MOBILE, Ala. (WPMI) — Mobile city leaders are considering changes in public transportation they hope will modernize and improve Wave Transit service. Mayor Sandy Stimpson wants Via to take over the day-to-day operations from the current operator Transdev. The Mobile City Council will consider a five-year, $12.1 million annual deal with Via Transportation during Tuesday’s meeting. The city will shell out $8 million of that, while the Federal Transit Administration will pay $4.1 million. The proposed change is not surprising. Stimpson addressed transit troubles in March.
“We really do need to come up with a better solution than what’s currently going on because of the sheer expense of it. I mean, what the city of Mobile is spending on and what it costs us per passenger is not a long-term viable way to go about it,” said Stimpson on March 25th.
At that time, transit union workers were threatening to go on strike, and there were major disruptions in service with driver sick calls. The union claimed workers didn’t make enough and were treated poorly by Transdev management…