(WSVN) – Bus riders are pleading with Miami-Dade County officials after a plan to make transportation easier for them has instead, made it worse. And transit workers are backing their complaints.

Heather Walker is taking their concerns to the county in tonight’s 7 Investigates.

Faith Davis has to get up at four a.m. just to get to work by nine.

Faith Davis/bus rider: “I have to take three busses, get up like two hours extra every day just to make sure I get to work on time. I have to carry my mace with me, you know, just to make sure that, you know, I don’t get hurt.”

Faith used to have to wake up at 7 a.m. before Miami-Dade County eliminated hundreds of bus stops in November as part of the “Better Bus Network” initiative.

Faith Davis: “It was just a big disaster.”

And she’s not the only one setting early alarms.

Maurice Byrd/bus rider: “I gotta get up an hour earlier now to go to work because the buses is much crowded and it ain’t too much room on the buses.”

Angry riders have reached out to 7 Investigates since we first looked into the issue.

Barbara Walters/transit activist: “When you’ve got a situation where we only had one bus to depend on and they’ve taken that away from us. I think there should have been more input from the riding public.”

Hundreds more are taking their complaints to Facebook. And the bus driver are feeling their frustration.

Jeffery Mitchell/president, Transport Workers Union Local: “It is kind of heartbreaking.”

The Transport Workers Union agrees with riders. The new system is not working. They say it was put in place by people who don’t take the bus.

Jeffery Mitchell: “The people that made the suggestions, you know, wasn’t invested in the community. Listen, who put this together?”

Union President Jeffrey Mitchell says he helped to correct some of the proposed routes before the Better Bus Network launched. But those changes were not enough.

Heather Walker: “What happened here? Because it was supposed to make things better but it seems its made things worse.”

Linda Morris/Miami-Dade Transit: “I wouldn’t say that, I would say that it’s still was always gonna be the Better Bus Network, not the best bus network.”

The county admits there are problems and it’s aware of the complaints.

Linda Morris: “We hear you, I know it’s been very frustrating.”

But it might get better.

Miami-Dade Transit telling 7 Investigates exclusively that 25 of the 70 routes will be getting schedule changes starting next month, which means some stops that were removed will be returning.

Linda Morris: “There’s obviously areas where we we didn’t do a good job, and we acknowledge that.”

Riders like Faith hope the new changes will make her commute easier.

Faith Davis: “We’re not asking for a big change, but bring back the busses that we really needed in our neighborhoods.”

And the county says it’s working to do that.

Heather Walker, 7News.

CONTACT 7 INVESTIGATES:
305-627-CLUE
954-921-CLUE
7Investigates@wsvn.com

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