Today marks 41 days without buses for 96,000 Haligonian commuters. A ‘tentative deal’ has been reached, although I’m not sure what new perks it gives transit workers since its details haven’t been released. But as if the six-week logistical paralysis hasn’t been enough, now there’s talk of a price increase – which I can understand since it seems our 750 Forrest Gumps have basically had to be bribed to go back to work. But how can anyone argue that that isn’t just adding insult to injury? I’m pretty sure the cash-strapped universities including my own will grope any excuse not to refund U-Pass fees. Well-paid, unprofessional deadbeats assigned a continental scheduling system took their unconvincing butthurt moans to the streets and extorted ordinary people who pay their salaries and their bumbling spineless government neither willing to give them everything they wanted nor willing to replace them on the spot. As a student, taxpayer and passenger it is offensive to even think of boarding a bus again with no compensation and for a higher price. I’m lucky enough not to have been personally affected beyond a lot of inconvenience and having to cancel sessions with my doctor, but to me there’s no reason to hop back on. Those buses with their unpunctuality, stop-a-minute craziness and occasionally speeding right past me as I waited always annoyed the hell out of me anyway. Go to Google Maps and you’ll see a cyclist can go as fast as a bus almost anywhere in this city. I’ll pay a few hundred dollars for a bike and never contribute to Metro Transit again, and anyone in a position not to need the bus should frankly do the same. —Monkey Business
This article appears in Mar 8-14, 2012.
Don’t take it personal guy, sheesh.
Stay visible, OP. Part of the deal is a 2 week amnesty on collisions, since the boys have been out of practice for 6 weeks.
Sooooooo, the fat-bastards will be behind the wheel sometime in the next week? Well, transit riders should do a united boycott for the first day!
NO BUS RIDERSHIP FOR ONE DAY!
Send them a REAL message …….. this includes city hall.
well not NO compensation exactly.. they’re giving the riders the rest of march free and if you held onto your february bus pass you’ll get to use it for april.
You don’t have to pay in March I hear, so I would wait til April to get that one organized if you want to make any financial impact, Koda.
How I wish that every single transit user would boycott Metro Transit for the forseeable future. Really scare the hell out of them. Maybe that would smack the smug, shit eating grin off the face of that motherfucker Wilson. The alternate arrangements I’ve had in place for the last 6 weeks suit me just fine and I’ll never use them again. I wish that was possible for everyone out there, but unfortunately I know it isn’t….
*yawn* get over it already, OB.
COnsidering the fact that it costs me about $200 to travel by car to work and I can get a bus pass for $70…. I don’t plan on boycotting metro transit, javagirl.
Y’all should just get the fuck over it. If you’re that put out or pissed off about a legal strike, write to your MP and demand the statute in the labour laws of Canada that allows for legal strike be repealed.
Good gawd the people who say Haligonians will bitch about anything and everything is spot on. No buses? you bitch. Buses? you bitch. Get the fuck over it. The buses are going to be running and that’s what you want, right? FFS. Bunch of whiny cunts.
Yes it be awsome if every person who used transit didn’t get on a bus again. But we all know thats not going to happen.
Some can manage with the new ways but there are many others who can not.
I like walking personally. So if the weather permits and the distance isn’t too bad I’ll walk.
If you paid for the U-pass then maybe you should go after the school for money back.
Can’t complain too much the buses are going to be free for March and the Feb bus passes can still be used at least.
Notice I said “I wish that was possible for everyone out there, but unfortunately I know it isn’t”? Kinda what I was talking about, bud…..
Not saying it is a monetary action to boycott the bus for ONE DAY! Just DO NOT ride the bus on the first day ….. who gives a shit if it is free! ~ The transit riders are taxpayers (er, probably not……) who were held at bay while the city and union bargained over the contract.
NO BUS RIDERSHIP FOR ONE DAY!
The residents need to send a message to city hall and the union ………… NO BUS RIDERSHIP FOR ONE DAY!
I would say “as taxpayers” but, the majority of transit users do not pay municipal taxes which is where the bulk of the money for bus service come from.
It’s all about economics for me. Cheaper to take the bus then drive the car back and forth across the bridge to work.
I think what pisses me off the most is not so much that the union went on strike, but what they went on strike for and their antics while they were out on the picket lines, (i.e. blocking Access-a-bus, plows, illegal barrel fires, etc etc.) To me, it showed immense arrogance and that the majority of ATU members don’t give a flying fuck about the citizens of this city. (And if you need more proof, go read Wheels’ snide comments on the “YOU get no respect?” bitch from 12 March. He’s a bus driver and the attitude he displays is deplorable.) Not to mention the incomparable Mr. Wilson with his “eloquent tidbits” thrown in to the mix.
Ok, so they decide to walk the picket. Fine. Go hard. Exercise your right. Great. But then the city turns around and gives them all a $4000 signing bonus?? (which basically covers the workers for the duration of the strike.) so it was a no-lose situation for them. Um..excuse me?? What? That rots my guts to no end! So basically the city has said, “You’ve shut down transit for 6 weeks, inconvenienced a great many people, all in an attempt to hold onto antiquated scheduling methods and the gobs of associated overtime. But, that’s ok. And here’s $4000 for your troubles.” Uh, no. I’m sorry. That’s BULLSHIT. THEY chose to go on strike. THEY chose to fuck over the people who use transit on a regular basis, why should they be compensated for that? I mean, am I completely out to lunch on this or what?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad that transit will be back on the roads. There are people out there that NEED it and don’t have options when it comes to getting around. For them, I am happy. But to the average joe, what changes has this 6 weeks of misery brought about? Absolutely fucking nothing!
They say that they are only going to increase the fares, not taxes, but I am not so naive to think for one minute that come my next assessment, my property taxes are not going to go up again.
I support a fare increase. The majority of the operating costs SHOULD be covered by bus fares, the remainder subsidized by taxpayers. (Not the current 63% taxes, 37% fares.) But to make any significant change, they’re going to have to put it up higher than the $2.50 I’ve heard being tossed around. But, as a result, logically speaking, my taxes SHOULD then go down accordingly. (Again, not going to hold my breath)
So basically we’re still paying, (potentially more), for the same old inefficient, unorganized, and unreliable transit system and the members of ATU, who were already the highest paid in the region, are laughing all the way to the bank.
IMO, the city caved. Kudos to Coun. Hensby, Coun. Fisher and Coun. Sloane for seeing this deal for what it is. As for the rest of city council, October can’t come fast enough.
ATU, I guess we’ll see you again in another 4 years when you start whining again. Hopefully, the new city council will see through your bullshit.
$4000.00 Signing bonus, Free transit for the rest of the month, fare hike… In all this largesse, is anybody going to revisit the issue being discussed before the strike – about granting senior citizens a weekly ride free day. Because I’d be a frig of a lot happier knowing I was contributing to that than topping up Kenny’s slush fund.
@Koda – I don’t think they will give a care unless you hit em in the pocket book.
Happy Steak & A Blowjob Day, everyone!
It’s Haligonians, not Haligonian commuters; please write correctly.
Didn’t see the news Tuesday night when the drivers themselves released the majority of the deal? They weren’t bribed. No secret bundles of un-traceable cash exchanged hands.
All the universities publicly stated they WOULD reimburse students for the unused portion of student bus passes. Hard to renege when it’s been publicly said…
If they are well-paid, I would suggest they are most able to pay their debts and most likely to do that on time. None of them obtained or attempted to obtain any money from anyone through coercion or intimidation.
You’re not obligated to take the bus.
If you’ve not been affected by the strike, you really have no room to bitch about it. But you may indeed need to see your doctor and postponing that may mean you get sicker than you are now.
Do cars speeding by annoy you as well? Is this part of the condition for which your doctor treats you? Is s/he aware of this annoyance?
I bike and contrary to CBC’s Colleen Jones’ story about bikes v. cars, cars win – they get there before the cyclists. Cyclists just don’t pay for parking.
Go to Cyclesmith on Quinpool; and prepare to lay out more than that. Canadian Tire across the street will fit that budget but I wouldn’t buy a bike from them. And try biking in a snowstorm. As the buses with warm riders pass, be sure to thumb them, provided it hasn’t fallen off as a result of the cold.
When a University President (Dal)makes almost twice what the Prime Minister of the Country earns…. I say that University is PAYING TO DAMN MUCH.
IF people are allowed to give millions to a University, so they can have a new building named after them & the University is cutting back service staff & courses…then the money should go to students & programs not another fucking building !
Sorry OB if you want higher education , I say you pay for it, or start fighting the ridiculous wages,tenure (tenure…no matter how fucking lousy you are…ya gotta die to lose your job !!!!!!!that’s way more fucked up than Unions usual policies IMO) housing perks etc !
I moved out of the city specifically because I was tired of paying a sidewalk tax…when the nearest side walk was 1.5 kilometers from my home …but the HRM considers that close enough to tax you ! On top of the ridiculous property tax I payed because my home was on a lake, water bills ever increasing cost x 2 with the ‘sewer add on’
Sign me,-living out in the woods on the water A N D loving it!
now why the hell would i want to see a biker in google maps? i don’t give a fuck in you have an oragutan going uphill on a skateboard. and as to those guys out on strike, well you all know my take on that shit. far as i care, they can go the fuck out again, and stay there forever.
“You’re not obligated to take the bus.
If you’ve not been affected by the strike, you really have no room to bitch about it.”
Not obligated to take the bus is right, but I am obligated to pay for a service that is subsidized by MY TAX dollars! Guess what?… that affects all of us, so we have right to be pissed off that those uneducated fucks make more than I do and didn’t suffer one iota! It boils down to they got a paid vacation, on my dime. Unions Suck!
I’m so disgusted with both sides of the issue that, until there is a legislated body that forces Metro Transit to react to customer feedback, complaints and suggestions, I want as little to do with their service as possible. Fuck the drivers AND MT, they both hold their customers with very, very little regard
I wonder if Marilyn More will back us nonunionized employees of hrm if we all walked off our jobs tomorrow… let alone give us a 4000.00 bonus for doing so…. What a bunch of crap
I know I’ll be taking the buses on occasion now that they’re back, but plan to generally avoid them for however long it takes me to stop being pissed off about the strike. I know that not everyone can boycott, but I’m young and healthy and plan to keep up the walking and biking. We walked 2 hours home Spryfield to Fairview Friday night in the snow, and it was a great adventure! I don’t have warm feelings towards the transit strike, but it’s got me being active again and I don’t plan on stopping any time soon! 🙂