This last MAX fatality the driver never even knew she hit someone

Audio from driver below the break

Neils Bullshit

This is a great example of the kind of bullshit that comes out of Mcfarlane's mouth during these board meetings. Nobody knows anything about Trimet's "fare subsidy" program and there is no place to find out about it either. Nothing on the Trimet website which would be the most obvious place for information to be posted.

The thing about Trimet's 'fare subsidy" program is that it is only available to AGENCIES not people. People have to go through various non profit agencies to get discounted passes and/or tickets. But where do you find out about that? I have yet to see even one place where this information is distributed.

Sapporta and Lomax talk about Trimet fatalities

Sandi Day says she was tortured by Trimet managers after her incident

We know these board meeting are highly scripted. 

We also know that every member of the Trimet staff that speaks at these board meetings will only give the side of the story that supports Trimet managers.

You will never hear one negative thing about Trimet coming from any Trimet manager at these meetings so these "official" meetings  are of limited value after the public hearing part. It's basically a "cheer leading" session where Trimet managers blow their own horns and the Trimet 'board' members utter various platitudes. 

I have no way to verify that anything that Sapporta or Lomax says is the truth. 

I was never involved in any accidents so I have no real life experience in fatalities. 
 My only real experience in the realm of media was the SANDI DAY INCIDENT and Sandi gave a totally opposite opinion of her experience than what Lomax is presenting. 
All of the managers that were involved with Sandi Day are still managers at Trimet today. 
When you listen to the Trimet managers everything is wonderful in Trimet land.
When you listen to the employees (who have no voice) things are not so wonderful.

So do we believe Lomax or not? From what I hear no.

Also all the American public transit agencies refuse to put in pedestrian barriers due to "costs".
Interestingly they do that in Asia but not here.
Of course all these fatalities are blamed on the citizens that get killed or injured basically because "they didn't look". 
Surface light rail is well known to be a hazard to the citizenry, both pedestrians and in automobiles 

Public transit in the USA says this safety feature it too expensive

Trimet light rail claims another citizen

American public transit operates totally opposite from the public airline industry

Public transportation is responsible for more lives than the airline industry is, yet public transportation operates on a completely different philosophy. 

In the video clip below what the airline industry figured out, and what public transportation industry has not figured out, is that trying to place blame when things go wrong creates a culture of deceit.

It's unfortunate that drivers in places like Trimet have to put up with this destructive culture

Hatchet man Randy Stedmen retaliates against Trimet retirees for the election of Shirley Block

Stedmen, a well know liar and union buster, puts forth the phony argument that he is worried about his employee being 'harassed' after the first meeting with Shirley Block. 

Imagine if bus drivers made these sorts of complaints about their working conditions. They would be fired immediately. 

This is the kind of thing that Stedmen does, with the full approval of that sack of shit who attempts to hide behind him,  Neil Mcfarlane.

Odd service alerts

#17 Your relief might be a couple mins late due to the line 17 being late. Please hold a couple mins for her. Thanks.
http://twitter.com/unTriMetAlerts/status/685630095340376064

#19 Line 19 due to multiple cars parking on 23rd to Union Manor do NOT service Union Manor until further notice.
http://twitter.com/unTriMetAlerts/status/684794338866409472

#63 No service to stops between the Oregon Zoo and SW 18th & Salmon.  Buses use Hwy 26.
http://twitter.com/unTriMetAlerts/status/684775446655832064
[what's the point of the route then, since you could just take MAX?]

#47 Rock Creek Buses check your reroutes for changes: LINE 47 #101, Line 52 #103, Line 67 #104.
http://twitter.com/unTriMetAlerts/status/684765386286342144

#trimet #8 Line 8 Short line at Caruthers DO NOT GO UP THE HILL. for the rest of the service.
http://twitter.com/unTriMetAlerts/status/683863444194328580

King Neil escapes again

Mcfarlane is the undisputed champion of finding ways to blame everything that happens at "his" agency on other people.

Problems with his employees, he goes out and hires a professional hit-man, RANDY STEDMEN. Mcfarlane can now pretend that he is Mr Nice guy even though Stedmen gets his direction from him.

In the case of his failing transit operations, he went out and dug up his old buddy BOB NELSON  to take all the heat for all the operations failures.

Well Good old Bob decided to get out of town lately most likely because things just got worse and worse since he got there. So Mcfarlane got this new guy from Canada DOUG  KELSEY. Well Doug was basically BOOTED OUT OF CANADA after the defeat of the transit referendum up there and good old Neil hired him for Trimet.

Today we have the OREGONIAN STORY about how max reliability is down the tubes and guess what? We have good old Doug taking the heat for all the MAX screw ups and once again Neil Mcfarlane is off the hook.

King Neil is in charge but all he wants to do is sit on the throne and be adored by all his minions. Heaven forbid he should have to take any responsibility for anything that screws up during his reign.

And the mainstream media gives him a pass, as usual.

Trimet Max reliability down the tubes along with safety

http://www.oregonlive.com/commuting/index.ssf/2016/01/max_trains_reach_a_new_low_for.html#incart_river_home

Yup

ATU757 LM-2

Federal report on union expenses

Trimet light rail safety record has gone down the tubes

#trimet max safety record has gone down the tubes pic.twitter.com/hoBNXWLhDN

— AL M (@AlYourPalster) January 7, 2016

Make sure to check in on these EXCELLENT Trimet bus driver blogs

Portland's Roll Easy Blog

From the Driver Side

 

Trimet Managers harassing Trimet employees

I can vouch for the frustration of this Trimet employee in the audio clip. My theory here is that these Trimet managers are intentionally trying to provoke the employee into an outburst or causing them to screw something up during their work-shift. 

The Trimet managers used to call me in to these meetings that were nothing but complete bullshit head games then send me out to work my shift. My mind would be boiling during the shift with anger. I got to thinking about it and that's when it became obvious to me.

The Trimet managers wanted me out of there but I was (unfortunately for them) one of the most skilled drivers at Trimet. Not only was I technically proficient in the operation of a bus I was very well liked by the riders. Trimet had nothing on me there and trying to fire me because of my blogging activity could have turned into a major news story, something they fear more than anything. 

So what could they do? Intentionally attempt to provoke me into an outburst and claim "insubordination" or hope that I would do something stupid during the work shift that they could use against me. None of those things happened but I got the hell out of there as quickly as I could the day I turned 58.

And here we have another Trimet employee going through this type of harassment 

Listen Here!

No transit management could be so insanely ignorant to not understand that to upset a 'safety sensitive' employee in the middle of their shift could cause safety issues? Could this possibly be gross incompetence on the part of the Trimet managers? (these people are extremely stupid for sure) 
Nah it has to be intentional.

Look at the difference between ATU757 newsletter and ATU587 newsletter

Who will be the next victim of poor bus design?

The Deadly Blind "spot" on Transit Buses

 An example of the universal concern pertaining to the left mirror and A-pillar issue:  just as those operators associated with TriMet raise concerns over the flippant attitude of managers dismissing the importance of this issue, an operator at King County Metro has the same concerns over the new Proterra coaches about to be tested in the Seattle area.  This letter from an anonymous operator published in the Local 587 newsletter, is calling Metro out on this issue in the same frustrated manner as those at TriMet anguish about the same concerns:

http://www.cptdb.ca/index.php?showtopic=16092&page=8#entry717847 

It's absolutely sickening that managers at transit agencies can't grasp the concept.  They should make it a priority to work with the ATU International and with bus manufacturers to reduce the size of the left mirror and alter its mounting position along with bus manufacturers reducing the width of the A-pillar.  I can't believe that these educated and highly-paid managers can't understand that many lives will be saved by just making some rather simple changes.  Again 1) reducing the size of the left mirror and alter its mounting position and, 2) forcing bus manufacturers to reduce the width of the A-pillar ...bus manufacturers do not understand the importance this simple alteration will make and it's totally achievable with today's engineering technology.

Trimet rider calls out Trimet fascism

Interestingly I had quite a spirited discussion with some tri-Met employees regarding the testimony below. It was somewhat disappointing but not something that I was shocked by. After spending 15 years at tri-Met I've come to expect some of this heartlessness. I was always surprised by the amount of people employed at tri-met who seem to have zero empathy for the riding public. I find it similar to the lack of empathy trimet managers have for their union employees. Brutality is institutionalized in American public transit agencies. There's a psychological analogy, when the dad beats the kid The kid kicks the dog.

The best of the Trimet tweets during the latest "weather event"

Riding American public transportation can be a traumatizing experience. Plenty of suffering happening when things and/or weather doesn't go the usual way.

Actually Trimet was as good as could be expected. The buses were a disaster because the roads are not cleared. Buses can't run on ice. The city, county, and state do a pretty miserable job of clearing the roads, always been that way. Can't blame Trimet if the roads aren't clear. Never understood why the agencies can't make sure the bus routes are clear during these events. Obviously the technocrats in charge don't care about it.

MAX service ran decently. There was no more snow or ice storms so keeping MAX going was routine and Trimet did do that job properly. MAX service was late but more reliable than bus service.

There were more positive tweets than usual. I'm always suspicious about that especially the way some of the positive tweets are worded. All in all the public is grateful for any service they get in these conditions.

Trimet twitter person was up at 5:30 am responding to tweets. We all know that's an act of public relations but it does ease the pain of the stranded riders

The  only real hero's in this situation are the Trimet union employees. They are the only ones out there doing the work. Trimet executives, managers, who knows what they are doing during these events. We know one thing for sure, you won't see any of them out there doing anything needed like applying ice melt to the transit centers.
I bet all the information/technology people got to stay home along with the marketing and capital projects people. 
Trimet is truly a class existence, union employees on the very bottom. 

Funny exchange betweet Trimet rider, Trimet, and several tweeters about training that operators get for winter

As all of us current and former Trimet  bus drivers know there is no actual training for snow and ice conditions. A rider, stunned at all the buses spinning out, asked Trimet what kind of training drivers get. I answered none, and then another person said none. Then Trimet twitter chimed in and said that all the drivers did get "inclement weather" training. We all know that's bullshit. The conversation is noted below the break and at the bottom of the post are the "real" directions on how to drive in snow and ice.  Trimet does not teach any of that.
 

Pictures of the ice event

Snow Man at Trimet headquarters

Classic Tweets

off-duty #trimet employee hit #trimet bus that had hit #trimet shelter while #trimet supervisor was investigating

— TriMet Scanner (@trimetscanner) January 3, 2016

I wonder how Randy Stedmen has time to operate his own business

#trimet's Randy Stedmen has time to run his own business on the side pic.twitter.com/RK40JKpjMQ

— AL M (@AlYourPalster) January 3, 2016

Bill Wilmer slams Joe Esmonde

And boy is Bill right about this. Esmonde has done ZERO in the way of standing up for any union employees at Trimet. Thank you for calling out this hack Bill!

Shirley Block on the plight of the Trimet retirees

It appears once again that the Trimet scum bags (Mcfarlane and his henchman Stedmen) were unhappy with our new president and took to collective punishment of union members in retaliation. This is a pattern we have seen over and over with Trimet executives. In this case they penalized the Trimet union retirees. These Trimet executives get away with so much unscrupulous behavior its actually shocking. 

Trimet rings In the new year