Over the past four years, I've been blessed with some fantastic drivers on the 90A. Unfortunately, most have heard or have been told who I am, either by description or by stop, and have been hesitant to tell me their names. I don't want a name so I can lampoon you online. I want a name so when I run into you at Home Depot I can say, 'Hey, Bill, what's up?!" Seriously. Purely friendly stuff here.
In September, after having the same four drivers rotating on the 90A morning route since forever, a new driver popped up. A rather sour fellow who many of us passengers felt needed a vacation. I tried to like him. I really did. But his customer service skills were terrible and God forbid you boarded with cash fare. He'd bark at customers to get a Presto card. There was an older gentlemen who visited his wife once a week for all of October while she was in the hospital in downtown Toronto, recovering from major bowel surgery. He was too nervous to drive downtown he had told our driver the first time he boarded and paid his fare. The driver didn't even acknowledge him. Hey, I get it that no one wants to be subjected to someone's life story, especially where there's a schedule to keep, but for chrissake, a smile doesn't hurt.
This driver rarely ever arrived at stops at the scheduled time. He ran, on average, eight to 13 minutes behind schedule. Looking at my PRESTO transactions for December, his track record was dismal. In my opinion, "on-time" is within five minutes of a scheduled stop, plus or minus. Unlike trains, buses have a lot of factors that can affect travel, but I'm being fair when I say weather and traffic are not the problem with the 90A.
The bus I take starts its route in Bowmanville, at Waverley Road and Baseline Road, at 6:18 am. It is 8.89 kilometres from its starting point to my bus stop. On average, the December driver would reach my stop seven to eight minutes late every morning. That's okay, right? I get to the bus stop usually eight minutes before the bus arrives just in case it were to run early. This has happened only once that I can recall but it's a fear every single bus passenger has. There's nothing worse when using a regional service or being in a rural area than missing a bus. It's usually an hour until the next one, or anywhere from 25 to 40 minutes if it's rush hour. This meant on average, in the cold, I was waiting 16 minutes for a bus, sometimes up to 25 minutes.
In January, we got a new driver. Many of us practically wept with joy because we all hoped this meant we would return to the level of service was had come to expect.
Nope.
I am working on a formal letter to GO Transit. These drivers have been questioned by passengers (and me) and the answers have ranged from "as long as I get to the station by 7:13 ... ", "the times are only suggested" and "we're allowed to run a 10 minute window".
I hesitated about putting this online because I'm not out to get anyone into trouble. I just want to know why this particular travel window is a problem. Is it construction? Is it Tim Horton's? (Bowmanville folk will get this one) Is it traffic? Is it the bus? Is it difficult to drive the speed limit? Is it too dark? Is it too early?
If this route has become challenging then the schedule needs to be adjusted. That's all I'm after. It's not fair to any of us who arrive at our stop ON TIME to stand there for 10 to 15 minutes in these ridiculous temperatures for a bus.
Fix the schedules. Fix the route. Re-train the drivers. Let's just get this fixed.
This morning I had my husband drive me to the station because I really wasn't up for a 16+ minute wait. As we drove along the route, I saw fellow passengers waiting and one texted me to tell me the bus arrived at her stop 11 minutes late. Had we drove the entire route, without turning on Park Road in Oshawa, we would have seen my bus companion and picked her up. I really wanted to carpool the others but my husband wasn't up for it. He wasn't even up for driving me because he thought it was ridiculous he even had to, asking, "What the hell are you paying for then?"
Exactly, what am I paying for?
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