Port Authority riders can't get sweet tweets
Share with others:
The P13 bus that was supposed to pick up riders in Gateway Center and drop them in Shaler didn't show last Tuesday at 4:45 p.m. -- for the umpteenth time.
So says regular rider Sean Cannon, who added that the Tuesday before that, the bus "opened its doors to receive the tired, the poor, the huddled masses -- and promptly broke down.''
So naming this bus the Mount Royal Flyer is a bit like calling a bald guy Curly. But Mr. Cannon isn't just fuming about twice being part of a double-load packed onto the 5:15 p.m. run. He has an idea: For those times a bus won't show, why doesn't someone in the Ross garage get that information to riders?
Such a service was once impossible, but now we have the technology. The Port Authority has a website, plus more than 4,000 followers on Twitter. If a bus has broken down, if a driver has called in sick, can't someone text, tweet, email or phone that message to the customers?
"There's not an easy answer to that,'' authority spokesman Jim Ritchie said, before embarking on a long explanation that comes down to this:
Timely transit tweets? 'Tain't happenin'.
The reasons are manpower and the nature of the system, Mr. Ritchie said. Yes, customer service agents work the phones every rush hour, taking calls and passing along news of breakdowns and such to any caller who can get through. But getting that word to the authority's Twitter followers?
Nope. Not enough staff.
"We don't have the people for that?'' Mr. Cannon said when I relayed that answer to him. "Hundreds of people are waiting for buses that don't go out. Make one phone call. That should take less than a minute. We're not asking you to split the atom.''
Those who don't ride the buses regularly might not appreciate just how frustrating an absent vehicle can be, but the mystery can drive you mad. Every other way we get around these days -- plane, train or automobile -- our ride is either going to show up or there will be an announcement (even if it's a phone call from whatever brother, mother or so-called friend explaining why they no-can-do).
Bus riders are just left wondering in the elements. (I should confess that my cell phone is incapable of receiving tweets, but you can hardly swing an iPod Downtown without hitting some Jetson waiting at a bus stop, fiddling with the latest gadget -- or maybe trying to get through to the Port Authority about a late bus. Word could spread easily enough.)
First Published November 6, 2011 12:00 am
