The CEO of the Regional Transit Authority and its board chairperson issued apologies on Tuesday to community members upset by a shelved proposal that would have curtailed services for people with disabilities.
During a monthly meeting of the RTA board, CEO Lona Edwards Hankins said the agency’s communication about cuts to paratransit service in portions of New Orleans and Jefferson Parish was “less than stellar” and showed that the RTA had room to improve.
“I’m going to own that,” Hankins told board members and residents in comments that were followed by a similar mea culpa from Board Chair Fred Neal, Jr.
Neal said he was “glad that the community spoke up” and issued a “sincere apology for the confusion” on behalf of the board.
The RTA in February began telling riders that effective March 1, it would only offer paratransit, or shuttle service for older or disabled riders, for trips that begin and end within three-quarters of a mile of its bus system.
The policy would have excluded nearly all of the West Bank and portions of Metairie and Kenner in Jefferson, where the RTA currently provides trips. It would have also excluded English Turn and New Aurora in Algiers, and Venetian Isles in New Orleans East.
After an outcry among transit advocates and government officials, the RTA on Friday said it would pause implementation. Hankins confirmed Tuesday that riders “will continue to get served” beyond the boundary. In 2025, the RTA completed around 11,100 trips in those areas, about 7% of all paratransit trips that year.
The turnabout is the latest drama to entangle the public transit authority’s paratransit service, which has faced criticism for missed pickups and long trips. The service was dinged in September by federal regulators for violating disability-rights laws.
It also comes as Mayor Helena Moreno is preparing to place her own members on the board. The mayor’s spokesperson said Monday that Moreno is moving “swiftly to recruit new leadership” for the seven-member board.
The mayor can appoint five of those seats, and administration officials told Neal earlier this month that they planned to have the appointments in place by mid-March.
Complaints and concerns
Commissioner Mitchell Guidry, Jr., who was appointed by Moreno when she was on the City Council, said Tuesday that the RTA needs to make paratransit “more comfortable for riders,” saying he’s heard of some dialysis patients who have spent more than an hour on the shuttle.
Guidry also urged RTA leadership to be more collaborative with its counterparts in Jefferson Parish.
That point was echoed by Liljose Marie Tompkins, a long-time paratransit rider, who said at the meeting on Tuesday that “riders have been in uproar about” the potential “breakup” with Jefferson Parish. She noted that riders rely on the service to get to businesses, like Target, that only exist in Jefferson Parish.
ADA requirements
The RTA, as a condition of its federal funding, is required under the Americans with Disabilities Act to provide paratransit that is comparable — both in trip duration and geographic access — to the level of service offered on its fixed-route bus system.
At a minimum, the law requires that paratransit service be offered within three-quarters of a mile of an agency’s bus routes. But for several years, the RTA has serviced a much larger area.
In 2022, the agency adopted a policy allowing riders traveling between Jefferson Parish and New Orleans to use the service. And in 2024, the agency signed a five-year agreement with Jefferson Parish — which operates its own paratransit service — in which they agreed to handle interparish trips for residents of their respective parishes.
Previously, riders had to coordinate getting picked up and dropped off by the RTA and Jefferson Parish at designated drop-off points. They also paid twice as much in fares.
The agreement between the RTA and Jefferson Parish says that each agency will provide trips for residents of their respective parishes to and from anywhere in the neighboring parish. Hankins, who signed the agreement, said Tuesday she wasn’t sure how far into Orleans Parish the Jefferson Parish shuttles traveled.
RTA officials have discussed a potential change in their service boundaries for several months, saying the status quo has put a strain on their operations. In December, an RTA spokesperson said the agency was in the “research and planning phase of re-aligning paratransit services” with the boundary and that “any next steps would require board consideration and public notice.”
But on Feb. 1, the agency began informing riders about the shift in an automated phone message. The board did not approve the plan, and Jefferson Transit didn’t learn of it until Feb. 11, when parish officials reached out to ask about rumors circulating among Ochsner employees.
The RTA backtracked on the policy on Friday, after transit advocacy group RIDE New Orleans sent a letter asking the agency to hold off and Moreno’s deputy mayor for health and human services, Dr. Jennifer Avegno, asked for more information. Jefferson Parish on Monday also sent a letter asking the RTA to delay the move.
Hankins said she texted Jefferson Parish officials on Monday and that they’re working to set up a meeting.
Other communication issues
The RTA also faced criticism on Tuesday for its approach to communicating service disruptions to riders.
Shirani Jayasuriya, RIDE’s director of communications and outreach, said during Mardi Gras riders reported having to wait more than an hour for buses to arrive and having to walk long distances at night after service changes weren’t communicated. She said the RTA’s LePass app also linked to a non-existent webpage for bus routes.
Courtney Jackson, RIDE’s executive director, requested that RTA leaders meet with its rider-led organizing arm to discuss how the agency’s current communication plan “does not translate from paper to pavement.” She said solving the issue should be “low-hanging fruit.”
“From fixed route to paratransit to ferry service, there’s been a real failure in communications,” Jackson said. “It’s hindering people’s ability to go to jobs. It’s hindering people’s ability to go to health care … The time is now to make these changes.”
