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Her answers are pathetic.What a poor excuse for an agency spokesperson.The small talk between Mary and Lars during the interview is discusting,ie,"What would we do without you Lars?"
Mary's worried about "tainting the investigation"??
The last time there was a bus related incident (I believe it was the bus vs. MAX incident on the Transit Mall), within ONE HOUR Mary Fetsch was already making public statements stating the bus driver was in the wrong.
Within ONE HOUR!
Is it possible to initiate an investigation, download the video off of both bus and train, have a signal maintainer run tests on the traffic signals, interview all of the various witnesses...oh, and get the investigators from Center Street to the incident site - WITHIN ONE HOUR?
HELL NO!
Yet she had no problem tainting that investigation by declaring fault, when she had absolutely zero ability to do so (she's a spokeswoman, not an investigator or manager).
And...there's "extra trains" to cover the loss of a train for three weeks...how many spare buses are available on a given basis? Am I not correct in saying TriMet has frequently had to cancel regular, scheduled bus trips due to a lack of equipment?
In general I think Mary did a poor job with this interview, but I have to respond to Erik:
1) She wasn't exactly freely talking about Al, though she did mention his name (presumably because Al outed himself). Most of her answers were "that's between Al and his manager" "ongoing investigation", etc.
2) Erik, you are wrong re: having to concel runs due to lack of equipment. For the THIRD time: ------- Here's my reply to Erik from the boregonian:
"but at TriMet "contingency" buses are part of the regular daily fleet and TriMet has no contingency to cover emergency situations like this one"
Wow Erik, even you are making stuff up! Industry standard is 20% spare fleet, and that's exactly what TriMet has. The greatest number of buses scheduled out on the road at any given time is 501 (weekday PM peak), and TriMet has 600 buses in the "active fleet" and an additional 26 in their contingency ("semi-retirement") fleet.
The head mechanic specifically mentioned that these extra buses are, in fact, used for bus bridges and/or supplemental service.
All of this information was stated at the April board meeting ~8+ mins in.
Max: I have to reply from another point of view, not to back up Erik per se, but just to say it can and does happen.
This last summer, one of my (King County Metro) buses broke down, they took me back to the base for another bus to do my second run, yes my first run had no bus (cancelled). Guess what, they had no bus to give me, I had to wait for a bus to pull in from a 10 hour shift for me to take over and finish my run. Mechanic shortage vs the breakdowns of warm summer days always shorts us, and we do a better job than TriMet by far.
I know Erik slams TriMet over buses, but TriMets problem is solely based on their refusal to purchase new equipment before the old stuff is riding on 3 wheels. But even if, New equipment can fail too, leaving less than needed out on the road. Metros Spare ratio is 15-18%, its really low compared to the average.
10 comments:
Al if I were you I would be checking into the Whistle Blower Laws. I don't think Tri-Met has a case against you. Good Luck.
I'm aware of them, thanks.
Gotta wait and see what they are gonna do.
I'm sure they are mad as hell at me right about now though.
Her answers are pathetic.What a poor excuse for an agency spokesperson.The small talk between Mary and Lars during the interview is discusting,ie,"What would we do without you Lars?"
She hasn't got a damn clue!
I like how Lars slipped in that last word "Must be nice to have the money to have extra $3 million trains laying around"
Mary's worried about "tainting the investigation"??
The last time there was a bus related incident (I believe it was the bus vs. MAX incident on the Transit Mall), within ONE HOUR Mary Fetsch was already making public statements stating the bus driver was in the wrong.
Within ONE HOUR!
Is it possible to initiate an investigation, download the video off of both bus and train, have a signal maintainer run tests on the traffic signals, interview all of the various witnesses...oh, and get the investigators from Center Street to the incident site - WITHIN ONE HOUR?
HELL NO!
Yet she had no problem tainting that investigation by declaring fault, when she had absolutely zero ability to do so (she's a spokeswoman, not an investigator or manager).
And then...Mary plays "we can't discuss the employment status" of the Operator, but freely talks about Al.
She should know better.
And...there's "extra trains" to cover the loss of a train for three weeks...how many spare buses are available on a given basis? Am I not correct in saying TriMet has frequently had to cancel regular, scheduled bus trips due to a lack of equipment?
In general I think Mary did a poor job with this interview, but I have to respond to Erik:
1) She wasn't exactly freely talking about Al, though she did mention his name (presumably because Al outed himself). Most of her answers were "that's between Al and his manager" "ongoing investigation", etc.
2) Erik, you are wrong re: having to concel runs due to lack of equipment. For the THIRD time:
-------
Here's my reply to Erik from the boregonian:
"but at TriMet "contingency" buses are part of the regular daily fleet and TriMet has no contingency to cover emergency situations like this one"
Wow Erik, even you are making stuff up! Industry standard is 20% spare fleet, and that's exactly what TriMet has. The greatest number of buses scheduled out on the road at any given time is 501 (weekday PM peak), and TriMet has 600 buses in the "active fleet" and an additional 26 in their contingency ("semi-retirement") fleet.
The head mechanic specifically mentioned that these extra buses are, in fact, used for bus bridges and/or supplemental service.
All of this information was stated at the April board meeting ~8+ mins in.
Max: I have to reply from another point of view, not to back up Erik per se, but just to say it can and does happen.
This last summer, one of my (King County Metro) buses broke down, they took me back to the base for another bus to do my second run, yes my first run had no bus (cancelled). Guess what, they had no bus to give me, I had to wait for a bus to pull in from a 10 hour shift for me to take over and finish my run. Mechanic shortage vs the breakdowns of warm summer days always shorts us, and we do a better job than TriMet by far.
I know Erik slams TriMet over buses, but TriMets problem is solely based on their refusal to purchase new equipment before the old stuff is riding on 3 wheels. But even if, New equipment can fail too, leaving less than needed out on the road. Metros Spare ratio is 15-18%, its really low compared to the average.
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