When Should Transit Run on a Holiday Schedule?

58 Replies to “When Should Transit Run on a Holiday Schedule?”

1. My preference would be for Metro to send out surveys to get a reasonable estimate of ridership per route, but maybe that’s too much work.

   I suppose Metro could also do this in reverse. Instead of looking at demand, they could decide which holidays employers should observe, and provide minimal service on those days. Over time, employees will demand the day off. (note: not a real suggestion)

   I wonder what Metro’s union thinks about this issue – are drivers paid extra when they work on holidays (or “holidays” depending on which ones they observe)?

   1. I suppose Metro could also do this in reverse. Instead of looking at demand, they could decide which holidays employers should observe, and provide minimal service on those days. Over time, employees will demand the day off. (note: not a real suggestion)

      This is basically the current system, sadly.

2. And then there’s July 4th, the holiday that demands increased “get thee home from gasworks” service.

   Maybe sales data from coffee shops downtown serves as a proxy for weekday workers.

3. Hey, my tweet made a STB post! I’m famous now! The last tweet is from a co-worker of mine who uses the same bus stop, so 6th & Pike was clearly a bad stop that evening.

   I ended up hopping into the bus tunnel to catch the 522 at an earlier stop. It took over an hour to get through downtown, but at least I wasn’t in the cold. In retrospect, I should have taken Car2Go to Lake City and then hopped on a 522 or 372 there.

   1. The 522 was partially delayed because of people parking in the bus lane in front of the Central Library. I was waiting at 4th And Madison and buses were crawling because of a forced merge for 2 parked cars. I was wondering why they didn’t tow the cars… must have been because it was a holiday.

      1. This IS an issue throughout the CBD on these semi-pseudo-holidays. On Street parking along bus routes should never be allowed on these 3 days (Rembrance/Veterans, MLK, and Presidents).

4. I remember Veterans Day being a nightmare every year when I was commuting daily by bus. I’d have to walk about a mile to the nearest line that was running since my commuter bus was cancelled that day. And then that bus would be very crowded because it was running on a less frequent schedule than normal and accommodating misplaced riders like me.

   The ridership numbers are a bit self fulfilling. If you don’t run sufficient capacity then ridership is going to be down as people figure out alternate ways to get to work.

   1. Agreed on the feedback loop of reduced service -> reduced ridership.

5. Never.

   People that ride transit to get to work are likely to be working on those holidays, perhaps with the exception of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Nobody cares that it’s Martin Luther King Day*, they’re still going to be scheduled to work and need to get there.

   *I do respect Dr. King and his contributions.

   1. I kind of agree with this. I’m not sure it’s worth saving a little bit of operations money if the result is unreliable service. There’s value in having your bus showing up the same time every day. Even if a few days a year it’s 20% to 40% less full than all of the other days.

   2. On the other hand, the weekend/holiday schedule should already serve the baseline of everyday travel, including trips for people who work retail and restaurant shifts on those days. Whether the weekend schedule actually succeeds at providing this baseline is arguable, but let’s assume it does for the sake of argument. The weekday schedule should then be that baseline plus a bunch of extra trips to accommodate the large number of 9-5 downtown workers who also rely on transit for their commutes.

      So when the downtown offices are open, the buses should be running to accommodate them. Veteran’s Day should thus not have reduced service for downtown buses. If the university is closed, maybe buses to that area could run on a reduced schedule, like they already do during breaks.

      Consistency is nice, but I really don’t think we need to be running a bunch of peak weekday trips on Thanksgiving or Christmas or New Year’s Day. The demand just isn’t there. Service hours are a limited resource and they should be deployed during times and places when people actually would use them. Along those lines, additional late-night service on Independence Day and New Year’s Eve would be a great thing to have. Consistency for its own sake makes service fail at these times as well.

6. Considering how objectively rich our country and our region are, the “service cuts” in question, and the prevailing local, state, and Federal budgetary habits behind them are mild examples of the obscenity of the political philosophy gripping this land.

   Calling anything about it “conservative” adds an “X”-to-the-tenth-power to the usual triple maximum for movies. And the decades’ long trading partner to whom we gave so many of our working people’s jobs to save corporate money? With no requirement that they stop being the tyranny we fought?

   Would be 75 years overdue justice if grounds-crews on Veterans’ Day found tracks in the frost leading leading from the Korea memorial to the State Capitol building. With the coffee cups left by the campfire. And the figures and their bayonets missing.

   Lord, how much Thanks they’d be owed for their Service. Relating to which: cuts for cuts.

   Mark Dublin

7. This brings up another topic about how Christmas service should not be the same as new years eve or 4th of July service. On some holidays we need special service for those celebrating.

   1. Since it’s also in November, why don”t we make Veterans’ Day a full holiday from work for everybody . And also make it Election Day. Could be argued that non-poll voting removes any reason for full transit service.

      Counter-argument is that the spirit of citizenship would be best served with an amendment to the State Constitution that poll voting be re-instituted. With appropriate full bus service.

      I suspect that this close to Thanksgiving and Christmas, the business community would strongly support a voting day that could include a lot of Holiday shopping.

      And those vets at their campfire across from the Capitol? From history their memorial does a good job on temperatures during the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir.

      So for those men, a holiday that gave people a day off for a happy celebration after they voted- in person, taking along the kids- would have been what they missed about home, and the best possible Veterans’ Day.

      MD

      1. Why don’t we just take the whole month off?

      2. Parts of Europe do that, only it tends to be August or February.

   2. The only two holidays that really merit reduced service are Christmas and Thanksgiving, typical “staying home” -type holidays. The rest should get regular weekday, or at least Saturday-type service.

8. Were buses additionally delayed due to street parking which led to increased congestion? Perhaps free parking on less observed holidays is the problem.

9. Anecdotally, I don’t know anyone who does not work for a government entity, place with a strong union, or Costco who doesn’t work on Veteran’s Day. Who gets that day off anymore?

   1. Multiple banks take the day off, but otherwise yeah, you are right.

10. Having accurate data on OBA would do a lot to help reduce confusion. I know which expresses on my route are canceled on the reduced service days but they still show up on OBA as “scheduled.”

    Running the reduced service on the week between Christmas and New Years actually works pretty well in my opinion – I usually work that week and the level of ridership is significantly lower than normal.

11. Christmas, New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, Labor Day and the Fourth of July, except that the six hours between 6:00 PM and midnight on Memorial Day and the Fourth should have extra service for the downtown events.

    1. The 4th and New Years Eve need full service until bar close. Perhaps even special trips.

       1. Yes, I should have included New Years’ Eve. I did list the Fourth.

          But neither needs much service during the day, unless the Seahawks have a home game.

       2. Oh, wait, the Pro’s don’t play on New Years’ Day. The colleges have that day all to themselves. Never mind.

          Martin, when are we going to get an Edit button?

12. Another HUGE problem that compounded the bus issues was the fact holiday parking rules were in effect, which means most bus lanes had people parked in them.

    If Seattle doesn’t want to charge for parking, that’s fine with me, but rush hour lane restrictions should still be in effect.

    1. +100

       SDOT apparently can’t figure out that if Metro designs bus service to use bus lanes, it actually needs the bus lanes to be there every weekday. The holiday schedules don’t add in time for delays resulting from not being able to use the bus lanes.

13. I don’t even think Metro knows what its own Reduced Weekday schedule is supposed to be. My morning bus never showed up, and was not marked on the schedule with the “not on Reduced Weekdays” symbol.

14. The problem with Veteran’s Day this year is that it was on a Tuesday. Had it been a Monday or Friday there may have been more closures.

    Here in Portland, TriMet has only one “reduced weekday” service day, and that is Martin Luther King day:
    http://trimet.org/alerts/holidays/mlkservice.htm
    Some are normal, some are gone, and some are Saturday. MAX used to be on Saturday schedules on that day but ridership is too high now for that.

    On the 11th I noticed ridership much lower on the routes I take, but not quite as low as Black Friday usually is.

15. Seems like there are some pretty easy asks here:

    – Get SDOT to enforce paid parking and bus lanes on minor weekday holidays (Veterans, MLK, Presidents)
    – Hold agencies’ feet to the fire on getting reliable, accurate real-time data for holiday service into the GTFS feed.
    – If possible, get rid of ‘reduced weekday’ service entirely. Other agencies generally choose between weekday, Saturday, or Sunday depending on the holiday, but have no special partial reductions, with the exception of Sounder on days like the day after Thanksgiving. But even then they add special mid-day trips for Black Friday.

16. 40 minutes? I’ve had to wait over an hour for a bus many times (particularly my 132). I realize peak commuters might be pickier, but perhaps there is something to the idea that off-peak ridership is low simply because few are willing to wait a half hour or more for a bus, in the drizzle.

    Don’t blow all the investment money on eliminating peak “pass-ups” (which are often just the choice of some riders to wait for another bus with open seats, and the unwillingness of standing riders to move all the way to the back). Invest in making off-peak riding tolerable, too, starting with the highest all-day ridership routes.

    1. Peak pass-ups cause people to be late for work and to miss transfers, and if the bus they’re transferring to is half-hourly or peak-only it adds a half hour or a long walk to the trip, and you can’t predict whether the first bus will pass you up today or not.

       We need both day/evening frequency and relief runs.

    2. 40 minutes is a pretty big deal for a stop where you normally don’t have to wait longer than 5 minutes for a 522 or 312 to show up, which are pretty high ridership routes.

    3. A lot of the Rapid Ride buses I see going to downtown and back from West Seattle during rush hours are filled from the back to the front.

       Our transit agencies either refuse or don’t have the resources to accommodate increasing passenger loads in a corporate city.

17. I never thought I’d see the day, but sure enough it does indeed look like Metro is making an attempt at a GTFS feed with accurate holiday + no-UW + reduced schedule data:

    http://metro.kingcounty.gov/GTFS/google_daily_transit.zip

    Posted hot off the presses last Friday. I just spot checked a few express routes and the data appears to be correct. Thanks to the KCM staffer who finally fixed this!

18. There is the idea of a transit furlough on major holidays (no service), or a reduction to the Emergency Service Network (only a few core routes with snow changes). That would save a bunch of service hours, which could help fill the evening/Sunday gaps in the everyday schedules.

    What do you think of this? If so, which holidays? Christmas, New Year’s, Thanksgiving? Of course, people go to grandma’s on Thanksgiving and church on Christmas, and they may have missed the last night owl on New Year’s or were too drunk to leave their friend’s house, and some people work on those holidays. But people could drive or get a ride on those few days. The question is whether the tradeoff is worth it.

    1. I think we could survive without service on Christmas Day, which has way lower ridership than any other holiday, but that would be it. Even on Christmas, the airport is still open, so you would probably want to at least keep Link running to serve holiday travelers.

       1. Thanks for deciding I don’t want to get anywhere on Christmas.

    2. Orange County, CA OCTA used to run a special schedule on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s, with a special brochure to match. I would probably add Easter to that list, even though it’s already a Sunday. On those days, you could run a full span but reduce service scheduled (i.e. half the number of buses, but no worse than every hour, which is what OCTA did). It’s better than Salt Lake City, where their light rail shuts down for the big six holidays.

    3. I think you have to look at actual ridership to decide if this is worth doing or not.

       It’s hard for me to imagine service being completely empty even on Christmas Day.

19. Having been in both positions, Brent and Mike, passenger and driver, on the same day, two things suggest themselves:

    1. As would be normal in private industry- including private contracts with government- maybe missed service should result in monetary penalties for the transit system.

    2. Transit counterclaims over failure to provide, clear, and enforce bus lanes and parking limitations could also be grounds for legal action. While enforceable verdicts will be very unlikely, publicity will be healthy for both sides.

    3. Much service now put to snow routes, or otherwise likely to experience delays, will just be canceled. Exactly like present pre-announced school closures.

    4. State law could include a stipulation that no employee can be terminated for missed work due to provable failure of a bus to keep schedule.

    As to standing room, it often worked for me to not only request over the PA, IN AN EXTREMELY GOOD HUMORED TONE, not only that passengers close up spaces, but use my mirrors and knowledge of the coach interior to suggest exactly where more people could stand.

    Certainly in the area immediately behind the driver, again with a very light touch, point out exact places where five or ten more people could stand. Even though people in Seattle have nowhere near San Francisco’s tolerance for crowding, sometimes the game catches on.

    From foreign travel, including Canada, I’d like to see Metro experiment more with fewer seats- like “2-and-one”, leaving more aisle space. Latest design where seat shape substitutes for cushion depth- which I really find more comfortable- should also make it easier to pull and re-install seats for crush load days.

    However: one measure I suggested very seriously and drew maps for about 25 years ago was for transit to be given I-90, and even more, I-5 express lanes for transit-only bus ways when snow resulted in these lanes being closed to all traffic..

    Having handled both steerable rear axle MAN artics (center axle powered, rear axle directed by lever through hinge) and Breda artics (fixed rear-axle powered- much better in snow) I still think that buses on very short headway could keep lanes clear with their own tires.

    Helped by plow-equipped trucks, maybe pick-ups instead of the huge trucks with PAT livery that Pittsburgh keeps for its busways, including the joint-use ones.

    For ramps, like Stewart and lower UW, supervisors with flashlights, or signals mounted on trucks, could control entrance and exit. Remember, we’re not talking cannonball speed here.

    Service from terminals home will definitely be a problem for passengers. But probably only good thing about prevalence of SUV;s is the chance for passengers to at least get to these vehicles by bus.

    Rather than be trapped downtown- heavy snow has a weird propensity for Friday afternoon rush hours after a clear day- or stuck on regular lanes on the freeways, at least buses and some passengers will be moving.

    And maybe best, the public, and most of all transit operating personnel will have a legitimate sense that they’re doing something in the face of trouble- besides complaining and exchanging horror stories.

    For me, being at the steering wheel of a moving bus was always more comfortable than sitting aboard a stuck one for six hours of a winter night.
    And exercise will be invaluable practice for worse emergencies than snow.

    Mark

    1. And PS: reason for some confidence that this plan would work is the walk I took from what later became Convention Place to a mile from the Ship Canal on a snow-closed express lane at twilight. Was offered a polite but unrefusable offer of a ride across the canal by the highway patrol. Had to climb over the barrier from express to regular lanes.

       Liked what I saw. But wished Metro had sent a crew of supervisors out there another time, with police permission and escort. At least I wouldn’t have one more memory behind my belief that public management in Seattle is offended by the smell of its own sweat. Even in cold weather.

       MD

20. I am retired as a manager for service planning at a large East Coast transit agencies. Minor holidays were always the most vexing days to schedule service.

    On the one hand, there is a marked ridership reduction. On the other hand, there is no consistency between which firms are open and which are closed. We would be criticized if buses were overcrowded. We would be criticized if it appeared we were running empty buses. And cranking out unique schedules for each minor was very costly.

    In the case of Veterans’ Day (and Columbus Day and Election Day and Lincoln’s Birthday), we eventually made it a weekday schedule and instead made the Day After Thanksgiving a Holiday.

    We also made MLK Day, Presidents’ Day, and Good Friday a common minor Holiday schedule, even though the demand profiles of each route on each of those days were a little different. But no matter how hard we tried, there always needed to be adjustments. For example, one community college remained open on Presidents’ Day; so the routes serving the college and major feeders to those routes operated on a regular weekday schedule.

21. For the most part, I have to agree that the “reduced weekday” schedules create needless confusion and don’t save all that much money.

    The one exception to this is when a route is oriented primarily at commuters to a single employer, and is not part of the core all-day network, it makes sense to cancel the route on days when that one employer is closed. For instance, both Microsoft and the UW are closed the Friday after Thanksgiving, so why the 242 and 542 are operating a normal schedule on that day is beyond me.

22. A couple of additional notes on the “Reduced Weekday” schedules:

    *President’s Day – Up until about five or six years ago Presidents Day was ALWAYS a Sunday schedule. Why does it stand out in my mind? Because that was one oddball day that despite the Sunday schedule, Metro would up the capacity by running artics all day on many in city routes; routes that wouldn’t even seen 100% artics on a weekday (17/130/132 springs to mind). The movement of Presidents Day to a “reduced weekday” schedule is a recent development. Don’t let Metro tell you otherwise.

    *”Reduced Weekday” as currently used, is a new thing, too. There used to be a small subset of routes that wouldn’t run on reduced weekday, but these were whole route cuts (For instance, the 46 and 311 were always on that list). Very few individual days got this treatment (Black Friday stands out in my mind). For the most part, other than the routes that were entirely cancelled and the specific “No UW” trips, Metro operated a full schedule.

    Probably right about 2008 the new model of individual trips reduced on many routes across the board as part of a larger Reduced Weekday cost saving strategy emerged.

    Somewhere, an edict came down from on high to get this done. As usual, when Metro bureaucrats have to do something they don’t want to, they do it poorly.

    The reduced weekday trips have (since this current model went into place) always been done with minimal consideration for ridership patterns, or even cost savings.

    How many full-time runs are still, to this day, cancelled in entirety on a reduced weekday schedule? Full-time operators are paid an eight hour guarantee. If their run is cancelled, they get paid, but the bus doesn’t go out.

    How many full-time or part time runs, still, to this day, have a single trip in the middle of two other operating trips that does not operate on “reduced weekday?” This driver is being paid, the bus is out, but passengers are not being served.

    There are no cost savings when the two above scenarios occur, and these issues have been present on the run cards every shakeup since the current model went into effect. Who is this serving? Why are these trips not running if we have to pay the driver (the greatest variable cost)?

    The other problem is that often times a huge gap in service is created on a frequent (or infrequent) route because a specific trip is cut. Take a look at route 44 schedule. You can see which trips are cxl’d for reduced weekday. How’s a 20 minute headway at 5PM sound? The poor driver that follows the cut trip is going to get heavy loads and grouchy customers all night.

    How about a 20 minute headway in the midst of steady ten minute PM Peak service on route 40? At a little after 5PM?

    There’s a deleted trip on the 128 leaving southcenter around 5:30PM; this makes for an hourly headway, again during PM peak, on reduced weekday. Why does rush hour have less service than off-peak?

    Some of the most egregious service gaps are gone now, more a result of service restructuring than anything else (for instance, for years there was a two hour gap in service on reduced weekday on the 56 Alki during PM peak; this was because the 56X was served by all trippers, and they were all cut, and there was no 56 local during that time. Same thing with 2 W Queen Anne, when all 2X trips were cancelled and there was very little 2 local service during PM peak (because everyone rode the express). Again, 2X is now the 29, and the 2 local is a little more robust.

    Anyways – examples of the dysfunctional scheduling in relationship to “reduced weekday” abounds through the schedule. Metro’s never gotten this right, and no one has really put any pressure on them to get it right.

23. Can I ask which bus those people were waiting for at 6th and Pike were waiting “as long as 40 minutes in the cold?” Don’t multiple buses stop there? If it was the 522, that’s a Sound Transit bus, and this post is about Metro holiday schedules. Also, many of those people aren’t dressed for work. It looks like they are in casual attire, like they had been sightseeing or shopping downtown all day. And if that’s the case, I don’t have any sympathy for them. They had a choice to travel downtown that day. Workers didn’t. What do they expect on Holiday or reduced service days. There’s going to be reduced service! It’s in the title! So don’t scratch your head wondering where your bus is. There is less bus service. Less buses means … wait for it … less buses.

    1. The 522 ran its normal weekday schedule.

       The 312, however, which provides additional peak capacity in that high demand corridor, had the vast majority of its trips cancelled.

       Thus, they were all trying to cram onto the already full 522s…

    2. Many office workers who are required to work on a day like Veterans Day are allowed to show up in casual clothes, including jeans, as a no-cost amelioration of having to work on a day when the mail isn’t delivered and the banks are closed. And when they often have to make child care arrangements because the schools are closed. So what people are wearing on Veterans Day is not necessarily indicative of what their purpose was downtown.

24. Holidays can be roughly divided into a few groups.

    1. A noticeable percentage of weekday commuters have the day off. Schools may or may not be closed depending on policy. Demand resembles a less peaked weekday.
    2. Nearly all weekday commuters have the day off, but an overall high activity exists. Demand resembles a Saturday, with minimal demand until mid-morning and then a strong peak until late into the evening. More evening travel occurs than the Sunday schedule accommodates.
    3. Nearly all weekday commuters have the day off, and doesn’t go places. Demand resembles a Sunday. In contrast to 2, minimal evening travel occurs.
    4. Nearly all weekday commuters AND non-traditional shift workers have the day off. Unless your job is crucial (prison guard, power plant operator, hospital staff, etc), you don’t go to work. Even most 24/7 retailers are closed. Demand is significantly lower than a Sunday.

    Schedules exist for 2 and 3 – the Saturday and Sunday schedules, respectively. 1 should either be the Saturday schedule with extra trips or the Weekday schedule with omitted trips. If a separate, skeletal overnight network exists (such as AC Transit or TTC Blue Night), then 4 can be “late night network, but all day”; this network provides enough coverage on 30-60 minute headways for customers who absolutely need to travel, with only a skeletal number of transit staff required.

    In chronological order:
    New Years: 3
    King: 1
    Washington’s Birthday: 1
    Good Friday: 1 in predominately Catholic areas, regular service otherwise.
    Memorial: 2
    Independence: 2
    Labor: 3
    Columbus: 1 or regular service.
    Veterans: 1 or regular service.
    Thanksgiving: 4
    Black Friday: 2
    Christmas Eve: 3
    Christmas: 4
    New Years Eve: 2

    The end result would be up to 5 Weekday Minus or Saturday Plus, 4 Saturday, 3 Sunday, and 2 “Night 24/7”.

    1. New Years Eve probably qualifies for additional late evening runs beyond those allowed by the Saturday schedule. Today, TriMet only does special late night service on MAX, but before the recession service cuts there were also a few bus routes that had this as well (not to mention a few routes with specially marked “Friday Night Only” service on the weekday timetable). Among other things this special New Year’s Eve service is regarded as a public service to help reduce the number of drunk driving accidents.

       1. Late night transit should ideally operate every Friday and Saturday night until 3am with coverage to 90% or more of the service area in order to combat drunk driving. I’m assuming for now that a Saturday schedule would imply late-night trips oriented towards the reveling crowd.

          A slight issue with assuming Saturday includes late-night trips by default are the group of Monday Federal holidays assigned to operate Saturday Plus (Group 1) service; as Tuesday is a regular work/school day, late night trips in the Saturday schedule are unnecessary.

    2. Why do you judge Labor Day to be a 3? I’d call it a 2.

       1. Labor Day has always felt like a second Sunday to me. Fewer public events tend to occur compared to Memorial Day, the other Summer bookend holiday.

    3. Easter should be a 4. Now that the majority of retailers are open on Thanksgiving, it and Christmas are the only two holidays that everything that doesn’t sell drugs or food is closed.

    4. My take is slightly different, but may be because I live in Minnesota:

       This is what actual transit usage

       New Year’s – 4 from 4 AM to noon, 3 rest of day
       Martin Luther King Day – 1
       Presidents’ Day – 1
       Good Friday – Regular service
       Easter – 3 until noon for churchgoers, 4 rest of day
       Memorial Day – 3
       4th of July – 3
       Labour Day – 3
       Columbus Day – Regular service
       Veterans’ Day – Regular service
       Thanksgiving – 4, ramping up to 3 in the evening due to Black Friday sales
       Day After Thanksgiving – 2
       Christmas Eve – 2 ramping down to 4 after 6 PM
       Christmas Day – 4
       New Year’s Eve – Regular service plus extra night runs till bars close

       What is really done in the Twin Cities:

       New Year’s Day – Sunday, No service on Northstar (our “Sounder”)
       Martin Luther King Day – Regular service except school and U of M runs
       President’s Day – Regular service except school runs (U of M is regular)
       Good Friday – Reduced commuter bus service in some suburbs
       Easter – Regular Sunday, used to be no service in some suburbs
       Memorial Day – Sunday, No Northstar
       Fridays in summer – Reduced commuter service and earlier PM commuter runs in some suburbs
       4th of July – Sunday, No Northstar
       3rd or 5th of July, depending on what day the 4th is – Saturday plus limited commuter runs
       Labour Day – Sunday, No Northstar
       Columbus Day – Regular service
       Veterans’ Day – Regular service
       Thanksgiving – Sunday, No Northstar, No buses in some suburbs
       Day After Thanksgiving – Saturday plus limited commuter runs
       Christmas Eve – Saturday plus limited commuter runs
       Christmas – Sunday, No Northstar, No buses in some suburbs
       New Year’s Eve – Regular service, extra light rail runs after midnight (as exist Friday and Saturday nights as well)

       Note: If there’s a baseball or football game, Northstar game service operates even though the normal Northstar service doesn’t.

25. Veterans day is a national and State holiday. Metro is a State agency so it has to either give the day off or provide holiday pay (2X?). Nobody in the private sector gets the day off or payed double time (except banks… don’t get me started on Wall Street being so “religious” they observe Good Friday). It should be a day of remembrance meaning a few minutes of silence when we are at “at work”. But hey, we have an agency that gets all the State benefits so screw the public. When it comes up on the ballot to give them more; just say no. I’d like better bus service but sadly it’s not going to happen until the dynasty is dismantled.

    Does anybody “remember” that it was originally armistice day and that’s why the date doesn’t revolve around the most convenient three day weekend?

    1. How would dismantling the dynasty lead to better bus service? It may lead to no bus service, or at least significantly less than today, or an Uber-and-jitney only system which would take three times as long to get anywhere and cost more than now.

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