More STM events

In an earlier post, I thought that it would have been interesting to start a new blog and document every time the STM did something stupid or wrong... But I never got it started... I guess I will just post here and add it to the plethora of postings about many things.

If I had a dime for every time a bus did not show up, or was early, or was late, I think I would be a millionaire by now... Or at least have enough money for All-you-can-eat sushi...

Yesterday, July 8, 2011, I was meeting a friend downtown. I needed to take the 66 bus downtown at 8:07 p.m.. I got to the stop and the bus was approaching. However, it took off in my face because "the driver didn't see me"... Even as I ran after it with my hands up in the air and the "What the fuck?!!" face on my head. There was a stop that was within running distance on this route, so I decided to run to the next stop. However, no avail. The traffic lights were against me. I was about three-quarters of the way there when the light turned green and the driver of this bus just took off like a driver in Mariokart.

Then today, July 9, 2011, I was on my way to work. Since I had an experience yesterday with the whole missing the bus thing, I decided that I would go earlier to the stop today, to avoid the bus being early... Especially since I count on this bus to make my connection to go teach my fitness class this morning. Guess what happens? The bus was early, once again. This time, screwing me over. I was not able to run after the bus this time because it was too fast and it came way too early... It was already well past the running distance for the next stop. So, I had to walk to the metro. Of course, the metro station that I normally would use is closed for the summer, because there are major renovations going on. I didn't bother with the shuttle service, I just walked to the metro station after the one I would normally use, since that's where the shuttle bus would take me anyway. Of course, I was about 15 minutes late getting to the gym and I started class late.

Why did I choose to avoid the shuttle, you ask? Well, the way that the STM decided to create the route of the shuttle to help service the metro station that is shut down is the following: They have a route that connects the station in question, the station after that, and two stations after that... Any normal person would think that you would create a shuttle that services the station before and the station after so that the people can take the shuttle to whichever station would be faster for them...

I have also given up on writing customer service. It appears that nothing gets done, even though I am assured that all of the comments are read and that people are dealt with. In fact, I had a driver tell me that I need to write customer service so that the STM knows, so that they can deal with the bad apples in the system.

The STM wants to invest in a system where there's a GPS on the bus, so that it shows the driver where he/she is along the route and whether he is ahead of schedule, on time or behind schedule. It also lets the clients know... I think this is a complete waste of money. It's never the driver's fault in Montreal for the STM. If they are early, it's not their fault. (It's supposedly their fault, but I have yet to see a driver be disciplined for it) If they are late, it's not their fault. If they don't show up, it's not their fault. So, with this system in place, it's not their fault if they are early or late, so why bother putting the system in place? Save the money and lower our fares, I say!

In fact, I am so annoyed about this that I am considering writing an editorial to one of the newspapers distributed in the metro and bus system.