through 8,000 gallons of diesel, which equals about 2 million gallons a year," Taylor said.
Buses also go through thousands of gallons of engine oil, coolant and transmission fluid--all reclaimed and recycled every year.
 | |
Steve Taylor,
HART Director of Maintenance |
What about tires? On some of the busiest HART routes, buses travel up to 2,000 miles each day. It's all about safety, so taking any and all precautions to avoid a tire blowout on the road is an important inspection point.
"Our vehicles travel more than 10 million miles each year, and that puts a lot of wear and tear on our tires." Taylor said. "That's why every day our tire shop inspects tires and checks tread depth, making sure they surpass minimum standards."
A hiccup on the road means delays for everyone. That's why everything the overnight maintenance crew does is in the name of the precious cargo HART buses will carry the next day. |
| HART-Felt Thanksgiving to our Troops | |
HART no doubt supports our troops, and offers free bus rides to active and former military members on Veterans Day as a small gesture of appreciation.
But one special group takes the cake in showing appreciation to MacDill soldiers and employees who take Routes 24X or 27LX from FishHawk Park-n-Ride, 16120 FishHawk Blvd. Every third Thursday of the month, the FishHawk Fellowship Church's Military Connects have a breakfast express set up at the park-n-ride by 5 a.m., about the time the first buses pull out and make their way. 
In fiscal year 2011, ridership for 24X was 57,701, an increase of 26 percent over the previous year; and ridership for 27LX was 29,048, an increase of 19 percent over the previous year. Ridership for the entire express bus system grew by 10 percent in fiscal year 2011.
Thank you to our special 24X and 27LX customers for your service, and to FishHawk Fellowship Church for the special send-off you provide to these customers every month! |
|
HART-Felt Thanksgiving to our Customers | |
This month, HART is giving a special thanks to our HARTPlus passengers by offering them free rides on local and flex routes. Now is the perfect time to become familiar with the HART bus system, saving HARTPlus customers time and money!
Brenda Cronier is a shining-star example of how sometimes with just a little time and training, HARTPlus customers get around the schedules and routes of a local bus system better than some seasoned riders. Ms. Cronier's special story with HART is summed up in a recent letter sent in by her guardian, Liz Price, to HART Travel Training:
"An interesting thing occurred last month while Brenda was taking the bus to her doctor's appointment ... She lives right off of West Waters Avenue and went to her bus stop across from the Walgreens near her home and waited for the Route 16 bus, which her iPad said would get there by a certain time. When it was 15 minutes past the time it was supposed to arrive, Brenda did an amazing thing. She called HART and found out that the [scheduled] time had been changed since the last time she had been to that doctor, and the bus would be arriving in about 10 minutes. She waited for it but realized en route that she would be late for her appointment if she got off the bus at a designated bus stop rather than right in front of the doctor's office. She asked for a courtesy stop, but they were not able to. She was dropped off at the next stop, past the doctor's office, and she figured out in which direction she would have to walk to get to her doctor's office. She arrived 5 minutes late, but that was no big deal. Someone who doesn't know Brenda would wonder what was so special about what happened that day. You know Brenda and her cognitive abilities. This type of independent behavior would have been totally absent if not for YOUR travel training expertise and the time you spent with her PLUS all the experience and confidence she has gained through accessing HART public transportation on a daily basis for the past five or six years. She takes the bus to a couple of different doctors' offices, to the public library, three different malls, her credit union and the Super Wal-Mart on Henderson, to name a few. She is now asking if she can take it to night school. It has freed my time up considerably and given her a level of confidence and independence. She's now able to have so much control of her life ..."
|
HARTinfo Line: (813) 254-4278
TDD (813) 626-9158 HARTplus: (813) 254-4278
www.goHART.org
HART's Web site receives over 7.8 million hits per month! Use our website with ease to plan your bus trips with Google Transit Map Trip Planner.
For more information about this publication, contact
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
