Trimess

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

AND NOW WE HAVE THE 3RD RAIL FAIL TODAY

Who is this guy and why does he hate Shelly Devine

I tried to ask him a question once, got a left field answer

The absolute stupidity of Portland's rail fetish

First it was the Yellow line now its the street car. Portland has one of the most unreliable transit systems now that they have put all their resources into rail.
Where would Portland be right now without its buses?


A streetcar sits helpless in the middle of the road like a beached whale

Trimet management does consipire to keep information from the public

An extremely reliable source says:

Trimet programmer told me that he was ordered to hide some delay/cancellation reasons

In this example we see that the 'official' explanation for the cancellation of 8 train 11 is 'operational' when the facts are that the bus was removed from the route for a Max bus bridge. It's an intentional distortion of facts

Classic tweets

Light rail snafu of the day



Monday, November 10, 2014

Latest "Best of the Trimet tweets"


Transit riders of  Portlandia take to twitter to express their  feelings about  Portland's 'world famous' transit system  (Known to the locals as THE TRIMESS ) And if you want to know what's REALLY going on at Trimet check out TRIMETSCANNER

Trimet big money jobs

If you know the right people you can join the the Trimet elites!

Bruce said he cared about the retirees

Smiling Bruce Hansen
In the post below  is a letter that Bruce sent out detailing his problems with Ron Heintzman.
He gave every indication that the contract dispute would end up in the hands of an arbitrator but we see now that it did not.

In the end Bruce Hansen gave Neil Mcfarlane (and his hired henchmen) everything he wanted, which was the so called 'sensible health care coverage'. (we have yet to see the details on this).

This is where my sense of shock comes in. We go five years fighting for what we have earned only to be undone from out of the blue. 

And to this day there is nothing in writing as to why we should be happy about this.
(other than if we don't take this we will have get no benefits etc)
Bruce claimed that he 'cared about retirees' but then he threw all of us under the bus.




We now know what this was about

When this originally came out I 100% was behind Bruce Hansen.
 Due to union secrecy I had no idea why Mr Heintzman was actually fired. 
Now that  we know the truth I retract my support for Bruce in this matter

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Union absurdity

According to our union more people voted yes on the contract that lowered our health benefits than voted yes to the contract that preserved our full benefits!

How crazy is that? 
And what does that mean about our current union membership?

 It also appears that the language is different on the 'Tracking faster' than the actual union contract
 

You will see in the picture below that the language has been changed from the original 
contract.
It says clearly that the $425,00 will be paid to members that paid in excess of 6% of the premium costs.
Nothing about any signing bonus. 
Is the union intentionally distorting this?




Max snafu of the day

Trimetized!


Friday, November 7, 2014

Merlo assistant station manager Larson at retirement ceremony

Greg Larson at Patti Pellegrins retirement
I have always found it curious that Mr Larson is always the master of ceremonies at the Trimet Merlo garage ceremonies.

Greg is not the station manager, he is (still) the assistant station manager. I'm coming up 3 years since I left Trimet and I see that he is still presiding over the ceremonies there.

So where is the station manager Romo? He's never the master of ceremonies.

The reason I bring this up is because I remember when Greg applied to be the station manager over at the Merlo garage. 

Trimet in their infinite wisdom passed him up for a guy from the military.

But the head guy never presides over these ceremonies. 

I know its just Trimess, why would they want to hire somebody into an authority position that the rank and file actually like?



Greatest Hits Songs of The Bus Driver


The Trimet 'con game'

What I'm referring to is the so called 'yellow card'. For those who do not know what that is its the method that drivers are told to use to report scheduling department failures.

The reason its a total con game is that Trimet is well aware when a schedule doesn't work. Trimet has one of the best Information Technology departments in the transit industry. They have all the data for all the routes at their disposal.

Yet operators are told to 'fill out a yellow card' (on their own time of course)  so as to bring the situation "to the attention of the schedulers."

It's nothing but a con game played on bus drivers. A yellow card doesn't tell them anything they don't already know. Below is an operator on his last nerve discussing a horrible schedule with a dispatcher who refers him to the 'yellow card'.

Be part of history?

1996-2015? This project took 20 years in total?

Yes all the employees, retirees and their families can 'be part of history' next August!
It's become very clear why the oligarchs chose Till-I-Cum bridge, cause of the
Bridge of the People nonsense. 
It's  very important not so subtle propaganda.

Another dumb naming contest

This time its for the state of the art electronic fare system.

 How bout 'ticket of the people' to go along with their silly 'bridge of the people'.

Yes the public eats this silly shit up with joy and excitement. 

Trimet manufactures  public consent for its $30 million dollar experiment.

When you look at their little 'survey' you can see they have already decided on a name.I admit I filled out the stupid survey and voted for umbrella, cause it was so 'cute'.

Fill out the survey HERE!

Trimet continues bucking the national trend

Audited ridership figures show that Trimet ridership actually lost ridership last year with a decline of .5% total ridership. Trimet ridership has been declining for several years now. Of course the powers that be are still trying to roll out 'its the GREAT RECESSION' as the reason for all these declines. 
Anybody with any brains knows that's a bunch of Bull Shit.
In reality its an objective measurement of Mcfarlane's failure as general manager.
But we all know it doesn't make any difference at all, he'll still get his raise on schedule.

Where is another Transit district that is bucking national trends?

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Will Mcfarlanes dirty tricks end?


Mcfarlane will probably achieve "guru" status among the transit establishment now that he has 'broken' the transit union. I can't wait to find out what kind of raise or bonus awaits him.

But lets do a quick review of this mans tactics over the last five years.

More classic tweets

Classic Tweets

Jarret Walker did an interesting interview in Kansas

He talked quite a bit about Portland of course.
He is a smart dude even if he is totally embedded in the establishment  transit culture.
Listen HERE!

Trimet boats are a big hit!