Official MTA BusTime Discussion

[Orion VII 4 Life]

I'm still interested if the Bus Company routes will get Bustime, guess we're about to find out. If they do, anyone think the Q50 would get it as well now that it's 100% based out of Eastchester?

[East New York]

I'm still interested if the Bus Company routes will get Bustime, guess we're about to find out. If they do, anyone think the Q50 would get it as well now that it's 100% based out of Eastchester?

 

 

Where have you been man? The entire MTA Bus Operations (TA/OA/BC) are going to BusTime. Again, MTA Bus operates as NYCT for all common purposes.

 

However, at the current time, BusTime gets an F in my book. Staten Island still remains the most unreliable division in the entire city. 90% of the buses run early, late, or just go missing all together. It has not improved much of anything on SI. I assumed buses would be more on schedule. I've been doing a 3 week long evaluation of SI buses and BusTime. I have never been more frustrated trying to catch a bus in my entire life. I really feel bad for the people of SI that have to rely on the worst service in the city. Buses running early are much worse that those running late. I noticed that many drivers dont even check their paddle. They just drive from end to end. What the point of bus time when the app only works have the time, is incorrect many times, and sometimes dont even show buses that may actually be coming. Bronx comes in at a close #2, and I no longer have any confidence that things will improve up there either.

 

BusTime? #FAIL

[Orion VII 4 Life]

Where have you been man? The entire MTA Bus Operations (TA/OA/BC) are going to BusTime. Again, MTA Bus operates as NYCT for all common purposes.

 

However, at the current time, BusTime gets an F in my book. Staten Island still remains the most unreliable division in the entire city. 90% of the buses run early, late, or just go missing all together. It has not improved much of anything on SI. I assumed buses would be more on schedule. I've been doing a 3 week long evaluation of SI buses and BusTime. I have never been more frustrated trying to catch a bus in my entire life. I really feel bad for the people of SI that have to rely on the worst service in the city. Buses running early are much worse that those running late. I noticed that many drivers dont even check their paddle. They just drive from end to end. What the point of bus time when the app only works have the time, is incorrect many times, and sometimes dont even show buses that may actually be coming. Bronx comes in at a close #2, and I no longer have any confidence that things will improve up there either.

 

BusTime? #FAIL

 

I always wanted the Clever Devices system tested on the M34/A to be the system for the whole city, we'd get countdown clocks, interior LED signs and automated announcements, and from what I've seen very accurate location of the buses.

 

The MTA is getting what they're paying for here with this in-house open source system.

[N4 Via Merrick Rd]

About damn time!!!

 

It makes me wonder if the MTA will one day kill paper schedules, with this?

 

Who Knows how much they'll save doing that.

[N4 Via Merrick Rd]

Instead of the countdown clocks in the subway they should have implemented this instead.

[Amtrak7]

Buses running early should never be a problem, nor should they be holding for time. Its always better to schedule a bit on the fast side, as kill-time increases the public perception of delay way beyond the actual hold time. Runtimes should be adjusted en masse as soon as enough data is collected. If the MTA's solution to this problem is to remove timepoints, they shouldn't even bother publishing a route-based schedule, just the guide-a-ride's.

 

Are there still drivers violating the rules and turning off BusTime so they aren't tracked?

[checkmatechamp13]

Buses running early should never be a problem, nor should they be holding for time. Its always better to schedule a bit on the fast side, as kill-time increases the public perception of delay way beyond the actual hold time. Runtimes should be adjusted en masse as soon as enough data is collected. If the MTA's solution to this problem is to remove timepoints, they shouldn't even bother publishing a route-based schedule, just the guide-a-ride's.

 

Are there still drivers violating the rules and turning off BusTime so they aren't tracked?

 

 

The problem is that if drivers are afraid to run early, how are you really supposed to get enough data? I mean, I guess if you see them holding for 5 minutes at a minor stop, you can assume they're killing time (or if they leave 5 minutes late and end up arriving at their endpoint on time, you can assume the same thing).

 

Out of curiosity, when the people lay out the schedules, do they drive the bus themselves, or do they watch as the B/O drives it? (I mean, I think that scheduling manual you sent me said something like "When the planner drives the route", but I'm asking if that's universal).

 

But otherwise, I agree. If you have buses running early or holding at timepoints on a regular basis, the runtime should be reduced.

[Amtrak7]

The problem is that if drivers are afraid to run early, how are you really supposed to get enough data? I mean, I guess if you see them holding for 5 minutes at a minor stop, you can assume they're killing time (or if they leave 5 minutes late and end up arriving at their endpoint on time, you can assume the same thing).

 

Out of curiosity, when the people lay out the schedules, do they drive the bus themselves, or do they watch as the B/O drives it? (I mean, I think that scheduling manual you sent me said something like "When the planner drives the route", but I'm asking if that's universal).

 

But otherwise, I agree. If you have buses running early or holding at timepoints on a regular basis, the runtime should be reduced.

 

 

Traffic checkers time the bus at timepoints to determine variances.

[SevenEleven]

nvm..

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Where have you been man? The entire MTA Bus Operations (TA/OA/BC) are going to BusTime. Again, MTA Bus operates as NYCT for all common purposes.

 

However, at the current time, BusTime gets an F in my book. Staten Island still remains the most unreliable division in the entire city. 90% of the buses run early, late, or just go missing all together. It has not improved much of anything on SI. I assumed buses would be more on schedule. I've been doing a 3 week long evaluation of SI buses and BusTime. I have never been more frustrated trying to catch a bus in my entire life. I really feel bad for the people of SI that have to rely on the worst service in the city. Buses running early are much worse that those running late. I noticed that many drivers dont even check their paddle. They just drive from end to end. What the point of bus time when the app only works have the time, is incorrect many times, and sometimes dont even show buses that may actually be coming. Bronx comes in at a close #2, and I no longer have any confidence that things will improve up there either.

 

BusTime? #FAIL

 

 

LOL... Now you see why I was so frustrated with the X10... Actually the X10 has been better with Bus Time in terms of not running early, but now they just come late and remain late. They never get back on schedule. During your accessment of the SI buses, which lines are you using? Some buses are actually really good with Bus Time like the X12, but I have heard of various complaints particularly from Mid Island and South Shore riders that say that they can't track the buses and they conveniently are MIA on Bus Time particularly at night.

 

As far as I'm concerned it's management on Staten Island that's the problem and what I can't understand is why isn't someone stepping in and getting those depots in line?? People complain like no tomorrow and there is only minimal improvement in service.

 

Also what lines are you evaluating in the Bronx??

 

To be honest as far as I'm concerned, bus service across the city has detoriariated significantly, but it is indeed worse in some areas than others.

[Cait Sith]

LOL... Now you see why I was so frustrated with the X10... Actually the X10 has been better with Bus Time in terms of not running early, but now they just come late and remain late. They never get back on schedule. During your accessment of the SI buses, which lines are you using? Some buses are actually really good with Bus Time like the X12, but I have heard of various complaints particularly from Mid Island and South Shore riders that say that they can't track the buses and they conveniently are MIA on Bus Time particularly at night.

 

 

I've had some pretty on-point reports from Bustime as well. Some lines are better with it than others, the S59, 62, 54 and S66 have been good to me with Bustime along with the S48 and S53. The 51 has been a hit or miss with me along with the S44 and S78. The worst by far would have to be my recent trips along the S40 route.

[Turbo19]

Buses running early should never be a problem, nor should they be holding for time. Its always better to schedule a bit on the fast side, as kill-time increases the public perception of delay way beyond the actual hold time. Runtimes should be adjusted en masse as soon as enough data is collected. If the MTA's solution to this problem is to remove timepoints, they shouldn't even bother publishing a route-based schedule, just the guide-a-ride's.

 

Are there still drivers violating the rules and turning off BusTime so they aren't tracked?

 

So you mean to tell me that for passengers to hold a positive perception of the system, reliability goes up the ass?

 

F-ed up logic if you ask me.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

I've had some pretty on-point reports from Bustime as well. Some lines are better with it than others, the S59, 62, 54 and S66 have been good to me with Bustime along with the S48 and S53. The 51 has been a hit or miss with me along with the S44 and S78. The worst by far would have to be my recent trips along the S40 route.

 

The thing that needs to be done when folks have problems on any route is to inform Bus Time. I had problems with buses not showing up on Bus Time and it was because the equipment malfunctioned (which seems to happen a lot) or wasn't installed. It's hard to tell what the cause is, but in one instance I was tracking an S54 one morning going towards West Brighton and when the bus reached the terminal, the bus disappeared off of the map and never reappeared even though I got him when he was going towards Eltingville. In that instance Bus Time informed me that it was a malfunction and the bus (an Excelsior) was repaired.

[NewFlyer 230]

I think that the MTA should continue with paper schedules and Guide A rides. What if you lack the technology? Not everyone has a phone and not everyone has a phone that is able to scan things .I don't think any buses older than 2003 will get the bustime installed in them. Now for MTA bus how well is it going to work out? Now the MTA is forced to convert and put up guide a rides at every stop. Routes like the Q25,Q8,Q6,Q7 have gotten the boxes in June and they still have nothing in them. How long does it take for them to put them up.

[Gotham Bus Co.]

No it's based on the borough. Since the Q44 and Q50 have a "Q" in front of their numbers, they are considered Queens routes, even though they also serve the Bronx.

 

 

No, it's based on the depot.

 

All buses in all Bronx Division depots will get BusTime equipment. Therefore, both M100 (KB) and Q50 (EC) will have BusTime-equipped buses. Queens Division does not yet have BusTime equipment, so Q44 will not be live yet.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

No, it's based on the depot.

 

All buses in all Bronx Division depots will get BusTime equipment. Therefore, both M100 (KB) and Q50 (EC) will have BusTime-equipped buses. Queens Division does not yet have BusTime equipment, so Q44 will not be live yet.

 

 

Well if that's the case then that makes sense because all of the buses from Bronx Division Depots would naturally have the tracking device.

[qjtransitmaster]

I think that the MTA should continue with paper schedules and Guide A rides. What if you lack the technology? Not everyone has a phone and not everyone has a phone that is able to scan things .I don't think any buses older than 2003 will get the bustime installed in them. Now for MTA bus how well is it going to work out? Now the MTA is forced to convert and put up guide a rides at every stop. Routes like the Q25,Q8,Q6,Q7 have gotten the boxes in June and they still have nothing in them. How long does it take for them to put them up.

 

This will not be an issue 3 years from now. Or 5 years the market for regular phones is rapidly dissapearing soon basic phones will not exist in the US.

[East New York]

LOL... Now you see why I was so frustrated with the X10... Actually the X10 has been better with Bus Time in terms of not running early, but now they just come late and remain late. They never get back on schedule. During your accessment of the SI buses, which lines are you using? Some buses are actually really good with Bus Time like the X12, but I have heard of various complaints particularly from Mid Island and South Shore riders that say that they can't track the buses and they conveniently are MIA on Bus Time particularly at night.

 

As far as I'm concerned it's management on Staten Island that's the problem and what I can't understand is why isn't someone stepping in and getting those depots in line?? People complain like no tomorrow and there is only minimal improvement in service.

 

Also what lines are you evaluating in the Bronx??

 

To be honest as far as I'm concerned, bus service across the city has detoriariated significantly, but it is indeed worse in some areas than others.

 

 

 

Staten Island routes evaluated: S40, 44, 46, 48, 52, 53, 54, 61, 62, 74, 76, 78, 79, 79SBS, 86, 90, 93, x1, x2, x10, x12

Bronx routes evaluated: Bx1, 2, 6, 8, 12, 12SBS, 13, 15, 19, 22, 23, 26, 28, 30, 32, 33, 35, 36, 38, 39, 41, 42, 55, BxM7, BxM11

 

There could be various reasons as to why service is the way it is on Staten Island. I don't want to speculate just yet, but I am trying to find out what's going on.

 

But yes, it does appear that there are definitely service reliability issues in the Bronx, and SI

[Via Garibaldi 8]

 

 

 

Staten Island routes evaluated: S40, 44, 46, 48, 52, 53, 54, 61, 62, 74, 76, 78, 79, 79SBS, 86, 90, 93, x1, x2, x10, x12

Bronx routes evaluated: Bx1, 2, 6, 8, 12, 12SBS, 13, 15, 19, 22, 23, 26, 28, 30, 32, 33, 35, 36, 38, 39, 41, 42, 55, BxM7, BxM11

 

There could be various reasons as to why service is the way it is on Staten Island. I don't want to speculate just yet, but I am trying to find out what's going on.

 

But yes, it does appear that there are definitely service reliability issues in the Bronx, and SI

 

You already stated what the problem is. The B/Os are just driving and not holding to the schedule. Then you have some that hold to it religiously. I have a guy right now that is really pissing me off. Extremely early and I've started calling the depot to complain because dispatch isn't doing their job. So now every time this guy is early I have dispatch radio him to see where his position is and he's well ahead of where he should be and if that doesn't work then I'll go to my next plan. He's leaving folks behind and increasing my commte significantly. Right now I should be on my way to dinner and I'm still schlepping home.

[East New York]

You already stated what the problem is. The B/Os are just driving and not holding to the schedule. Then you have some that hold to it religiously. I have a guy right now that is really pissing me off. Extremely early and I've started calling the depot to complain because dispatch isn't doing their job. So now every time this guy is early I have dispatch radio him to see where his position is and he's well ahead of where he should be and if that doesn't work then I'll go to my next plan. He's leaving folks behind and increasing my commte significantly. Right now I should be on my way to dinner and I'm still schlepping home.

 

 

This one is a real grey area. You have B/O's who just don't follow schedules, and you have shedules that can't be followed. Some schedules that operators are giver are vertually inpossible to keep unless you run a little early. This is especially true with many Brooklyn and Queens routes. However, I have noticed a trend in Staten Island when the bus driver pulls off from the first stop on the line on schedules, then drive the entire route like he/she are on a freeway. Buy the time they get halfway through the line they are passing the 5 minute early line. At this point, when many Staten Islanders think their run went MIA, it realy didnt. It was just early.

 

Example: I know for a fact that when I just got off the S74, it was supposed to take longer than 6 minutes for me to get to my destination from the Ferry at 2am. There is no traffic, not many people getting on or off the bus, and he's got the pedal to the floor from the time he pulled off. It's true those are my favorite types of drivers, but thats when you need to leave the ferry 5 minutes late if you want to do that after hours when you only have so many buses running at a time.

 

The worse experience I have had by far was waiting for a Bx21 if I recall correctly About 4 of us were at the bus stop at jsut before 11pm. The buses were scheduled for something like 11:01, 11:21, 11:41, and 12:01. Not one of those buses ever showed up, and 12:01 was the last bus of the evening.

 

If you could literally see smoke come out of people ears, It would have been all of us at the bus stop. At that tome of night options are very limited, and it often takes twice as long if forced onto a train and another bus.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

This one is a real grey area. You have B/O's who just don't follow schedules, and you have shedules that can't be followed. Some schedules that operators are giver are vertually inpossible to keep unless you run a little early. This is especially true with many Brooklyn and Queens routes. However, I have noticed a trend in Staten Island when the bus driver pulls off from the first stop on the line on schedules, then drive the entire route like he/she are on a freeway. Buy the time they get halfway through the line they are passing the 5 minute early line. At this point, when many Staten Islanders think their run went MIA, it realy didnt. It was just early.

 

Example: I know for a fact that when I just got off the S74, it was supposed to take longer than 6 minutes for me to get to my destination from the Ferry at 2am. There is no traffic, not many people getting on or off the bus, and he's got the pedal to the floor from the time he pulled off. It's true those are my favorite types of drivers, but thats when you need to leave the ferry 5 minutes late if you want to do that after hours when you only have so many buses running at a time.

 

The worse experience I have had by far was waiting for a Bx21 if I recall correctly About 4 of us were at the bus stop at jsut before 11pm. The buses were scheduled for something like 11:01, 11:21, 11:41, and 12:01. Not one of those buses ever showed up, and 12:01 was the last bus of the evening.

 

If you could literally see smoke come out of people ears, It would have been all of us at the bus stop. At that tome of night options are very limited, and it often takes twice as long if forced onto a train and another bus.

 

 

I know exactly what you're talking about with the SI routes and it's almost like playing a game to see who can outsmart the other one. lol When Bus Time does work, it has helped to at least know if the bus came already and also to see just what drivers are doing. You should sit down one day and track some of those SI buses and you'd be amazed to see what goes on. Many of them come early and not just a few minutes either. I've seen some arrive some 10 - 15 minutes early and with Bus Time you can visually see it now.

 

The S54 is infamous for this at night particularly certain runs and I always thought they were just MIA. One trick that has been working is calling the depot though. Coming back from the city last night my bus was almost 30 minutes late and it was the last bus, so I called the depot because I was thinking I was going to have to change up my whole commute. The guy who answered the phone started radioing to see who does that run. I take that bus sometimes but they change drivers so much that you don't know who is doing what run, so when the dispatcher was asking me who usually does the run I couldn't say. Anywho, I've had the guy several times. Real cool guy. He got caught up in traffic or something, so the dispatcher told the B/O to let me ride for free which was nice since my Unlimited had expired and I'm using a Pay-Per-Ride for a few days since I'm probably going to take off a few days.

 

What you experienced with that Bronx bus I experienced for years on the B4. When I attended the Town Hall Meeting to push for the B4 restoration, many folks stated that they found out that drivers were pulled from the B4 to work on other lines. I guess the feeling was that the B4 could afford to lose runs to more important routes. Perhaps something similar happened with the Bx21.

 

The X16 was another line that had this problem. You either had MIA buses or B/Os that simply didn't know the route and literally were bypassing stops (not on purpose) but simply starting their run further Downtown than what they should've been or just passing stops altogether. This is I found out standing at the first stop one afternoon. We waited for an hour while two X16s were scheduled. Eventually I saw a dispatcher at the corner of Broadway and Worth and decided to walk down there with a few other folks to see what was going on. We learned what I mentioned above. Once the dispatcher found out, he let all of us ride for free, but meanwhile two buses had not started at Worth like they should've which meant some folks gave up and went to another line or were pissed. These are the things that they should be using Bus Time for so that there's more accountability and not just having folks wait while 3 or 4 buses go MIA with no answers as to why.

 

Your other point about some run times being impossible to hold to is also true. It seems like sometimes they add way too much time to some runs and not enough to others. When they get complaints of buses coming early or constantly late, they should be looking at those lines and saying how can we adjust them so that they can be more efficient in being on time.

[checkmatechamp13]

This one is a real grey area. You have B/O's who just don't follow schedules, and you have shedules that can't be followed. Some schedules that operators are giver are vertually inpossible to keep unless you run a little early. This is especially true with many Brooklyn and Queens routes. However, I have noticed a trend in Staten Island when the bus driver pulls off from the first stop on the line on schedules, then drive the entire route like he/she are on a freeway. Buy the time they get halfway through the line they are passing the 5 minute early line. At this point, when many Staten Islanders think their run went MIA, it realy didnt. It was just early.

 

 

What I've always thought should happen on some SI routes is that the buses that don't meet a ferry should be moved back by about 5 minutes or so. So for instance, on some lines, you have buses that leave on the :00s, :15s, :30s, & :45s (during middays). As you probably know, off-peak, the ferry runs every 30 minutes, so the buses leaving on the :15s & :45s don't have to deal with crowds from the ferry riders. As a result, they either have to drag the line, or they floor it and get ahead of schedule.

 

If they were moved back by about 5 minutes, you'd get a few more minutes worth of passengers building up at stops down the line, and you'd probably be able to cut back on some runtime as well, so it reaches its terminal at the time it was originally scheduled.

 

So take the S74 for example: You have a 1:30PM bus leaving St. George that arrives at the ETC at 2:19, and then a 1:45PM bus that arrives at 2:34. The 1:45 bus doesn't meet a ferry and it's a short-turn, so you see slightly fewer passengers because you're not getting those going west of the ETC (Ridership west of the ETC isn't too high, but it would make a small difference). So you could move the 1:45PM bus up to leave at 1:50PM, and still have it arrive at the ETC at 2:34. Even though the buses leave staggered, you end up with a consistant headway further down the line, because the 1:45 driver should (key word) have less to deal with than the 1:30 driver.

 

You could do this with at higher headways as well (instead of having a 20 minutes gap and 10 minute gap, you'd have a 40 minute gap and 20 minute gap), when the ferry is running every hour, but the buses are running every half hour (speaking of which, we really need more frequent ferry service weekend evenings. It's ridiculous to have hourly service after 7:30). Of course, this all depends on the specific route. If you take a route that's fairly heavy from end-to-end (like the S48), you might only need to move buses back by a minute or two.

 

For the late night buses, there's no other real solution besides cutting down the runtime (which of course, isn't a bad thing by any means). I mean, at certain times of the day, there's definitely too much runtime. No way does it take 29 minutes for the S44 to get from Port Richmond Avenue to St. George at 7AM.

[GreatOne2k]

 

The worse experience I have had by far was waiting for a Bx21 if I recall correctly About 4 of us were at the bus stop at jsut before 11pm. The buses were scheduled for something like 11:01, 11:21, 11:41, and 12:01. Not one of those buses ever showed up, and 12:01 was the last bus of the evening.

 

 

Bx21 runs 24/7

[NewFlyer 230]

 

 

What I've always thought should happen on some SI routes is that the buses that don't meet a ferry should be moved back by about 5 minutes or so. So for instance, on some lines, you have buses that leave on the :00s, :15s, :30s, & :45s (during middays). As you probably know, off-peak, the ferry runs every 30 minutes, so the buses leaving on the :15s & :45s don't have to deal with crowds from the ferry riders. As a result, they either have to drag the line, or they floor it and get ahead of schedule.

 

If they were moved back by about 5 minutes, you'd get a few more minutes worth of passengers building up at stops down the line, and you'd probably be able to cut back on some runtime as well, so it reaches its terminal at the time it was originally scheduled.

 

So take the S74 for example: You have a 1:30PM bus leaving St. George that arrives at the ETC at 2:19, and then a 1:45PM bus that arrives at 2:34. The 1:45 bus doesn't meet a ferry and it's a short-turn, so you see slightly fewer passengers because you're not getting those going west of the ETC (Ridership west of the ETC isn't too high, but it would make a small difference). So you could move the 1:45PM bus up to leave at 1:50PM, and still have it arrive at the ETC at 2:34. Even though the buses leave staggered, you end up with a consistant headway further down the line, because the 1:45 driver should (key word) have less to deal with than the 1:30 driver.

 

You could do this with at higher headways as well (instead of having a 20 minutes gap and 10 minute gap, you'd have a 40 minute gap and 20 minute gap), when the ferry is running every hour, but the buses are running every half hour (speaking of which, we really need more frequent ferry service weekend evenings. It's ridiculous to have hourly service after 7:30). Of course, this all depends on the specific route. If you take a route that's fairly heavy from end-to-end (like the S48), you might only need to move buses back by a minute or two.

 

For the late night buses, there's no other real solution besides cutting down the runtime (which of course, isn't a bad thing by any means). I mean, at certain times of the day, there's definitely too much runtime. No way does it take 29 minutes for the S44 to get from Port Richmond Avenue to St. George at 7AM.

 

This is a big problem on Queens. You can see Q17,Q27, go by every few minutes especially on the weekend and most of them are empty. And then you have routes like the Q77 or Q88 that run late and are crowded and need the extra buses sometime don't have them. On Saturdays the Q17 runs every 6-7 minutes and the buses are mostly empty. Then you have the Q88 running every 15 minutes and mostly they are late and crowded. Instead have the Q17 run the 12-15 minutes and have the Q88 run 8-10 minutes. It can be a real pain when your bus shows up late and you need to transfer and when you get to the next bus train, ferry and you miss it by a few minutes and have to wait 20 or 30 minutes for it to come. Most MTAB routes have that problem. The headways need to be fixed to meet up with ridership.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

This one is a real grey area. You have B/O's who just don't follow schedules, and you have shedules that can't be followed. Some schedules that operators are giver are vertually inpossible to keep unless you run a little early. This is especially true with many Brooklyn and Queens routes. However, I have noticed a trend in Staten Island when the bus driver pulls off from the first stop on the line on schedules, then drive the entire route like he/she are on a freeway. Buy the time they get halfway through the line they are passing the 5 minute early line. At this point, when many Staten Islanders think their run went MIA, it realy didnt. It was just early.

 

Example: I know for a fact that when I just got off the S74, it was supposed to take longer than 6 minutes for me to get to my destination from the Ferry at 2am. There is no traffic, not many people getting on or off the bus, and he's got the pedal to the floor from the time he pulled off. It's true those are my favorite types of drivers, but thats when you need to leave the ferry 5 minutes late if you want to do that after hours when you only have so many buses running at a time.

 

The worse experience I have had by far was waiting for a Bx21 if I recall correctly About 4 of us were at the bus stop at jsut before 11pm. The buses were scheduled for something like 11:01, 11:21, 11:41, and 12:01. Not one of those buses ever showed up, and 12:01 was the last bus of the evening.

 

If you could literally see smoke come out of people ears, It would have been all of us at the bus stop. At that tome of night options are very limited, and it often takes twice as long if forced onto a train and another bus.

 

I found out something very interesting... So apparently in some instances, the B/Os may not know their actual schedules. They changed the schedule and apparently some drivers don't know, so I called the depot about the problem and spoke with a dispatcher who said he would look into the issue. Turns out that the B/O didn't even know about the fact that they had been given more run time so she's been coming a good 10 minutes early except for when there is heavy traffic. The dispatcher just told her to leave her terminal later from now on.