Comments on: Reduced Veterans Day Service

By: Mathew "RennDawg" Renner

Mathew "RennDawg" Renner — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 07:56:40 +0000

That is cool. I would like to see more such benefits for wounded warriors and battle heros.

By: alexjonlin

alexjonlin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:36:47 +0000

All of Seattle Public Schools was off. But Sounder and Double Tall were on their normal schedules so I had a fun afternoon.

By: John Charles Wilson

John Charles Wilson — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:53:02 +0000

Oops, forgot to explain, this is every day, not just for Veterans’ Day.

By: John Charles Wilson

John Charles Wilson — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:51:50 +0000

In Minnesota, thanks to a new law this year, veterans with service-connected disabilities get to ride every public transit system in the state for free. (I’m not sure how this works on those few systems that are directly on the state line, namely Fargo-Moorhead, Grand Forks-East Grand Forks, Duluth-Superior, and LaCrosse-LaCrescent.)

By: John Charles Wilson

John Charles Wilson — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:47:00 +0000

When I lived in Seattle, Presidents’ Day was considered a SUNDAY (yikes!) with a few extra rush-hour trips. I’m glad to see they don’t do that anymore. That said, I really can’t see cutting service for Veterans’ Day at all, except for the UW routes.

By: Bernie

Bernie — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:45:20 +0000

KING5 News this morning said that KC Metro goes to weekday holiday schedules on days it expects ridership to drop by 40% or more. Schools are out so a lot of people have to stay home to look after kids. And of course UW observes Veterans Day which is pretty big. I don’t recall what the percentage of Government employment is in DT Seattle but it’s one of if not the major employer so I can see the 40% figure. On the bright side… parking is free :=

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:06:41 +0000

Thanks Martin. I meant “minor” in the sense it isn’t as widely observed as the “major” holidays of New Year’s, Easter, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

MLK Day, President’s Day, Columbus Day, and Veteran’s Day are all important observances, but unfortunately are days when many people have to work. When transit agencies adopt reduced schedules for these days (or Day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, and New Years’ Eve) they interfere with a lot of people’s mobility some of whom may not have access to alternatives.

By: Martin H. Duke

Martin H. Duke — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:50:02 +0000

I’m sure the “minor holiday” is not an attack on veterans — I’m a veteran, and didn’t take Chris’s statement as such — but a simple recognition that the vast majority of people still have to get to work today.

It doesn’t make sense for a transit agency to pretend that people don’t have to get to jobs, no matter how the agency feels about our veterans.

By: JAO

JAO — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:17:02 +0000

Veterans Day is not a minor holiday. How dare you disgrace our Veterans on such an important day. Perhaps you need to research Veterans Day and then you can fully understand what it represents.

By: Adam B. Parast

Adam B. Parast — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:32:17 +0000

Take a look at this screenshot. I was skimming transit providers websites for my research project and when I can to RATP (Paris) a popup came up warning the public about a service disruption today at Gare du Nord on the RER B line. This is the way Metro needs to provide information. It is not enough to just put the information out there. First the information must be available in a timely manner. Then it must be promoted in a way that an average user will easy find, and better yet can't ignore.

By: Mathew 'RennDawg" Renner

Mathew 'RennDawg" Renner — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:54:46 +0000

Veterans should get to ride for free today.

By: Jeff Welch

Jeff Welch — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:35:48 +0000

barman,

Not really. Most of the savings for the County on this reduce weekday business is in unpaid wages. Drivers for these reduced weekday routes are not paid for cancelled runs – this amounts to an (in my view) unpaid furlough for some drivers. The reduced weekday scheduling, as with most such cutbacks, impacts mostly part-timers.

By: Mickymse

Mickymse — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:05:46 +0000

Well, all the government and financial workers have the day off… which is a significant chunk of Downtown commuters.

I had an excellent bus driver last night who reminded everyone that her particular run is one of those scheduled NOT to run on Wednesday. :-)

By: joshuadf

joshuadf — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:47:18 +0000

…and don’t forget to say thanks to any vets you know.

By: joshuadf

joshuadf — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:46:56 +0000

Perhaps you should just take the day off?

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4182/is_20010620/ai_n12449912/

By: Beacon Hill Blog » Archive » Plan ahead: Metro on holiday schedule tomorrow

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:37:42 +0000

[...] to Seattle Transit Blog. Tags: bus, bus schedule changes, metro, transit service This entry was posted on Tuesday, [...]

By: barman

barman — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:12:47 +0000

Maybe it has more to do with the fact that metro employees do work for the government and need some time off too.

By: let

let — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:10:14 +0000

Metro’s been twittering about this and had it on their KCDOT and King County news pages for quite a while. They want people to realize there are a lot of Reduced Weekday Schedule (RWS) days ahead.
http://tinyurl.com/ybwruc3

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:44:05 +0000

I’m kind of annoyed Metro cuts service so severely for minor holidays like Veteran’s day. While dropping commute service to the UW makes sense the vast majority who don’t work at a bank or in government don’t get the day off. Metro operates a full schedule on President’s day but far fewer people likely have tomorrow off than have Presidents Day off.

By: Adam B. Parast

Adam B. Parast — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:02:46 +0000

It is good to see that I can at least get some information directly from Metro’s homepage.

http://metrocommute.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/metro-reminds-bus-riders-of-reduced-weekday-schedule-operation-on-designated-autumn-winter-days/

… too bad it is all the way at the bottom of the page. Metro needs to have a big bright red banner at the top of the page about significant service disruptions like this. Oh and I looked my bus (70) and there is no service alerts on the schedule.

Metro still has a lot of work to do.