Another TriMet surprise: Less service, but better signs

TriMet continues to surprise me with the decisions it makes. Every day I ride the 55 Hamilton bus route on its first run of the day into the city, and I’ve been doing so for years using my annual bus pass.


The latest news is that the first run on that route will be eliminated in September. At the same time a reduction in service is announced, thousands of dollars are being spent on materials and labor to replace all of the 55 Hamilton bus signs and poles along its route — when the old signs were perfectly functional. It seems, once again, that one hand of TriMet doesn’t know what the other hand is doing.

Why would an organization spend money replacing perfectly good signs on a bus route that’s being cut back to the bone? The more you cut back the service on this route (and others), the fewer people will ride it and there will be further cutbacks. This route used to run seven days a week, both ways, all day long. It now runs five days a week, one way only, with three runs into the city in the morning and three runs out of the city in the afternoon — and that will be reduced in September.

The question has to be asked: Why doesn’t TriMet eliminate this route? It’s bound to happen with fewer and fewer people riding it.

In my opinion, TriMet needs a major management shakeup so it realigns its priorities back to the riding public and doesn’t get put into the position of continually having to make cutbacks. It’s another public relations disaster to cut back service while money is being spent on things the public just doesn’t care about — like new bus route signs, fancy downtown bus stops, flat-screen monitors at bus stops, etc., etc.

Doug Twitchell
Southwest Portland

http://blog.oregonlive.com/myoregon/2012/03/trimet_surprises_me_again.html