Re: IJ Article on "Major Gaps" in SMART Service
Author: Snips
Date: 05-19-2017 - 09:48
Spoken like a true bus driver. Sour grapes much? I guess the train crews never have "conditions outside of their conrol." Like a schedule with 9 minutes for a mandatory fra brake test. Lest we also forget, this is a single track rr and that time might also be spent waiting for an opposing train...Also, there are no "bus drivers working for the same transit agency." SMART doesn't have any buses.
Erik H. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Art Carney Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > What idiot puts out a commuter train schedule
> that
> > contains a 90 minute service gap in the morning
> > and evening peak hours?
>
> Same idiot that designs a commuter rail system
> where the trains only operate 54 out of every 90
> minutes, and gives the Engineer and Conductor a 9
> minute break at one end of the run, and 27 minutes
> of break at the other end of the line.
>
> And then wonders why the train is so expensive to
> run (300% more expensive than a similar bus
> route), when it spends so much time sitting around
> while the two-man crew effectively gets a lunch
> break after one short round-trip of 54 minutes
> running time and 9 minutes to do a FRA mandated
> brake test of one car (sometimes two) and to walk
> from one cab to the other cab; while bus drivers
> working for the same transit agency are pushed to
> three, four hours straight with NO break before
> they can dart out of the bus just to take a piss
> (and then get yelled at by the dispatcher and
> management because they are 20 minutes off
> schedule because of conditions outside of their
> control.)