Don't kick retirees off

From Facebook private group

New hop/retirees and active employees badges are being issued and are valid I know nothing is posted anywhere but a few retirees called me and said they got kicked off the bus yesterday due to the driver not know the new badges were valid yet....so here you go and the picture is smaller apparently but it does say trimet retire,spouce,dependant,or active so please don't kick off fellow members due to lack of info to us from trimet.

Henry Beasley

Let me make a correction on my earlier post, there were a total of 3 assaults yesterday: 1 spitting, 1 stabbing and 1 physical/intimidation. So that would be a total of 5 assaults in the month of January, and the month isn't even over yet.

Hopefully our fellow coworkers are doing okay including (if confirmed) the stabbing survivor, our Collective thoughts and prayers or with each and every one and their families.

If confirmed, the stabbing incident would be the 4th such incident since 2013.

One day hopefully there will be light at the end of the tunnel so that our fellow coworkers can feel some semblance of "reasonable safety" out there on the road.

Be vigilant, be safe and always communicate.
#UNIONSTRONG
#WEARETHEUNION

Trimet bus driver attacked-Trimet policy allows him to finish shift

So this driver was attacked, ended up getting cut after wresting with the attacker on the floor of the bus but then HE CONTINUED driving his shift as if nothing ever happened!

And Trimet "leadership" says safety is a value. There is no culture of safety when these type of events occur and the procedure is not to relieve them of duty to recover.

Lies upon lies upon lies. Just keep repeating them over and over and people will believe them

It looks like I can finally stop having to edit union testimonies

It appears that our union finally has someone up for the Job.

http://www.atu757.org/atu757-testimony-at-trimet-board-meeting/

Safety is NOT a priority at Trimet

I have no idea how Trimet can get away with saying "safety is a priority" when the operational polices promote dangerous driving!

How they get away with never ending hypocrisy is beyond me.

Lie after lie after lie.

Seems to be SOP procedure for our "leadership" in this country nowadays.

Trimet union employees subjected to the dirtiest of tricks under the Mcfarlane regime

Shirley Block #atu757 #TriMet pic.twitter.com/mdDnxZwePa

— AL M (@AlYourPalster) January 26, 2017

Terrence Howard speaks to the Trimet board

Trimet has no use for electric buses

TriMet has long touted itself as being an environmental leader, but it has sat on the shoulder while the new battery-powered buses have been hitting the pavement in cities across the nation.

FULL STORY HERE!

Trimet's dirty bus fleet gets busted

Despite its green credentials, TriMet has long operated one of the dirtiest big-city bus fleets on the West Coast, a review by the Portland Tribune shows.

Greater Portland's transit agency has continued running the most polluting type of diesel motors long after other agencies added filters to their buses to curb cancer-causing emissions. Portland's air is among the most diesel-polluted in the country, and the annual tally of diesel-related premature deaths statewide may run as high as 460.

Portland Storm-troopers use violence to clear trimet

https://youtu.be/g387hstH1xI

Shirley Block at Today's board meeting

Son of Hightower

WHO IS THIS PIG??? ASSAULTED BY TACTICAL TICKET CHECKER 4 FILMING

#Fail Blue Lives Don't Exist to The Son of Hightower.

TACTICAL TICKET SMELLING POLICE DOG? SUPER NOSE

Tranist Police trains bomb dog to find explosives planted by those radicalized by the USA

G4S / TRIMet Security #FAIL Tries to intimidate me BUT... #FAIL #TTCPDX

Multiple Police Agency's = Tri-met Transit Police/#TacticalTicketCheckers Community Policing (FAIL)

Community Policing Tactical Ticket Checkers Portland OR. 09/25/2016 approx 5:05 pm

Tristapo vs Trimet riders

VIDEO HERE!

Trimet propaganda watch

Why won't Trimet speak of their public meetings on their social media?

Latest ridership statistics

Synopsis, these are the December reports.

-Bus crashes are zooming, obviously due to so many rookies out there
-WES ridership is still in the tank and its also breaking down a lot lately
-Bus, Lift, and WES were less reliable, MAX improved reliability somewhat (suspicious as hell)
-Bus ridership is down, they say its because of gas prices but I don't believe that. System ridership is flat (as its been for years now) and the Orange line ridership boosted light rail ridership. Not sure why.

Protest swamps Trimet

Trimet was overloaded with people going to the Anti Trump march in downtown Portland. 

They performed adequately as there were no major service disruptions although there was one max disruption.

Of course Trimet couldn't handle the demand. 

That's to be expected and no surprise given Trimet's limited resources and personnel.
( I won't go on my usual rant about the battalion of bureaucrats that are totally useless to the public) 

 Here are some of the best tweets

Trimetgeddon XI Clusterfuck continues causing human suffering

As always with these posts this is just a very small sampling of the suffering going on out there.

TRIMET PLAYED DIRTY TRICKS ON THE SETTLEMENT ATTORNEY TOO!

Trimet mocks us, this is how they roll.

Attorney Paul Breed who represented #trimet operators in the successful class action says Trimet violated agreement pic.twitter.com/BMYOZnzyKY

— AL M (@AlYourPalster) January 18, 2017

Someday Portland may grow up

Portland Fails To Clear Snow and Ice: Seattle SDOT Comes to the Rescue

After a major snow event earlier this week, with 6-15 inches over metropolitan Portland, primary and secondary roads are still in bad shape around Portland.  A few ODOT cam shots illustrate what I mean (click on them to expand):

It appears that the Portland road folks (PBOT), have followed the ineffective snow removal approach of Seattle's past mayor Greg Nickels, who lost his job because Seattle was unnecessarily crippled for over a week by impassable, rutted roads covered with ice.   Specifically, they did little pre-treatment before the storm and importantly did not use salt.   And Portland did not have enough equipment (only five decing trucks for example) and had to appeal to Seattle for help.

Seattle learned the hard way in 2008 that salt is really useful, particularly as a pre-treatment of roadway surfaces.  It can melt light snowfalls and prevents the development of a bonded ice layer for heavier snow...thus, making it easier to plow off.  If you want to view a very amusing analysis of the impacts of Seattle's reluctance to use salt and the positive effects of applying it, check out these videos by the "salt guru."

FULL POST  IS WORTH READING

Cliff Mass Weather Blog: Portland Fails To Clear Snow and Ice: Seattle SDOT Comes to the Rescue

Trimetgeddon XI ongoing and suffering continues

You may have read reports over mainstream media or some of the social media and even well respected transit consultants "congratulating" Trimet for the "wonderful job they are doing", unfortunately its complete rubbish.

Trimet and its "regional partners" like ODOT and PBOT are doing a miserable job during this last weather event. Roads are a mess, light rail is functioning but barely, and they still haven't figured out how to make bus tire chains that work.

Incredible suffering is happening in the community by both transit riders and Trimet employees. Trimet employees have the solace in knowing they have some decent overtime pay checks coming in at least.

Nobody knows where the battalion of Trimet executives, managers, coordinators, Information Technology, Capital Projects, Marketing and all the other people that make up the gated community known as Harrison Street are. My guess is most of them are home, the others in offices "directing" (if you want to call it that) from the safety of a heated office somewhere.

Below the break is what is REALLY happening out there. The stuff you will never hear from the mainstream. The mainstream that never stops trying to distort reality.

Too Funny

You gotta see this#trimet l pic.twitter.com/nYwKJzhq8p

— AL M (@AlYourPalster) January 14, 2017

Spoke to soon about Trimetgeddon XI winding down

http://koin.com/2017/01/13/max-train-derails-at-rose-quarter-causes-delays/

TriMet was communicating good, but...

A follow-up to The good and the bad of TriMet alerts

During the storm, TriMet had been doing a good job on Twitter, even promptly replying to me at 12:30 AM on a Sunday night, which I wasn't expecting (or really needed since it wasn't a time-sensitive matter).  They were also actively responding to people wanting to know where there bus was with specific information.

TRIMETGEDDON XI NOT winding down

Trimet's white Knight rides in for the rescue

That would Mr Jarrett Walker! 

Jarrett has this habit of showing up when Trimet is in the  public relations  toilet bowel.

Jarrett is a public transportation "guru" with a cult following. 

He is one of the leading figures in the neoliberal public transportation industrial complex and its army of overpaid ego inflated "professionals". 

Our lives as Americans are run by a series of Industrial complexes and each one of them have their very own 'think tanks'.

That's what Jarrett Walker is.

 He's on the payroll of numerous public transportation agencies in this country including Trimet. 

He's the last person to look at for unbiased opinions about Trimet.

I hate to attack Jarrett because I respect some of his work, but I lose respect for the man  when he comes up with FAKE NEWS like how wonderful Trimet did during this last storm.

It was a complete and total disaster yet he praises the wonderfulness of how Trimet performed.

It's just sad, very sad that he's so obvious a Trimet apologist.

 I'll never forget when he attacked KOIN for their story on Mcfarlanes Secret raises 

Pathetic is what it is

Tribute to Tom Hall

One of the truly great operators of all time and incredible man to associate with during my 15 years at Trimet was Tom Hall.

Many of us were shocked over his untimely death, another one completely out of the Blue

Rest in peace Tom

A couple good posts from Facebook

It really irks me every time we have this debate with management and supervisors.  "What did the operator do to escalate the situation?"

GRRRRrrrrrr.....

Trimet scanner headquarters is open

http://bit.ly/trimetscannerHQ

Trimet light rail VS pedestrian January 7

Mike Martin and Tom Hall

ATU757 contract proposals

CLICK HERE!

Trimet class action wraps up

Trimetgeddon number 10 wrapping up

And its the same old story. 

For someone like me its just business as usual, a total CLUSTERFUCK!

Using public transportation during these severe weather events is always risky, sometimes you get there in a timely manner other times you are stranded for hours in the elements. 

The problem really is that the transit district lies about what's really going on. 

They refuse to be honest in these situations. 

Its the same story EVERY SINGLE TIME. 

Nothing changes because the public is conditioned to accept crappy public transportation

Trimet's CHIEF OF STAFF addresses the huddled masses

Chief of Staff Insignia

Lane Jensen has developed a full news center for Trimet alerts

You can watch his live Trimet news center HERE! 
Periscope requires manually turning on sound to hear the scanner

Trimet vs ATU757

Click HERE for the latest ridiculous crap

The good and the bad of TriMet alerts

NOTE: See also the follow-up post TriMet was doing good, but...

When it comes to putting out service alerts, TriMet does some things good, some things not so good, and other things bad.  In addition, there are automated methods that could be implemented to make alert distribution uniformly good.

TriMet fare jumpers won’t be charged with Class A misdemeanors

CLICK HERE FOR FULL STORY

I'm not really sure what this is all about actually. 

I've been hearing loads of repeat violators getting up to a dozen cites or more and still having no fear of  riding Trimet and getting caught without a ticket.

 And its common so I don't know what's been going on over at these courthouses but the fare evasion policy as it is is definitely not deterring repeat fare evaders. 

The entire idea that $175 is some sort of fair penalty for evading a $2.50 fare is obscene.

Notice how there is no discussion of the low income pass, or reducing fares, or reducing fines.

Just 'we won't throw you in jail for life for evading at $2.50 fare. 

I don't know what to think anymore about anything.

If you peruse the Oregonian comments you will see that we have pretty much turned into a nation of heartless barbarians.

Trimet is a brutal place to find yourself

Margulies V Trimet; Settlement agreement

Trimet "fake news"

I know that most people that actually take the time to read my material already know that whatever comes out of Trimet public relations in the form of a press release or "fact check" is nothing but propaganda.  

There is no objective point of view when reading Trimet produced material, its all self serving. (it's not Trimet alone that does this, every governmental agency functions exactly as a corporate entity pushing their "brand". They never allow points of view that make them look bad)

I would also think that most people have figured out that mainstream media is really the "fake news" although they go to extraordinary lengths to justify themselves.

 The last election exposed them for who they are, people pushing the agenda of the power brokers and really have no clue as to what average Americans are thinking.

 The same is true here in Portland.

Take the class action settlement.