Posted by Drew Kerr |
Monday, April 22, 2024 8:25:00 AM
Our maintenance teams work incredibly hard to keep our buses, trains, and public facilities clean. Even so, we often hear that the appearance of our system isn’t meeting expectations, negatively affecting the way people perceive our service.
That’s why we’re bringing more attention to the responsibility we all have to keep our stations and vehicles clean, putting signage up across the system asking people not to litter.
This push is part of our ongoing “Take Pride In Your Ride” campaign meant to help foster a respectful culture on transit and centered on the Rules for Riding prominently posted at stations and on vehicles.
Clearly communicating our expectations around littering is important. But we know that words and signs are one small part of what we need to do to address this issue. This is why we are taking several actions, including:
- Hiring additional maintenance staff so we can more proactively clean boarding areas and vehicles, quickly remove graffiti, and address damage like broken glass.
- Sending helpers to the Brooklyn Center and Mall of America transit centers to clean buses between trips, as we’ve been doing with light rail trains for some time now.
- Expanding the use of public art, which has been shown to effectively deter damage to bus shelters, light rail stations, and rail crossing houses.
- Promoting our Adopt-A-Stop program, which encourages people to pick up litter and report damage at stops and stations across our system.
- Continuing our monthly “Great Day in Transit” events, which encourage staff to spend time on the system picking up litter and reporting damage.
- Growing our team of Transit Rider Investment Program (TRIP) Agents whose responsibilities include reminding riders of rules against littering and eating on vehicles.
Together, we hope these and other efforts will bring us closer to our goal of consistently providing a high-quality transit experience. You can help us toward that goal by:
- Adopting a stop (or a station!): People or groups who adopt a stop through our Adopt-A-Stop program agree to regularly visit these sites to pick up litter and report damage.
- Encouraging people to apply: We are continuously accepting applications for light rail helpers who clean trains, and expect to soon being taking applications for public facility workers and bus helpers.
- Report issues: Damage and cleanliness issues can be reported using Text For Safety (text 612-900-0411) or by submitting a comment through the website. Signage has been posted at all stations reminding people how to report issues.
