Comments on: Follow-up: Partial Holiday Service

By: Opinion: Metro’s “Holiday” Service Was Opaque - Seattle Transit Blog

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:45:06 +0000

[...] Metro’s “Holiday” Service Was Opaque by John Jensen You may remember a few posts we had concerning Metro’s unplanned “holiday” schedule that resulted in reduced [...]

By: north seattle commuter

north seattle commuter — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:22:56 +0000

I understand the need to get buses in working order and my issue with all of this has been with the poor communication. If you have the timeschedule for specific routes bookmarked (as I do), there’s nothing on the page indicating a route is on the “reduced holiday schedule”. I never go to the homepage, so would have missed any announcements placed only there.

By: Arabella

Arabella — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:35:08 +0000

I don’t see why you let Metro off the hook so easily. Just because Thielke is kind enough to “chat” with you and provide you with her cover-my-ass timeline? The information was not conveyed to the public in a timely or adequate fashion, plain and simple.

If we demanded competence from our government (whether it is dominated by Democrats or Republicans), all of the “leaders” of the various divisions associated with delivering Metro transit service and communicating information would be forced to resign (i.e. Taniguchi, Desmond, and Thielke).

By: snoqualmie joe

snoqualmie joe — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:21:31 +0000

Why don’t you just take a cab then you whining self centered prick! Nobody can win in these extreme situations with people like you! You forget that major cities get these storms every year and are prepared. This type of event happens infrequently in this region. Do you want cities with already decimated budgets to “plow” money into snow removal when the likelihood it would be needed is a rare event! WSDOT, SDOT, Metro….no one can win! Sure, they all could have done better, but this region was pounded by this storm, a record snowfall event in the history of Seattle I might add. I drive for Metro and I beat my ass up out there “getting you there”. There are the drivers that just go out and look for a convenient place to get stuck, but there are way more of us that put in 12 – 16 hour days and nights trying to “get you there”. We deal with way more than you can even imagine, so you just take the cab from now on and we’ll have one less annoyance to deal with!

By: Brian Ferris

Brian Ferris — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:07:57 +0000

I don’t know… I missed the service update announcement completely. When you make major service revisions that are announced just a few days before and after Christmas, you really have to go the extra mile to notify people about them.

OneBusAway is up-to-date with the schedule changes (http://onebusaway.blogspot.com/2008/12/suprise-partial-holiday-service-updates.html) for now.

By: Mike Skehan

Mike Skehan — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 13:19:11 +0000

“We’ll Get you There”, didn’t work. I hope this snow storm, and the uncoordinated response from Metro, SDOT, and WSDOT serves as a wake up call to local electeds that public transit is unreliable and unpredictable during a moderate weather event. Major cities around the country have snow and ice storms much worse than Seattles, yet manage to keep basic transportation corridors, and service, running.
Metro’s web site was pathetic. Unpublished routes, crashed servers, flat out wrong information, and finally going to a ‘partial holiday schedule’ (what ever that means for the average rider) for the balance of the year reflects the systems inability to cope with adverse conditions.
WSDOT salts roads and bridges. The roads clear up rapidly. SDOT scrapes and packes the ice. Let’s make up our minds, because buses with chains on, don’t do well on cleared freeways, and buses without chains in the city get stuck. Seattle and Metro should decide what corridors will get priority salting and sanding in advance, and double up service with standard coaches to keep the transportation lifelines running.
Metro had tons of drivers sitting around all day doing nothing, while Seattle streets froze solid, day after day, and riders were left standing at bus stops wondering if a bus would arrive or not. If by chance one did, it was jammed full, and kept right on going.
Seattle, King County, Sound Transit and Washington State can and must do better to restore public confidence in basic transportation services!

By: Brant

Brant — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 04:59:40 +0000

I wonder how much the surprise cutbacks in service during the snowpocalypse saved.

By: trickycoolj

trickycoolj — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 04:49:26 +0000

Thanks for the follow up! I’m glad to see Metro tried. Unfortunately I left town the afternoon of the 23rd and came back the afternoon of the 28th. I wasn’t far away, just rural Thurston county. Sure wish KING was as trustworthy in getting the transit info out so I could have planned better, like getting up an hour earlier.

Kudos to STB! And next time I’ll do my part in keeping better tabs on Google Reader when I’m out of the city!