RANTINGS OF A FORMER TRIMET BUS DRIVER: Sep 8, 2011

Thursday, September 8, 2011

TRIMET on Twitter-best tweets

@trimet: @skyesidhe Sorry to hear about the early/missing bus. Customer Service would like more info. Please fill out this form: t.co/HQTG3Al · Reply · RT

trimet: @alicynx Sorry you feel our operator was discourteous. Customer Service would like details. Please fill out this form: t.co/bGpdIEV · Reply · RT

rimet: @tcraighenry Sorry about the late 20. Customer Service would like details. Please fill out this form: t.co/HQTG3Al · Reply · RT

A bit belated – but I wanted to offer my own Labor Day salute to the employees of TriMet. You offer a great service to our customers and our region, and you do it in circumstances that are always changing and often challenging. We ask a lot of you, and you deliver. I am proud to work at TriMet with such a dedicated and talented work force

Joe Rose comes to the defense of TRIMET?

The truth about TriMet and trees on Portland's Southwest Lincoln Street | OregonLive.com

Jack Bogdanski commentary

More dismantling of Fareless Square ahead/Tri-Met MAX citations: Plead guilty, only $50.

Stressed commuters turning to public transit, tech

Commuter unhappiness is one reason IBM attributes to consumers turning to public transportation. Forty one percent of people surveyed in 20 cities around the world believed that public transportation would reduce traffic congestion. Of the 35 percent of people who changed their commuting mode last year, 45 percent are going for public transportation.

Altair unveils world's first hydraulic-hybrid transit bus

From an economic perspective, it’s the total cost that has to be considered. On that front, BUSolutions is projected to lower the cost of ownership by $170,000 per bus as compared to a conventional diesel bus. With the average local transit authority operating approximately 300 buses, the savings could reduce a city’s cost of transit bus operation by approximately $50 million.
http://www.torquenews.com/119/altair-unveils-worlds-first-hydraulic-hybrid-transit-bus

A TRIMET MINUTE

Bus driver shot!

Officials urge special protection for transit workers after shooting of SEPTA driver | Philadelphia Inquirer | 09/08/2011

Bus driver stabbed

MARTA IDs driver stabbed aboard bus | ajc.com

400 union workers protest EGT-bound train, clash with police

About 400 union longshoremen blocked a train for about four hours outside the new EGT grain terminal at the Port of Longview, but the train passed through Wednesday evening after the protesters were confronted by about 50 officers in riot gear.

Streetcar staff recommends leaving Free Rail Zone

Two years after TriMet rejected a proposal to eliminate what was then the country’s largest fare-free transit zone, the former “Fareless Square” is dying by degrees.
Portland Streetcar staffers told their citizens’ advisory committee Wednesday that they recommend pulling out of the Free Rail Zone in September 2012, raising the base streetcar fare to $2.10 across the system and making central-city MAX the city’s only free transit service.

http://portlandafoot.org/2011/09/exclusive-streetcar-staff-wants-to-leave-free-rail-zone/

Video Log-Sept 7

Hartmann: Destroying the Postal Service - another Manufactured Crisis

HERE!

TriMet's crackdown overloads court system

The flood of people stretching the system beyond capacity has become known as "TriMet Tuesdays" where the court system deals with an unexpected amount of people who didn't pay to ride on the MAX. It's an unexpected consequence of TriMet's new get-tough policy.
The line of people this Tuesday spilled out onto the Justice Center’s steps. They were there because TriMet has hired more fare inspectors and deployed more “get-tough” patrols – tickets now outnumber warnings, 3 to 1.
This Tuesday there were 358 tickets to process and standing room only in the courtroom.

“They did it all at once and they didn’t stop to think about what the downstream affects would be,” said Multnomah County Court administrator Doug Bray.

http://www.katu.com/news/local/129432258.html