This article appears in Dec 6-12, 2007.
Yet another transit bitch
You know, you’d think that with the amount of bitches about the public transit system that I read in The Coast, someone somewhere would take a fucking clue and do something about the shitty transit system in this city. I love this city, but I hate the mo
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We’d be better off with carts and wharf rats pulling them. Metro Transit is a sloppy, poorly run outfit at best.
Just be thankful Halifax HAS a transit system… Even if it is a little bit shitty
We have the highest percentage increase of transit ridership in the COUNTRY…expect some growing pains !
All those Metro transit fuckers up there in Burnside are living pretty sweet off of our tax dollars.I think they know that the populace will eventually rise against them, and we will march in the streets with heads on sticks! If they play their cards right, it’ll just be heads from Province house, not from City Hall or Burnside…
I’m sorry, I am very angry tonight. But it feels good to vent.
Oh k the last time i made a comment about metro transit, i was trying to stick up for em. But my last experiences have been shit. The buses around here are fuckin crazy, the bus drivers are pricks! But like most ppl around here they take the jobs where they can get em, and what is paying right and they just dont care about the job period as long as they get a pay cheque. The one thing that made me think differently about metro transit, was the day i was on my way to work and the 52 was late and in rush, but one of my buddies was waiting at at stop with 7 other ppl and the bus pulled in to the stop and didnt even stop. Just pulled in and pulled right back out, and my poor friend was trying to run to catch the bus, and it just kept going. I mean i dont even drive a bus, but i know if there is like 7 ppl standing there you should stop coz a good change with 7 ppl standing there, one will probably need to get on that bus. I mean it was funny, but not right.I also understand that there are asshole passengers out there, but I dont think you can really blame all of that on the bus drivers that are pricks. ps i apologize for the poor grammer and spelling!!!
Metro Transit should really look at having a commuter train from Bedford to downtown – maybe even from Dartmouth round the basin to downtown. It sure would cut down on a lot of car traffic.
I agree on the train idea, Calgary has one and its awesome, dont have to wait for stop lights much, its great.
I’m the author of this bitch, and I have been to other cities. Ottawa has a sweet ass transit system. Fredd-town, Moncton, and Charlie-town have shitty transit systems. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful to have a bus system here, but does that mean I have to put up with bull shit? I could see if it was free, but I pay 60 clams a month for this!
Commuter trains rock.The reason we’d never get one here? Cause the city would get to save oodles and oodles of money by laying off bus drivers left and right. Not that I’d mind that. With the nice bus driver to nasty bus driver ratio at about 1:10 in this city, maybe that would weed the fuckers out from the pile of guys and gals that actually like their job, and don’t like leaving bus stops early so that passengers can’t make connections. It’s like a sport for some of them.Now a system that went from Dartmouth to Halifax (say Penhorn down the circ to Woodside, along the waterfront to the bridge, across the bridge, down the Halifax Waterfront), and one from Sackville to Halifax (around the basin through Bedford, Rockingham, the North End to Downtown) would cost about half of what they wanted to spend on the Canada Games, around $800 Million, including stops and trains.A good bet is about $30 million per km. But the great thing is that they are VERY inexpensive to maintain. You need ONE operator for a train that carries 1400 passengers. A bus has about 30-50 passengers per driver X $45000 a year, that seems tio make good financial sense. You know, sometimes you have to go in to debt as a citizen to make life better – mortgage, car loan etc. Why can’t the city operate this way? The only way to get dense enough development in this city is to pay for it up front – once the infrastrcuture that supports it is there, the developers will come calling. And it won’t be up to the roads to accomodate these hoardes of new citizens.But, in this city, we have small minds that are in power, and until we boot those fuckers out (listening Mr. Mayor) we will naver have the political will to make these kinds of dreams reality.
Nice bus driver to bad bus driver ratio is 1:10…….funny cause nice passenger to bad passenger ratio in this city is about 1:100. Everyone loves to shit on transit drivers (it’s in vogue)just ignore the fact that they are swore at ,spit on, spend up to 19 hours driving in city traffic daily, are shot at, have rocks snowballs eggs etc thrown at their vehicles. And have to deal with some of the worst muthas for supervisors and management. And you wonder why they are pissy ! do some research and you will find a transit operator is one of the top most stressful jobs there are…and one of the highest for muscoskeletal injuries and disorders.
I agree that being a bus driver would definetly be a stressful job, I would not want to do it. They are constantly in situations where something really negative could happen. But they are in customer service as well, and to be in customer service you need to represent yourself in a certain way. To be an ass because you feel like a door mat, just perpetuates the negativity. Now I am not saying to just sit back and take bullshit, but to sit there an rag on someone just beacause you can is …well it is WRONG!Personally I have been taking the bus for well over 20 years, and really I can only count on one hand the negative experiences I have had, but I will say those experiences were unjust, and frankly I think were negative because that particular person was a prick! But I do think that if there is an issue and you, as a consumer, call to complain, notify the management – operators -that you should be made to feel validated and that your complaint will be taken seriously.And this is where I think metro transit drops the ball. Because they know essentially they don’t have to care. There is no competition other than taxis, and who is going to stop taking the bus everyday to pay for a cab to and from work! No One! So what do they have to be concerned about…
I agree the transit system is shitty, but i have to say, i ride the bus 2-4 times a day, and i like most bus drivers. i think that in 2 out of 10 are assholes. the rest are nice decent people! they always great me when i get on, and tell me to have a good night when i leave! I take the 2 all the time, and when it arrives at the bridge, almost always the bus driver honks the horn madly for the bus crossing the bridge to stop for the passengers………..so i have more good experiances then bad with the bus drivers… but maybe they just like me 🙂
do most of you people not realize the assholes that bus drivers have to put up with, ok maybe some are assholes and should be doing something else, but lets get this straight, you call busdrivers assholes cause they dont stop for you, a bus stop is put there for you, if you are not on time , that is your fault, the driver is on a schedule, he is not aloud to Stop in the middle of a intersection, and then when you run to the next stop and get on the bus, and then it is time to get off and you spit on the fuckin seat, DO YOU wonder Y the busdriver is a little hasty, fuck deal with the public and see just how many assholes are out there
EAT MY ASS KATHY, TRANSIT FUCKIN BLOWS IN THIS CITY….you can stick up for them as much as you want too I use to be one of those ppl…haha and I WAS A FOOL TOO!! HAHAHAHAHA
Fuck you FOOL,, From Kathy
I like most of the bus drivers but there is one arrogant asshole who just is plain nasty and rude – the Asian bus driver – just about EVERY person who gets on his bus he gives a hard time too – whether its not enough change or bringing a coffee on the bus – come on – I see MANY MANY people get on the bus with coffee and not one thing is said to them = this guy is just on a big head trip and can’t get off!! Get a life!
The majority of the bus drivers I have had have been decent. There are a few on the 1 route that used to piss me off on a regular basis last winter. The passengers are often the bigger problem, IMO. As for the last comment, a bus driver has the right to expect people to have the change to ride and to not bring coffee, which can burn other passengers, on the bus. I got busted bringing a cup of soda on one time and the bus driver told me that I’d have to throw the drink out, but let me ride for free to make up for the drink price.