Busses not on time, no bus shelters in areas they need it (like Dartmouth Crossing, or even just along main routes), redundant routes (like Spring Garden Road or Portland Street), cutting routes, no new bus shelter we were promised this year being built, routes being cut (do you know the 87 won’t be coming to Dartmouth anymore?) and just general bus bullshit. It’s enough to make any everyday bus rider not want to take the transit, but guess what? Instead of just posting a Bitch here about it, and have nothing done about it, call the city and bitch to them directly. Screw the 490-4000 number on the back of bus passes, and call 490-4010 instead. This number goes to the mayor’s office and if we (as a city) want a better bus system then we have to call and bitch about it! Perhaps city council should ride the bus system for a few months so they can understand what the hell were going through. —Bus Passenger
This article appears in Nov 11-17, 2010.
No more 87 service to dartmouth? Well that’s dumb.
Also: another bus bitch: redundancy at its finest.
Its hard enough to get out of Sackville if you don’t have a car but now taking away the 87…WTF???? No since in taking cabs either on weekends(1/2 to 45 min. wait most times).So freakin stupid as hell…
I know a few people who commute from the valley and park at the park and ride at the glendale terminal and take the 87 into dartmouth and then halifax because the 87 really is(was?) super fast. This is just DUMB.
The 87 is no longer servicing HALIFAX you dumbfucks.
Read the bright yellow signs.
Also – no shelters in DC? The routes just started there! With all the dumb retard kids smashing in the existing shelters, you think they’re in a rush to put up brand new ones?
Next, with regard to the buses running late. Holy fuck. This is a city. There’s a thing called traffic. Get used to it.
The city, not just Metro Transit, cuts routes that don’t get a lot of people on them. Sure, it might cause you to walk a few more blocks, but who fucking cares?
Fuck, I’m on 5 different buses a day, and never bitch like you fucks.
Because we all know how dedicated HRM Council is to the public’s issues. They’ll talk about it, and then make no decision hoping it goes away. Does anyone on HRM Council even take the bus? I truly doubt it.
I used to live on the Bedford Hwy and would wait over an hour some days for a bus.
Now I live right in the city and can catch a bus within minutes of arriving at the stop. I have nothing to complain about, but I’ve seen both sides, and it doesn’t make sense that it should be that ridiculously unbalanced.
I called the mayors office over a year ago… spouses are still on the bus distracting the driver. It shouldnt take the #52 1 hr. 10 minutes to get from Bayers Lake to Mumford. But it did when the spouse was standing next to the driver.
Yo, thebritisharecoming, yes it’s a city…a poorly run and managed poorly one – with a poorly run and poorly managed transit system. Having lived in TO and Calgary (I’m from here) in the past, I can tell you those two transit systems worked, in the midst of as much or more complexity and traffic than has EVER existed here.
Buses? We in Sambro have waited more than 10 years for a bus! We get one and 6 months later they’re talking about cutting it!
Shees, we need convenient hours and connections if you want us to increase ridership!
@TheBritishAreComing … you are 100% right ! The 87 is only eliminating its rush hour trips to/from Halifax…the Route 01 is every 10 minutes so it’s no big deal … yeah and good luck calling the Mayor to change a bus route or complain. It’s funny that the poster mentions not calling 490-4000 but calling 490-4010 … most of the complaints sent to the Mayor’s office get redirected and filed at the HRM Call Centre … so you’re really just delaying the process of filing a complaint….good luck with that.
Nice one, while we’re on the subject I’ll post an email I sent to HRM this morning, a bit long winded (Sorry!)…
I am writing this email to complain about recent bus service on route #20 in Herring Cove. This morning I arrived to wait at the bus stop at the intersection of St. Paul’s Ave and Lancaster (in front of William King School) at 6:20am, my bus did not arrive. At the time I wasn’t sure if the bus simply did not come by or if it left early (as it often does). The next bus came a few minutes before 7 (a wait of about 40 mins), upon boarding the bus I asked the driver about the missing previous bus, he did not know what happened to it and mentioned that he was actually at the stop a few minutes early (as if he was doing me a favour?). He then proceeded to leave…early; I confronted him about leaving early and a few other riders spoke up about buses (in the past) leaving more than 10 mins early…the driver then stopped and waited until the correct time to leave. After a few mins on the phone the driver told the sitting passengers that the previous bus had broken down. With this year’s increase in property tax (i.e., the blanket Transit Tax for HRM and the additional tax added on depending on one’s proximity to a Metro Transit bus stop) and the new Transit facility in Ragged Lake this lack of service is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE. Why, in cases like this for route #20 is another bus not available? Early morning #20 busses are generally full by the time they arrive at Mumford Terminal.
Furthermore, conveniently Metro Transit’s Go Time (or should I say “No Time”) was not working for me to call to find out if and when another bus (or when the next bus) would arrive.
Furthermore still, I would like to complain about the bus stop itself (at the intersection of St. Paul’s and Lancaster in front of William King School). This stop used to be embedded and anchored in the ground, last winter the stop was hit with a snowplow and ever since a post welded to a steel wheel has been in place. I would like to note that this bus stop (when anchored in the ground) is located about 30 meters away from the stop sign at the oddly angled intersection of St. Paul’s and Lancaster. Several times a week the drivers of the #20 bus will physically move this bus stop closer to the intersection stop sign (presumably so they don’t have to stop at the bus stop and again at the intersection), the problem this poses is that traffic travelling down Lancaster toward the intersection have their view of the intersection blocked if there is a bus stopped there. In the past this “blind spot intersection” created by lazy bus drivers has caused a few close call/near miss accidents between cars, even more concerning is that there have been a few near misses with children crossing at this blind intersection from the 2 schools in the immediate area as motorists driving around the bus stopped at or in the intersection cannot see pedestrians (usually kids) in the intersection…or even if there is a stop sign there at all!
Just one last note, when I finally did arrive at work after my wonderful bus ride I was about an hour and a half late.
It is with kind regards I send this email to the poor souls at HRM who have to man the front lines to hear complaints about the surly, un-empathetic follies of our inadequate Metro Transit.
I think the main, fundamental flaw of this city’s bus system is that no one has the appetite to really consider public input. There are redundant routes leaving transit stations at practically the same time to arrive at the same place (an artifact of the old one-way transfer system). There are wait times at certain stops that wait for nothing (no connections). There are drivers who constantly leave their stops early and are otherwise rude because there are few consequences. There are several tweaks and changes that could be done to improve efficiencies…but because the decision makers don’t ride the buses and because they are deaf from all the whining, they just give up. I recommend have an elected councilor dedicated to public transit who’s job is to listen to the people and liaise with the transit authorities…not someone who works for them. Eventually, they should have a passenger’s bill of rights. Then, finally, the riders will have a voice from someone who perhaps even rides transit and cares about what you and I think about transit. (For all you car owners out there…look at the bridge traffic now and look at where it will be in 5 years…improved transit is in your best interest too)