London Dial-a-Ride issues leave elderly feeling isolated, users says

Elderly and disabled Londoners have warned that ongoing failures with the capital’s on-demand minibus service have left them isolated.

Problems with Transport for London’s (TfL) Dial-a-Ride scheme were raised with mayor Sadiq Khan in January, but five months on, users of the service say the minibuses can still arrive hours late, or sometimes not at all.

The issues first arose in November last year, when TfL released a new journey-booking app for the service which Mr Khan admitted had experienced “teething problems”.

James Mead, Dial-a-Ride’s general manager, said it was meeting more than 90% of customer trip requests and that more staff had been hired.

Dial-a-Ride service is a free membership for Londoners aged 85+ or with long-term disabilities.

The mayor has previously said the app was “not the way forward” for many, so “the phone line still existed”.

While call handler availability had improved and TfL meets over 90% of trip requests, a mayor spokesperson said, concerns remaineed about the service’s reliability.

At the Diamond Club, a weekly social group for older people in Lewisham, Blanche McPherson said: “I think that since they’ve changed to this [app-based] system, they’ve been having more problems. It’s a lot more difficult now to get Dial-a-Ride.”

The 80-year-old added the service was “a blessing” and “a good service, when it works”.

Part of the issue appears to be a lack of drivers to meet demand.

Mary Donohue, 82, said she had tried making bookings two weeks in advance, only to be told no minibuses were available.

She added that she used to go to another social club, but stopped going after Dial-a-Ride took three hours to arrive and get her home.

The scheme’s members said they were also sometimes told there was only capacity in the system to take them one way, rather than a round trip.

Lesley Allen, the Diamond Club’s manager, said only offering a journey one way “defeated the purpose of supportive transport”.

According to TfL, a Dial-a-Ride bus not turning up at all was “extremely rare”.

Within the last three months buses had failed to arrive on 3% of journeys, a TfL spokesperson said, and passengers were notified.

There are now around half as many Dial-a Ride drivers as there were 10 years ago due to a fall in demand, the spokesperson said.

TfL recruited 12 extra drivers last year, along with five more so far this year, and more staff to improve call waiting times.

Dial-a-Ride’s general manager, Mr Mead, said: “We’re sorry if any of our customers have experienced difficulties using our Dial-a-Ride service and we welcome any feedback we receive, as we constantly strive to make improvements to the service.”