Last week I wrote in the Voice of San Diego about some ways MTS could improve transit by focusing on customer service. This week I had an opportunity to experience another service outage, but it was handled much differently (and better) than previous outages.
On the way into downtown on the Orange Line, it was announced over the train’s speaker system that a south bound Blue Line trolley hand broken down on the tracks somewhere between America Plaza and the City College station. Consequently, they said, the Orange line would proceed as it normally does to Santa Fe Depot, but would be rerouted to the 12th & Imperial station via the Green Line tracks for the first part of its east bound trip, thus not providing service to its typical downtown stops.
The trolley operator took the time to explain what was happening, why, and what the impact would be on riders. This is exactly the kind of communication and information that passengers appreciate. Kudos to the MTS operations team for handling this outage and clearly communicating about it to riders. I’m sure I am not the only one who was made to feel like a valued customer that morning.
