Tuesday, September 30, 2014
TRIMET AND ATU STRIKE A DEAL
Here is the Trimet press release
And here is the the ATU757 Home page
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| Not a word |
And here is Transit voice Facebook
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| Nothing here either |
WTF is going on and where are the details?
Lane Jensen gives up Trimet?
Well, I'm done with @trimet. I got a car. I'm tired of their shitty schedules, idiot managers, and bus drivers who don't care. #trimet
— Lane Jensen (@lanejensenpdx) September 29, 2014
Trimet continues demoralizing its union employees
From what I understand, only the top 100 senior employees will get to sign runs as they have always done before, the rest of the operators have to sign something called 'blocks', which I don't quite understand. From what I do understand this will limit operators choice more severally and hand the company more control over how these sign ups can function and how the work is parceled out.
I have not heard anybody speak in support of this change that is currently an operator at Trimet.
Apparently ATU757 is supporting this change. This was done without consulting the members (what else is new) and the union leadership has signed off on the change. I have heard plenty of grumbling about the unions role in all this. Members are not happy. It's not unusual for these type of major changes to be made without consulting members. For example the union leadership signed away the right to strike without bothering to ask its members if they supported that.
Our union is being strong armed by a by a conniving tricksters, yet they are cooperating with them to destabilize employees lives? I just don't get it? Not at all.......
Monday, September 29, 2014
Trimet's ADA interpretation is gonna get somebody seriously injured
And now we have ANOTHER INCIDENT involving dogs on the Trimet system.
I guess someone is gonna have to get mauled before anything happens to reign in this absurd policy.
WARNING! Use the Globesherpa cell phone app at your OWN risk!
Wow thanks @trimet for the $175 ticket because your app failed. Lesson learned, don't use the app.
— Kristina Aasen (@Krissertina) September 30, 2014
'From the Trimet drivers side' takes on the service animal policy
"Service animals, including companion animals, are always welcome on buses. The animal is considered a service animal or companion animal if the customer says it is; there is no documentation required to board a service animal."
Okay, so it's very forgiving. The word 'ludicrous' comes to mind. Why? Because human nature being what it is, people can manipulate rules to the point where they don't follow them at all. Those who truly have trained service animals aside, I've seen many dogs and cats brought aboard by people who haven't the slightest clue what training an animal entails. They're out to buck the system. They just want to take Fido with them, so they'll just say he's a service animal. Boom. Free ride for Fido, no hassle.
(Since mostly what we see out there in the form of service animals are dogs, I will use them as a reference here.)
Drivers do not have the right to ask what their animal has been trained to do. But if we were allowed, and we did ask, what if they stammer and hem and haw before coming up with a comically lame answer? "Um, he wakes me up when I go to sleep." Or, "he keeps me calm because I'm a nervous person". Really? Perhaps they're telling the truth, but I'll bet the lug nuts on my bus that many of them are telling stories. Just like the multitudes with "Honored" passes who simply cannot (or refuse to) pay full fare to ride the bus to their soccer practice.
Read the entire post HERE!
Transit riders want on time service and they don't give a hoot about the mode
The survey of 12,000 people showed, "Riders of all ages and in all
regions place the greatest value on factors like travel time, proximity,
cost, and reliability above safety, frequency, and perks like Wi-Fi
when choosing whether or not to take public transportation."
Meanwhile, the American Community Survey results suggest that commuters don't necessarily care how they get there. The cities with the most mass-transit users employ a variety of infrastructure to transport workers. Seattle, for example, uses ferries on a scale not possible in most cities but also relies heavily on buses. New York City, Boston and Washington, D.C., have long-established rail networks. San Francisco has a diverse transit system.
Commuters care more about on-time arrival than transit mode: Editorial Agenda 2014 | OregonLive.com
Meanwhile, the American Community Survey results suggest that commuters don't necessarily care how they get there. The cities with the most mass-transit users employ a variety of infrastructure to transport workers. Seattle, for example, uses ferries on a scale not possible in most cities but also relies heavily on buses. New York City, Boston and Washington, D.C., have long-established rail networks. San Francisco has a diverse transit system.
Commuters care more about on-time arrival than transit mode: Editorial Agenda 2014 | OregonLive.com
Trimet spends billions on Light rail and ridership declines
GoLocalPDX | TriMet’s Per Capita Ridership Declines as Billions are Spent on Light Rail
I made the following comment to the story but it would not post for some reason
The 'cost per ride' figures are extremely misleading.
Light rail needs lots and lots of support personnel that are not included in that number.
Controllers, Supervisors, ROW personnel, switch maintainers, signal techs are just a few.
The light rail apologists always leave out the HUGE cost of constructing the light rail in the first place. 'That money alone makes the figures bogus.
Regarding the 'recession'. We have studies the facts on that and it turns out the so called 'great recession' was barely a hiccup to Trimet.
We did our own investigation on this matter, all the figures were provided by Trimet but were not charted.
See for yourself http://toptrimetstories.blogspot.com/2014/07/trimet-historical-statistics.html
I made the following comment to the story but it would not post for some reason
The 'cost per ride' figures are extremely misleading.
Light rail needs lots and lots of support personnel that are not included in that number.
Controllers, Supervisors, ROW personnel, switch maintainers, signal techs are just a few.
The light rail apologists always leave out the HUGE cost of constructing the light rail in the first place. 'That money alone makes the figures bogus.
Regarding the 'recession'. We have studies the facts on that and it turns out the so called 'great recession' was barely a hiccup to Trimet.
We did our own investigation on this matter, all the figures were provided by Trimet but were not charted.
See for yourself http://toptrimetstories.blogspot.com/2014/07/trimet-historical-statistics.html
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Best of the Trimet tweets
And if you want to know what's REALLY going on at Trimet check out TRIMETSCANNER
Trimet still trying to find ways to screw its employees/retirees
Raises for themselves, knife in the back for union employees
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| Click the pic for better viewing |
Friday, September 26, 2014
People attempt to use "The bridge of the people"
PORTLANDER'S TAKE OVER THE TILLIKUM BRIDGE BECAUSE ITS THE 'BRIDGE OF THE PEOPLE' http://t.co/lsgGlZ2J2J
— TriMet Scanner (@trimetscanner) September 27, 2014
Two members of OPAL still trying to get though to the board (sock puppets)
Trimet board makes citizens wait 47 minutes to speak
The dignitaries always get preferential treatment.
Their time is so much more important than some average Joe
Their time is so much more important than some average Joe
Trimet managers continue negotiating in bad faith
An extremely reliable source has informed that the Trimet managers are still making a mockery out of the contract negotiation process.
Those of us that follow this material know this is par for the course.
Trimet managers lie to your face with no problems at all.
They even do it with a smile!
These are the same people that secretly stole a raise for themselves at the exact same time they cut services, raised fares, and slashed retiree benefits.
These are careerists without ethics.
More for them less for everybody else.
They know they are unaccountable and they take full advantage of that fact.
Not every union employee at Trimet is a suck up ass kisser.
And the employees that are sick and tired of being played by these overpaid lowlife managers will be participating in several activities that will disrupt the status quo over there.
Stay tuned for updates
Max Redline's always entertaining analysis of transit related events
Alas, things may not always go as smoothly as planned, as the owner of a pomeranian discovered on the streetcar yesterday evening:
KGW talked to two people riding the train Wednesday night around 6:30 p.m. One passenger said four dogs, all with different owners, boarded about the same time at Northwest 21st Avenue and Lovejoy Street. A couple minutes later, a larger dog, which appeared to be a pit bull mix,
attacked a smaller dog that looked to be less than 10 pounds.
Oh, my. The pomeranian assumed ambient temperature following the attack.
Read the entire post HERE!
Portlandia's childish light rail fetish provides me with endless entertainment
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| Yup, its off the rails |
Bower said there were "no major injuries," according to initial reports from the scene. Shuttle buses are ferrying Pearl District riders around the derailment.
The train was heading east on Lovejoy when it slipped off the rails and began to skid into oncoming traffic. The orange train struck a blue 2007 Lexus SUV driven by 81-year-old Harriet Suo of Portland, but managed to quickly return to the eastbound lane.
"She was lucky," said Steve Suo, Harriet's son and an editor at The Oregonian, who was at the scene. Suo said his mother was on her way to a doctor's appointment.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Classic Erik Halstead on the Trimet Facebook page
Trimet did a Facebook post about the service animal policy, and this was Erik's response
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| Click pic for better viewing |
Why is your Trimet bus driver rude?
The public has no idea what its like to be a bus driver. Some members of the ignorant public actually think the job is 'easy'. (All those bus drivers do all day is sit on their ass and drive around). As a former bus driver I can tell you that it is actually one of the hardest jobs in America.
And nothing makes the job harder than driving a bus with a bad schedule. One of the most important things to a bus driver is to run the bus on time. Virtually every bus driver I have ever met attempts to drive their bus 'on time'.
Transit management has over time determined that transit drivers should be treated like a piece of 'equipment' rather than a human being and want to 'maximize' the time driving. Take a look at the list of late buses below. Every single one of the operators that is driving one of those buses noted below is having a 'bad day'. Some of those drivers are downright miserable and take out their frustration on transit riders.
Bus drivers are not born mean, they are made mean by the job, Trimet knowingly allows these lousy working conditions to exist.
There are 121 buses running substantially late at one time, that is a clear failure of Trimet management in scheduling and its completely ignored
Not sure where 'they' are planning on coming up with $250 million- $1 billion dollars
Well capital projects is the name of the game for Trimet and Metro and there is no end in sight to their respective dreams. Next up is some grandiose plans for Powell Boulevard. Costing somewhere in the range of $250 million to over a Billion Powell will be transformed (I guess that's the idea)
Now from my point of view a much more effective approach to serving transit riders on Powell Blvd would be to have a bus running every 5-8 minutes. No fancy capital project required. But we all know that all this capital projects shit has nothing to do with transit riders but serves to promote the agenda of those involved in the real estate development. It adds nothing to the transit riders lives, maybe a little faster commute time. The public would be much better served if they had truly frequent service, something that does not exist in Portland.
Powell-Division plan for transit zooms along
Pit Bull tries to eat Pomeranian on the street car
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| Pomeranian blood all over the floor |
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| Pit Bulls hate Pomeranians |
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| Poor little Pomeranian never had a chance |
Light Rail Measure 34-220 Rides to an Easy Victory. Petitioners Win!
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| Click on the pic for better viewing |
Trimet reliability has gone down the tubes
But they sure know how to take a picture. If the bozo's that run Trimet put as much effort into running transit as they do making propaganda Trimet would run like a top
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| Just look at our pretty propaganda, keep your eyes focused there, please don't look at how our system runs |
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Trimet supervisors get easily confused
There was an event tonight at the soccer stadium which means that SW
18th Ave was closed. Lines 15 and 83 were told to go on their usual
reroutes for it, but my source does not say that Line 51 was, and it
sounds like the supervisor wanted to write up this operator:
http://radio.rosecitytransit.o
http://radio.rosecitytransit.o
And looking at the schedule, the real issue is that the bus must have been 20 minutes late (I think there was a mechanical issue with it and no other short buses to trade it with); if it was on time there would not have been a problem.
http://radio.rosecitytransit.o
http://radio.rosecitytransit.o
And looking at the schedule, the real issue is that the bus must have been 20 minutes late (I think there was a mechanical issue with it and no other short buses to trade it with); if it was on time there would not have been a problem.
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
What the f*ck?
Appears #trimet has flunked the Duct Tape Acamedy and now they are enrolled in Zip Tie University cc @trimet pic.twitter.com/Lc3RiSYmXf
— Lane Jensen (@lanejensenpdx) September 24, 2014Trimet cell phone app screws over riders
Listening to all the hype coming from Trimet and GlobeSherpa you'd think that the cell phone app was the greatest invention since sliced bread. It just ain't so.
Don't give up your paper tickets yet
(and don't give up your car yet either)
Some interesting facts about trimet.org
Domain Age: 19 Years, 144 Days
Website Speed: Average
Owner: Registration Private
Owner Address: DomainsByProxy.com
Owner City: Scottsdale
Owner Postcode: 85260
Phone Number: +1.4806242599
Phone Type: geographic :Phoenix, AZ Qwest Corporation
Email:
Owner Country : Hidden
Website Location : United States
advice for tri-met.org | Scam check for tri-met.org is tri-met.org safe?
Website Speed: Average
Owner: Registration Private
Owner Address: DomainsByProxy.com
Owner City: Scottsdale
Owner Postcode: 85260
Phone Number: +1.4806242599
Phone Type: geographic :Phoenix, AZ Qwest Corporation
Email:
Owner Country : Hidden
Website Location : United States
advice for tri-met.org | Scam check for tri-met.org is tri-met.org safe?
Trimet is totally unreliable
How can anyone who has done so badly remain in charge?
And just think! In one year there will be a whole other line to screw up!
Service Alert: MAX Blue/Green/Red lines are disrupted due to a commercial power outage in Rose Quarter area. Expect delays.
— TriMet (@trimet) September 23, 2014
Ticket machines also down due to commercial power outage in Rose Quarter area.
— TriMet (@trimet) September 23, 2014
Monday, September 22, 2014
Here's an idea for Portland Trimet
A New Way to Rate the MBTA Is Coming to a Smartphone Near You
Paul Regan, executive director of the MBTA Advisory Board, which represents cities and towns across the state that are serviced by the T, said the board is in the midst of developing a diary-like mobile website that will allow commuters to track and record their experiences on buses and trains, so the group can collect the data and present it to the MBTA, letting them know where they’re doing a good or bad job.“We want people to pay attention to their commute for a couple of weeks and rate every single step of the way,” Regan said of the project. “All these years I have been advocating for a state of good repair and to get existing riders the service they deserve, and I hope this is a tool that gives voices to those riders.”
Full story HERE
Inhaling diesel fumes will give you cancer
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A potential killer lurked inside the New York
City Transit bus depot on Yukon Avenue, New Springville, alleges a
lawsuit.
Victor Vernaci and Frank Grosso, two retired Transit employees, have each been diagnosed with cancer, which, their civil complaint contends, was caused by their exposure to diesel exhaust particles and fumes spewed by buses idling inside the massive depot.
Lawsuit: Drivers' cancers caused by exhaust fumes at Transit's bus depot on Yukon Avenue | SILive.com
Victor Vernaci and Frank Grosso, two retired Transit employees, have each been diagnosed with cancer, which, their civil complaint contends, was caused by their exposure to diesel exhaust particles and fumes spewed by buses idling inside the massive depot.
Lawsuit: Drivers' cancers caused by exhaust fumes at Transit's bus depot on Yukon Avenue | SILive.com
Neil Mcfarlane thinks everybody should support his world view
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| Mcfarlane whines because not everybody wants light rail installed across america |
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Classic Tweets
Waiting for a bus in Portland. Sure ain't Switzerland.
— Robert Reid (@reidontravel) September 19, 2014TriMet doesn't love MAX riders that much
I've heard that there were no extra trains scheduled this morning to handle crowds going to two different runs taking place today, one of which TriMet put a news release and rider e-mail out about.
Before about 8:30 AM on Sundays, service from west of Beaverton TC is not even every 30 minutes, and the first Green Line train isn't scheduled to leave Clackamas until 8:00 AM. (And none of the Red Line trains listed in the schedule below come from Willow Creek or Hillsboro, and there's only a handful more that start at Beaverton TC.)
Before about 8:30 AM on Sundays, service from west of Beaverton TC is not even every 30 minutes, and the first Green Line train isn't scheduled to leave Clackamas until 8:00 AM. (And none of the Red Line trains listed in the schedule below come from Willow Creek or Hillsboro, and there's only a handful more that start at Beaverton TC.)
Trimet confusing people by the hundreds
We've seen far too many tweets by people who get the wrong information about where the train is going.
Trimet Fail!
Yo, @trimet: I got on a blue line train. Why am I now on a green line that will require me to walk 5 blocks & thus be late?
— Tessara Dudley (@tdudleypdx) September 21, 2014Using transit means giving up control
The worst thing about mass transit is that you are totally at the hands of the transit agency. Walking, biking, or driving you maintain a degree of control over your means of transport. But there are so many variables involved in using transit, none of which are under the control of the consumer, which is why employers do not accept transit as a 'reliable' method of getting to your job.
We see the tweets below hundreds of times during the year
We see the tweets below hundreds of times during the year
wow, Trimet trynna get Me fired.
— papa swish (@OBIENEXTDOOR) September 21, 2014
.@extramsg @Mayorpdx don't forget @trimet's inability to deal with events that have been going on for YEARS. some of us have to get to work.
— piper ewan (@piperewan) September 21, 2014
Operators the New Punching Bag
Some hard hitting stuff coming from the blog lately!
Once again, one of our operators was attacked while de-boarding a woman
described as "crazy". Apparently unprovoked, she punched, pulled the
hair and scratched a driver's eye.
Crazy Rider has reportedly done this before. The road supe said she'd hit him recently and the police had arrested her five times in the past month! As for our victim operator, she reportedly continued on route. I wish she'd been removed from duty and transported for medical care, for her sake. It is a common mistake for injured people to bravely decline medical treatment. I truly hope she's okay.
This MUST be dealt with. But how?
Crazy Rider has reportedly done this before. The road supe said she'd hit him recently and the police had arrested her five times in the past month! As for our victim operator, she reportedly continued on route. I wish she'd been removed from duty and transported for medical care, for her sake. It is a common mistake for injured people to bravely decline medical treatment. I truly hope she's okay.
This MUST be dealt with. But how?
Trimet getting serious about social media and its influence
We here at blog central have watched as Trimet has slowly recognized the importance of social media. And we also know that Trimet has watched 'us' as we use the social media. (Trimet will never admit that they watch or learn anything from us but we know they do). Here is the latest attempt to wrestle the social media presence from the Trimet critics.
Portland ( Trimet/St Car) does have one the largest consumer presence on Twitter in the country. While Trimet does dominate the mainstream media which willingly publishes a tremendous volume of pro Trimet material, there is a substantial 'unhappy' (I wouldn't call it anti trimet because most of us including myself don't want Trimet dismantled, we just want a return to focus on transportation instead of property development and a renewed focus on people) presence on social media which has contributed to some minor defeats for the Trimet behemoth. (CRC, Tigard, Tualtin for example). Should our tax funds be used in this manner, of course not but this is government today. They use our tax funds to promote 'their' agenda, and their agenda is figuring out way to make the public believe in them. Trimet is very good in this area. They have a very good perception of what it takes to make people in this area 'believe in them'. Even if its a pile of horseshit
Saturday, September 20, 2014
We love light rail
@TelemachusRome shooting on Burnside has shut down MAX service
— TriMet Scanner (@trimetscanner) September 21, 2014VeganGizmo goes on a Trimet twitter rant
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| @VeganGizmo |