How to hold an EFFECTIVE protest

About 50 transit workers and union leaders barged into an MTA office building in downtown Brooklyn Monday morning for a brief but boisterous protest rally over wages and benefits.

The sudden surge of protesters, and their refusal to leave the lobby of 180 Livingston St., was the first in a series of demonstrations Transport Workers Union Local 100 plans to carry out over the next several months, union leaders vowed.
"This fight starts now," Local 100 President John Samuelsen bellowed to bus and subway workers who chanted "Fight Back!" and waved union placards in the vestibule.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/09/13/2011-09-13_transport_workers_union_local_100_battle_with_mta_with_protests.html#ixzz1XwafQGDw

Downtown Portland heading from bad to worse

We might have a shiny new train coming in from Milwaukie, all right -- but given the coming increase in the number of homeless and mentally ill people on downtown Portland streets, nobody's going to want to come, from Milwaukie or elsewhere. "Wahhh! The state and the feds cut our funding!" Well, o.k., geniuses -- knock it off with the dopey streetcars and MAX lines. "Oh, no -- never -- linchpin smart growth sustainable peak oil density walkable 20-minute healthy yada yada." Fine -- suit yourselves.

It's really not complicated.

Posted at 10:51 AM | Permalink Jack Bogdanski

More jobs open at TriMet!

http://rantingsofatrimetbusdriver.blogspot.com/2011/09/capital-projects-is-us.html

Jack Bog's Penny Project

The worst of the bad pennies

How much of this really happens on a daily basis at TriMet?

Transit officials were surprised earlier in the year when they discovered that transfer information was being shared by bus riders through social media.
The old transfers — paper tickets that allow passengers to change buses without paying an additional fare — were stamped with a randomly assigned letter of the day. Some transit users had cheated the system by collecting several tickets of each letter. They then used those accumulated transfers for free bus rides by using the appropriate transfer for the posted letter of the day.
"I actually had a guy who had a glass case who had everything [all the transfers] alphabetical. So he would just go on to Twitter in the morning and find out what the letter of the day was and he'd use the transfer all day," Achadinha said. "The bus drivers were the ones who flagged it to me."

Read more:http://www.timescolonist.com/Crackdown+transfer+cheats+pays+Transit+Greater+Victoria/5397957/story.html#ixzz1XwcVhJIV

Oh Portlandia....

How many god damned 'committees' do we need?

Now Mr. Mac wants a darned 'safety climate' committee. What even is that?
I'm getting sick of him making all these new 'committees'. They don't actually do anything!
Oh Mercy, Mercy Me...

Take my road -- please

http://bojack.org/2011/09/take_my_road_please.html

TRIMET LOSES THE UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICE

Great post here. http://rantingsofatrimetbusdriver.blogspot.com/2011/09/trimet-loses-unfair-labor-practice.html?spref=tw
Very good for TriMet's operators.

Trouble on the Transit Mall--part 2

Apparently it was a bad day for cars on the transit mall

http://rantingsofatrimetbusdriver.blogspot.com/2011/09/transit-mall-troubles.html

According to the Propaganda Ministry here at TriMet...

Bus sucks, and rail is great.
...Even if they're the same:

Countering Jack Bogdanski

The Nutty Perfesser Redux | MaxRedLine

What could go wrong?

The Ultimate Folly | Jack Bogdanski

You'd better pay your fare...Or Else....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGE9mhD4sTo&feature=player_embedded

The $1.5 Billion Milwaukie Light Rail Alternative

http://cascadepolicy.org/insider/2011/09/14/the-1-5b-mlr-alternative/

MAX FAQs in the news

http://maxfaqs.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/max-faqs-in-the-news/#comment-1556
Camelopardalis sounds quite happy.
It's good for this stuff to be publicized. Thousands of people ride TriMet every day and to know more about the workings of how the transit system works is a great thing. 

Missed bus run?

So, a while back, I don't remember when...maybe a few weeks? I was trying to catch one of the morning line 51s, 5104 to be specific, and it never showed up. I told TriMet about this because I was so stumped and here is what I got in reply just this morning:


Thank you for contacting TriMet.
Your comments have been documented and coded for service improvement.
I checked the dispatch log and found out that the run was missed due to no operator (block 5104, ACID 655074).  Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience you experienced as a result of this issue.
We value your feedback and continued support of public transportation.
Best regards,
Tauna M.
TriMet Customer Service  

Interesting that the route was missed because of no operator there to drive it. That's what caught my eye when I first read this. 

Why was there no operator there to drive it? What was the reason? I would like to know. 

When the operator didn't show, why wasn't TriMet able to get a replacement for the operator so us 51 riders weren't left with a missing bus, late to wherever we  needed to go, and wondering where in the world our bus is? I know for a fact that there was no sort of twitter alert for the missing bus or  anything that TriMet did to notify the riders who would've normally ridden that bus that it wasn't there. Of course, there are never any alerts by TriMet about buses being missing or why they sometimes end up extremely late, only MAX.

You reading this, TriMet? Why weren't the riders given at least something as simple as a twitter update or a little notification on your website for service delays? Don't we deserve it?

Milwaukie council split over $5-million payment to TriMet

http://www.clackamasreview.com/news/story.php?story_id=131602491076950300

Here's an idea: forget light rail and keep your stellar (in TriMet terms) bus service!

There's also a big shocker in the article....so read it! I'm gonna make you guys find it this time.

Voting against light rail

I especially want to vote on the issue of light rail being included in the new bridge crossing. For the cost of light rail we could purchase dozens of C-Tran or TriMet buses and they could run more often than the trains and take people closer to their job sites than light rail could.

http://www.columbian.com/news/2011/sep/14/letter-congresswoman-has-right-idea/

TriMet broke state labor laws in contract dispute with union, Oregon board rules

In January, TriMet and theAmalgamated Transit Union 757 are expected to ask a state arbitrator to rule on their long-stalled contract dispute.

But TriMet won't be allowed to present its latest proposal to require union members to pay more of their health-care costs and reduce retirement benefits.

On Wednesday, the state labor board ruled that Oregon’s largest transit agency unlawfully changed its final contract offer away from the bargaining table.
Oregon Live
Where will things go now, I wonder?

Cyclists push for safer route through Pearl Dist.

http://www.kgw.com/news/Cyclists-push-for-safer-route-through-Pearl-Dist-129845278.html

@doctor_jeff

@trimet needs to sponsor a design contest to figure out where to put the half-dozen bikes that now clog the aisles of every MAX I ever ride.


@trimet I think the "bike storage areas" are no longer adequate for demand. Not the cyclist's fault - needs an innovative solution!

@Dan_Christensen

Dear Riders as soon as #Trimet buys a hover bus, I will never be late, until then..

@carolynmain

I'd do more political jokes, but God is pretty good at them already: pensitoreview.com/2011/09/07/dee…

@sw 4th and ankeny

Absolute chaos at sw 5th and pine bus stop.

Now I saw one lazy white shirt doing nothing up at sw 6th and alder(?) Why can't he be down at the crazy bus stop and actually doing something?

Hellooooo....sun, where are you?

Trouble on the transit mall!

Darn transit mall is just too confusing...

Pink thing!