Philadelphia subway
From Service Dog Training
Denial of access by a token taker on the Philadelphia subway system.
I had just arrived in Philadelphia with several friends for a conference. We found to our dismay that there was no airport shuttle to our hotel, so set out to brave the public transit system. This was my first out of state trip with Kain and I was very nervous about how he would handle such things as trains and subways as we don't have those very much in the midwest. We got on the train towards downtown Philly without any problem, though it would have been nice if they'd pointed me towards the accessible seating. A very nice lady told us where to go on the subway system after leaving the train, and we bought our tokens and went to the turnstiles. I went to the accessible gate since I didn't want to try and drag the dog through a turnstile (they were new obstacles for him at the time). The token taker refused to take my token or open the gate for me because I did not have a government issued ID card for the dog. I argued with him for a while and then a transit cop got involved, on the side of the token taker of course. Both refused to call their supervisors or the DOJ hotline. Finally I was allowed on the subway, I think mostly because they got tired of my bitching but told me "you'd better have an ID with you next time you try to get on here." Upon reaching the hotel (the dog did fine on the subway, by the way) I immediately looked up and called the accessibility coordinator for the Philadelphia transit system and told her about the incident. The result of our conversation was an immediate radio call out to all transit workers to remind them that no ID of any sort was required for service dogs, nor should they ask for it. Also, they would retrain their staff at the next training opportunity, the transit police would be notified about the officer that was involved and disciplinary action would be recommended, and the token taker would be examined if he should remain employed with the transit system as this was apparently not his first offense. The person I spoke with also gave me her cell phone number in case there were any problems over the weekend and told me that if something came up, I should call that number and hand the phone to the person causing the trouble.
Needless to say, we had no problems with the transit system during the remainder of our stay in Philadelphia.
