A Saturday Evening LTC Story

March 23, 2008 - 1:11am — Greg Fowler
in

Let’s pick this story up as I leave the Chapters book store on Wellington Road S. I head over to the transit shelter to wait for the Wellington northbound and arrive there at 9:45 p.m.

 

There’s a bench in this shelter, which isn’t often the case, but it’s too cold to sit on. Standing wasn’t too much of a problem for the first 20 minutes, but then it started to rapidly take it’s toll on my bum knee. And I’d had to start shuffling to stay warm by this time, which didn’t help matters a lot.

The Wellington #242 finally arrived at 10:35 p.m., temporarily ending my agony. Receiving my transfer, and aware of the sad reality that there’s no Baseline service in the evenings, I asked for advice on how to best get the rest of the way home to Eagle Crescent in the shortest time.

“Where’s Eagle Crescent?” asked the operator. “East of Adelaide and north off Commissioners” I replied. “Well then,” says she, “you have to go downtown and transfer to the Westmount.”

I guess it’s a good thing that I wasn’t from out of town or newly moved here, but it seemed of no consolation at the time. “I know better than that. Try again,” says I.

After consulting with her dispatcher, the operator informed me that my best course of action would be to transfer to the #1 King Edward. So, off I hopped at Wellington/Raywood at 10:48 p.m., still chilled, and began another wait.

22 cold minutes later, the King Edward bus #467 finally arrived at 11:10 p.m., and my journey resumed. Over to Thompson Road, north on Pond Mills, and east to the terminal point where we arrived at 11:22 p.m.

Having grabbed himself a Timmie’s beverage and attended to whatever else he may have had to do, the driver returned and off we went at 11:31 p.m.

West along Commissioners to King Edward, where I exited at 11:34 p.m. Through the tunnel walkway to Eagle, necessary but uncomfortable after dusk, and up the hill to the my end of the street. Home at last, at 11:48 p.m.

Total time waiting for buses, 72 minutes. Total actual travelling time on the buses, 28 minutes. Time waiting for the driver to have his break, 9 minutes. Time walking from the bus stop to home, 14 minutes. Total trip time by LTC, 2 hours and 3 minutes. Total trip time by automobile, about 10 minutes.

After reading this and some of my previous LTC experiences, can you fault me for thinking that Larry Ducharme and John Ford ought to have their asses fired for incompetence?

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March 23, 2008 - 8:19pm — Jeremy McNaughton
Jeremy McNaughton's picture

breaks

As a fellow LTC rider, I feel your pain.  It takes way to long to get around on the bus in the evening and on weekends. 

It's no wonder that more people don't ride the bus.

One thing I wanted to point out --that had to be pointed out to me once--is that bus drivers deserve their breaks.  The rest of us workers enjoy our breaks, bus drivers should too as hard as it is to watch them relax when we're in a hurry sometimes.

 

March 24, 2008 - 5:52pm — Greg Fowler
Greg Fowler's picture

Lack of LTC Transparency

 Hi Jer,

Workers certainly do deserve regular breaks. It's a win-win, for them and for those that they're working for. Studies abound which show a net increase in productivity.

However, I do have some concern (borne out of personal experience)  about when/where they take those breaks. Since most transfers occur at major intersections, it seems logical to me that breaks should occur after arriving at one of those, when possible.

I've had some success getting info from the LTC, but there are also lots of things that they're pretty tight-lipped about. And this is one of them. And Local 741's Steve Holmes has been totally unresponsive. 

In this latest incident, the 9 minutes which the operator spent on a break was of no concern to me. Even the travelling time wasn't too much of an aggravation, although I think it's inexcusable that the major east-west Commissioners Rd. corridor is so poorly served. No, it was the amount of time I had to spend waiting out in the cold that was too hard to excuse.

I know that I keep repeating some of the same refrains here and elsewhere, but I'll keep harping as long as I think it's deserved. Like my contention that we'd have a much more usable public transit system if the politicians and LTC administrators actually used it on a regular basis, instead of just pocketing some very envious amounts of change for sitting around tables making the decisions that impact our daily lives. 

Greg. 

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From My Bottom Step
personal opinion from the perspective of a London, Ontario community activist