So, I was pretty pissed at my city’s transit a few nights ago…
I bus basically everywhere; and with the way scheduling works at my job when I’m working a closing shift I finish work about ten minutes after the bus has left – and the buses run once an hour at that time of night, so I have about a 50 minute wait downtown for the next bus. I usually just hang out in the store, and prep things for the next day to save the opener some time in the morning or I’ll watch Youtube Videos on my phone or write tasting notes…
Well, a few nights ago I was waiting for the bus and about forty minutes has passed so I decided to go walk down to my bus stop and wait for the bus. I get downtown, and as usual there’s like twenty or so other people waiting for the bus. This is downtown, and it’s the ONE spot in my city where every single bus route intersects/every bus stops. So it’s a pretty main transit hub. I’m waiting, and I realize it’s been like twenty minutes; the bus should have shown up and left ten minutes ago! So, I call the transit hot line for an ETA on when the bus is going to be arriving – and the hotline says there’s no expected buses for the rest of the evening at my stop number. That’s really fucking weird, right!? So I ask a couple people downtown – hey, should your bus have shown up already? What bus were you waiting for? Shit like that. Everyone is confused – no one’s buses have shown up. As we’re all talking to each other and figuring this shit out, a representative from the transit station walks over to the stops and tells us that all bus routes have been redirected for the rest of the evening because there’s a parade that is going through the main block downtown.
People are pissed – why was there nothing posted at the bus stop to let anyone know? Or, no message on the transit hotline saying that all routes were going to be effected!? Usually when something it up with the routes it’ll say something when you call in. Either “routes will be running on the Sunday schedule due to the holiday” or like “The #1 Broadstreet has been rerouted due to the construction, please use the alternate bus stop located at INSERT STREET ADDRESS HERE” – but there’s been NOTHING posted. All twenty some of us waiting downtown have been here, waiting for the bus totally clueless. It’s BAD communication…
So of course I ask her what the alternate transit stop is for my route – and it’s TWELVE BLOCKS AWAY. In the opposite direction of where I’m trying to go home. So that’s MIGHTY frustrating. Next question; what time is the next bus? She looks down at her clipboard. It’s ten minutes from now. I can’t walk that distance in ten minutes. The next one is an hour later. If there had been something posted downtown I could have walked to the rerouted stop by now, and caught the bus that is about to leave…
So I’m fuming. Just FUMING. But I start walking to the stop, ‘cause what other option do I fucking have!? As I’m walking, I pass the parade – the main street to get to the rerouted stop goes through the parade route. I have to stand there for like ten minutes waiting for a gap in the parade and run across the street. It’s bullshit. Such bullshit.
Finally, I get to the stop. There, posted on the bus sign, is a piece of paper typed out that simply reads “Route #1 Alternate Bus Route”. Are you fucking kidding!? In what way does it make sense to post it THERE and not on the stop that you’re rerouting it from!? Next to the stop is a Starbucks. I still have like twenty minutes to kill until the bus gets here, so I walk in and order the first tea related thing that I see on the menu – a rooibos tea latte.
It tastes like hot milk and sawdust, and more than half the cup is milk foam so I feel a little ripped off that I basically paid for half a cup of sawdust latte. I dowsed it in nutmeg powder, to cover the sawdust taste, and it helped a bit…
I finally got home, almost three hours after my shift had ended for the evening. Fuck you, Regina transit… Fuck you.
