NFTA 's blizzard response needs improvement, transit workers say

Jeffrey Richardson, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1342 in Buffalo, attended a more than one-hour presentation to NFTA commissioners in which airport managers recounted feeding and housing 144 passengers during last month's Christmas weekend blizzard. Transit Authority Police, meanwhile, noted officers rescued motorists stranded in airport tunnels, while feeding and keeping warm more than two dozen bus riders and passersby sheltered in the downtown bus terminal for several days. Other officials outlined the efforts of heavy equipment operators cutting paths for people caught in the blizzard to access airport shelters, or to trudge through snow to open warm subway stations in the city.

"If not for the front loaders and emergency vehicles, we might not have saved anyone out there," Director of Public Transit James Morrell said about the rescue efforts. "Metro is important to this community. Metro is critical to this community."

But Local 1342 leaders recounted horror stories of their own. The union, which officials say recently finds itself at low ebb with NFTA management, said the presentation not only ignored efforts of its members during the emergency, it skipped over a host of problems revolving around lack of communication.

"There were some feel good stories. We're happy about everything they did," Richardson said. "But on the Metro side, there was very little communication. Our members didn't know what was going on."

Richardson and Financial Secretary Ron Giza told reporters after the meeting that Metro Bus and Rail workers found insufficient plans in place for the blizzard that paralyzed the area and claimed 46 lives in Erie County. They said management called in employees to work, even though it was not dispatching buses into the blizzard. The usual website devoted to personnel was suspended, they added, while confusion reigned over who was supposed to work and where.

Richardson complained workers were put in "harm's way" on Dec. 26 as they became stranded en route to their jobs while service was not offered.

"People couldn't even get off their streets. They couldn't make it to work," he said, adding the union has filed a grievance over various issues of workers not getting paid during the emergency.

"You got one guy coming from Grand Island trying to get to work because they forced him into work and getting stuck on the bridge," he said. "They said, 'The bus service is not working, but get in here anyway.' That's a major problem."

Richardson also said those who made it to work became stranded for long periods in bus and rail terminals without food or with old food.

NFTA spokeswoman Helen Tederous dismissed several claims listed by union officials and insisted the authority performed admirably under the most difficult circumstances.

"I don't know how much better we could have done," she said. "I'm not saying it was perfect, because it was a challenging blizzard, but we made sound and life-saving decisions."

Tederous said the authority's early and publicized move to suspend service before the blizzard hit saved commuters from getting stranded on buses and trains. Closing Buffalo Niagara International Airport and suspending Metro Bus and Rail ranked as extremely rare decisions, she said, because of the sheer magnitude of dependence on both services.

"I will never dismiss concerns, and we might use this as a way of perhaps reaching better communication," she added. "But we are very proud of the work we did and how we were able to recover."