Taxi Eagle River Alaska

The most of the 40 or so in presence contracted Eagle River is in scarce supplies of taxi cabs, as obvious when the vast majority of the room asked a handful of Rep. Anna Fairclough who thinks there is a need for a local taxi service. The Fairclough said it does not want to "disenfranchise" present licensees, but transport is a problem in the Chugiak-Eagle River, especially after it lost two person mover buses in 2010.

Licence holders were arguing that revenues are what taxi riders keep in Anchorage. Even chauffeurs are privately owned contracted to rent the taxi, they said, and can not be compelled to take certain rates. The former Yellow cabin rider Megan Patrick consented and said that it is a loss-making project for riders from Anchorage to take fare that originates and ends in the Eagle River.

Patrick said most taxi riders remain in the South Anchorage area because they can count on regular, profitable rates to the area. Problem is to have cabs regardless of the Anchorage Bowl, Patrick said. Rather than auction more taxi licenses, the community should issue and revocate a commercial licence for a taxi firm located in Eagle River, she said.

Alaska Yellow Cab's Dean Paul proposed to issue transient permissions limited to operation in the Eagle River to see if the municipality could provide a taxi ride. Patrick, who began providing free trips on the Chugiak-Eagle River four moons ago, said it could. More than 465 users used their services over a three-month timeframe, Patrick said.

Said 60 per cent of his Eagle River customers disappeared when he arrived for collection. A number of locals suggested that decade-long negligence prevented locals from shouting Yellow Cab or Checker Cab. Reductions in transport capacity and demographic expansion are not going to help the predicament, said Susie Gorski, managing partner of the Chugiak-Eagle River Chamber of Commerce.

The Fairclough proposed to bring together representatives from all sides of the matter - dispatcher, taxi driver, electoral officers etc - to resolve the matter supported by at least one licence holder. Monday's hearings were just the beginning of a long trial, Tierney said, but the Anchorage Transportation Commission knows the bad taxi services in the Chugiak-Eagle River.

At the next Commission session on Monday 26 November, the general public will be able to comment on this subject in the Loussac Library assembly rooms.