Trimess

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Doug Kelsey at the Trimet board

Doug puts forth the argument that Trimet light rail is operating in a dangerous manner and a major accident could happen at any moment.
I have no idea if its true, it appears there were a couple hundred rule violations that weren't investigated. I guess that's why Don Allison got the boot.

Monday, February 27, 2017

I love the dispatch spoofs




"From the Driver's side" UNION FIRST

What constitutes “fair compensation” is a hotly contested point. The District acts as if we’re overpaid and greedy. They inject this propaganda into a largely unsympathetic public mindset via local media. The last time, this tactic was successful for them. Most of those whose valuable support management hopes to secure however, have not endured hours in the seat. They haven’t been screamed at, spat upon, threatened at gunpoint, punched or stabbed. Their bodies have not been subjected to the repetitive motions which gradually wear us down. Numbers and innuendo are management’s game. Yet upper management isn’t as vital as we are in competent transit operations. We could still efficiently do the job without them; they could not do our duties and simultaneously manage themselves.

Read the full essay HERE!

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Trimet general manager report

How to be a Trimet shill-Lesson 1

Kelsey attempts to blame light rail operator for derailment

Poor Doug, egg all over his face
Following standard management procedure, Trimet executive Doug Kelsey attempts to shift blame for the derailment due to ice buildup onto the light rail operator who was driving at that time.

TriMet Chief Operating Officer Doug Kelsey told KOIN 6 News it was up to train operators to assess the situation, since there was no plan in place to deal with ice.

Of course its complete bullshit and we have seen this over and over and over. 
Management screws up and points the fingers downstream.
 I guess they have to because if they told the truth they might be embarrassed, and who knows, possibly something even more severe?

When in doubt point fingers at the people doing the work. 
Sorry Doug, its up to management to think ahead and prevent disasters. 
Pointing the finger downward only makes you look pathetic and helpless.

KOIN story and video HERE!


Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Trimet leaves on duty bus driver hanging in the wind

ATU757 BLUES

Jim Howell delivers knock out punch to the Trimet board

Jim Howell has been around a long long time. He's a former Trimet planner and has some of the best ideas for transit in the Portland metro area. He should be on the Trimet board. Alas, he is not an insider so he can only speak to the board like the rest of us peons

Trimet cash machine


Trimet wields its tremendous power and influence due to the huge amount of cash that goes through it.
 Millions upon millions is handed out to all sorts of places and companies.
 Actually its billions. 

Anybody ever wonder why Trimet NEVER publicizes its board meetings?
 Obviously they would rather the public be ignorant of the goings on.

Trimet is a huge industrial complex enriching many different  organizations and people.

At today's sock puppets meeting the following cash was handed out:





$7.5 million in "pass through" dollars, which Trimet gets a cut obviously 


So when you hear these heartless souless overpaid technocrats talking about "not enough cash to pay your benefits" or "not enough cash to beef up actual transit services" remember

ITS NOTHING BUT A LIE

Dan Christensen gets it


Another laughable "investigation" into Trimet policies


We've already seen how ODOT , a corrupted agency itself , handles investigations into Trimet mistakes. 
Laughably. 

These Oregon organizations and their respective armies of overpaid hacks all know each other and all cover for each other when called upon.
Now we have another one:  TriMet had no rules about running MAX trains on tracks with visible ice accumulation prior to a January derailment.

 "These types of events do not happen frequently in this area," state investigator Gary Ferguson wrote. "In light of this incident, adding some language for operating procedures when ice is present is advisable."

"Duh, it never occurred to us that ice accumulation could cause a derailment.
We'll put it into our standard operating procedures because we are to stupid to know this ahead of time and never bothered to look at other agencies SOP's."

"Sorry about the thousands of people who had their days ruined, we promise we won't do it again."

Nice to be an executive in an unaccountable tax funded monstrosity, you can get away with anything, make a huge salary, and retire with an obscene pension.

Read the "story" HERE

If you read this blog you know that Jason Mchuff had already written about this.
Guess what? Jason has no fancy degrees and gets no six figure salary.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Trimet capital projects wants $2,4000,000,000 billion.

 It's the same old same old. This was all very predictable and they've been talking about all of this for a year.

 The thing that citizens should keep in mind is that the technocrats have made all of the decisions about how this $2.4 billion  will be spent. The citizens got no input at all.  No public comment,  No request for feedback, no nothing.  It's definitely food for the capital projects monster. Oh well, "your" government at work

 Public transportation in Portland is similar to public transportation in the rest of the country. Unreliable, unpredictable, unclean and generally a roulette wheel   Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.  

This  $2.4 billion is to " avoid future gridlock "

Uh, we already have grid lock, this is not going to help

http://koin.com/2017/02/21/trimet-4-projects-needed-to-avoid-future-gridlock/

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Neil Mcfarlane gets richer and richer despite Trimet's poor performance

In 2014 there was a small scandal about Mcfarlanes consistent pay raises while he was gutting services, raising fares, and reneging on Trimet union retirees promised retirement health insurance.
His reported salary at that time was $229,000.

In 2015 his reported salary was was $268,000, a $40,000 increase from his 2014 salary. 
We know that he was granted yet another salary increase in January 2016, making his obscene salary in the neighborhood of $300,000/yr.

He also has $170,000 in "unused vacation" (another scam used commonly by the executive class) which he will be paid in cash the day he decides to abdicate the throne.

All of this while he has abrogated promises to his union retirees, service quality and reliability is the worst ever, and the fare structure is amongst the highest in the country.

The point of this post is to illustrate how the executive class of Trimet, basically parasites, make obscene profits for themselves while the riding public suffers horrible service quality. 

The executive technocrats of the American public transportation industrial complex live and retire in luxury while the public continually suffers with very marginal services.

Next time these technocrats come to you looking for you to open your wallet to them, be afraid, be very afraid. Giving them more money is the equivalent of throwing your money down the sewer

Rest in Peace Tamara Murphy

I used to hang out with "Tamms" at the Beaverton Transit center for many signups while she was a regular 20 driver.
 Its very unsettling the number of former driver associates that have passed lately.

Lyn Lerbach dead


LYN LERBACH PLEADS FOR THE DISABLED
LYN LERBACH SAYS HE DOESN'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HIS BEING REPLACED
Trimet management leaves ATU 757 ouf of the safety structure says trimet director Lerbach
LYN LERBACH-THE VOICE OF REASON ON THE TRIMET BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Wait! Michale Levine not done ranting-LYn Lerbach jumps in!
Lyn Lerbach questions the Milwaukie light rail project funding!
LYN LERBACH QUESTIONS RELIABILITY&HOW IS TRIMET FINANCIALLY NOW?
LYNN LEHRBACH SAYS "SHOW ME THE MONEY"
Lyn Lerbach asks the "committee" about suspending the wes
Lyn Lerbach exposes the "citizens" committe stupidity
LYNN LERBACH STANDS UP TO TYRANNY
LYNN LEHRBACH SOOTHES DARLA STURDY AND ALWAYS MAKES SENSE

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

TRIMET TOP SALARIES


Henry Beasley keeping track of operator assaults

Transit worker assaults by the numbers:

Here are the updated numbers: (as publicly reported)
 The numbers: As stated in the general public
• 2010 – 34
• 2011 – 26
• 2012 – 19
• 2013 – Nothing said publicly but more than 11 at the time of the assault in North Portland.
• 2014 – 28
• 2015 – 41
• 2016 – 55
2017 – 6 as of February 15

The Trimet industrial complex can't fix the simplest of problems

This  has been a problem since Trimet introduced automated over heads.

This driver is 100% correct in his presentation on this topic. Management does nothing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQF1KBvEyt4

WEIRD Trimet service alerts

Reading through these explains why so many bus drivers end up lost

Sunday, February 12, 2017

This week at Trimet

This weeks coverage of the suffering imposed on front line workers and riders by the TRIMET industrial complex

Trimet's "ICE" hokey explanation curious

The interesting thing about this hokey little   "statement" is how it never mentioned a thing about the police or the police state or even deportations. 
 I find that very curious and very suspicious. 

Trimet denied that they had authorized any sort of action against immigrants, I'm sure that's most likely true.
 But at the same time I am aware that the Trimet police are only funded by Trimet, they are not supervised by Trimet.
  The police conduct their business as they see fit.
 Police agencies cooperate with each other. 
It's certainly not outside the realm of possibility that some kind of coordinated activity may have taken place.

Trimet has a long history of distorting facts to suit its needs. 
I'm not saying it did happen, all I'm saying is it could have happened. 
This little statement that they put out is more like a marketing slogan than a statement against police actions. 

BART made a very clear statement about this sort of behavior on its transit system.
 Trimet made no such statement.

This OREGONIAN story is more detailed than the Trimet tweet

Saturday, February 11, 2017

Don Allison hits the road

For those of you that actually pay attention to my little obscure blog you will recall that Doug Kelsey, who was fired from TransLink after a salary scandal, hired some guy that supposedly worked at NTSB to conduct an audit of rail operations.

Well that little audit was fairly scathing, which surprised me because I actually listen to the operations via the scanner and never noticed anything that could have been considered dangerous.

So Mr Allison had to be the fall guy, there always has to be a fall guy. 
Never met him have no idea what he was like.

Friday, February 10, 2017

Trimet's weird statement on the ICE raid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPq2GCAoRXQ

Shelly Lomax hits the road

Reliable sources report that Shelly Lomax has left the room.
We'll never know the real reason she decided to call it quits, what we do know is how awful service has become under her reign as director of operations.

She made a ton of money at Trimet and now has a very comfortable pension, about 700% more than my pension
Don't let the door hit you on the way out Shelly.

Trimet cooperating with ICE?

Trimet categorically denies that they have anything to do with this. 
That's believable but lets remember that the "transit police" basically functions independently from Trimet even though Trimet funds them. 
It's certainly possible that this happened under inter-agency cooperation between police agencies

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

ATU union blues

On September 9, 2016 Ken Richins sent an email with a document attached to the other executive board officers giving them instructions on how they are going to reject the 19 preferring of charges Chris Day filed. Ken Richins was one of the officers that the charges was filed against. At September 19, 2016 charter meeting the officers only stated that the charges was not served properly and would not be moving forward. They did not do as stated in the email and document. Recently Chris discovered the email and document and is now addressing ATU about their conduct.

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

While the a-holes that run Trimess focus on busting drivers for being 27 seconds early

https://twitter.com/alyourpalster/status/829147913439760384

You know you work for a shitty company when this happens

Trimet sock puppets hand Trimet technocrats $110,000,000 spending money

I had been wondering where the un-elected/unaccountable technocrats that own the Portland transit got the money for that fancy fare system that nobody actually needs.
Well they got it from the board of sock puppets!
 Need $110m we can get it, no voters necessary!
These technocrats have decided to borrow against future payroll taxes.
 Why wait for the money when you can get it now at interest and force the tax payers to repay it!

And the technocrats made all the decisions regarding how that $110,000,000 will be spent, zero public input was allowed. 
"Transit related projects" which means whatever the technocrats decide to spend it on including at new transit police location aka: feed  the capital projects monster.

And so it goes, government taking our money and doing whatever they want with it.
 Citizens have no input into any of this.

If you read the full text of the resolution you will see that if "5% or more of voters disapprove it has to be put for a vote of the citizens".
So no wonder Trimet doesn't advertise any of these meetings.

Saturday, February 4, 2017

Trimet running another fake "contest"

I'm sure readers of this blog, although few in number, remember the last fake Trimet contest, yes it was the KIRK REEVES BRIDGE!

Citizens voted overwhelimgly for Kirk but Trimet officials, as is there modus operendi, ignored what the citizens wanted. 
Just like our political system! 

Well now we have another fake contest, for the latest useless unnecessary  boondoggle, the Powell whateveritis.


Trimetgeddon XII wraps up!


Well we have just completed Trimetgeddon XII when the light rail failed due to ice buildup on the wires. It's the same old story, nothing new here management doesn't take care of the problem and nobody holds them accountable.



Hundreds if not thousands of people suffered using the Portland transit system. 
This apparently is acceptable to the thousands of people Who use public transportation in Portland and everywhere else. 
Totally unreliable, totally unaccountable.
No news coverage, of course.

Nothing will change, MacFarlane will get a raise and will add a few more useless executives and The board of sock puppets will tell the world how wonderful Trimet is and how great the employees are.

The union employees performed heroically, as always, not their fault they are hobbled by insufficient resources.

I continue to maintain that public transportation doesn't have to be awful, it could be excellent if we the citizens can figure out a way to get rid of the "professional class" of technocrats that run it for their own benefit and for the benefit of special interests


Below the break is a sampling of the  of Trimetgeddon XII from the users of the Tri-Met transportation district.
You won't find the truth in the mainstream media.

Thursday, February 2, 2017

The American police state will move to the next level under Der Führer Trump

This government tracking system is now on line in Portland Oregon.

I would think twice about jumping on board with this right about now.

You're already tracked on by your cell phone and every time you use your credit card, do you really want one more system tracking you?

At Trimet someone who sits at a desk writing press releases gets paid more than a skilled light rail controller

There is no particular skill required to be a "public information officer", if you can write you can do the job.

On the other hand being a light rail controller takes a HUGE amount of knowledge and skill.

But in the world of American public transportation and Trimet its the "information officer" who gets the bigger paycheck. 
Nobody cares if the public information officer shows up to work.
If the controller doesn't show up for work, well, there is no light rail.


WHY TRIMET (and public transportation in the usa) SUCKS


Everybody has heard the wonderful stories about Trimet and how it is one of the best transit agencies in the United States.


If only it would be true it would be wonderful. Unfortunately for those of us who are involved in the operational side of Tri-met or the consumer side of Tri-Met we know this is patently false.

Trimet is dirty, unreliable and scary. 
That's the story of United States public transportation.

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

It appears TriMet negligence caused derailment

SUMMARY: TriMet had many reasons to worry about the place where the MAX train derailed, and it doesn't seem like they had inspected it.
 
On Friday [January 13th, possibly the coldest day of the year with a low of just 11 degrees], a MAX train derailed at Rose Quarter while going from the Blue Line to the Yellow Line.  On KOIN 6 News, Mary Fetsch noted how "it has never happened before".  However, looking at news media photos and videos, it seems clear that the piece of track was unusable and a derailment was likely to occur: