Tag: Bus

When MARTA screws the pooch

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That old euphemism tickles me. Screw the pooh. Anyhow this morning the bus that usually gets me to North Avenue Station, well it never came. So I walked to the station, got on the train and two stops later was at Art Center Station. CCT’s Cobb Linc was running on time though.

Well – this evening I get to the North Ave. station just in time to catch the 51 bus back but when I boarded the subway at Arts Center we were packed like sardines and they all got off a North Avenue Station. It was a mass of people.

So I had to walk to and from North Avenue station today. I was NOT a happy camper. I’m told there was an electrical fire on the subway but apparently it happened mid-day and they recovered. Weird, my experience up to now with MARTA has been good. But the gods of transit they had other plans.

RIPTA a Rant One of Many

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So this evening I got to the stop for the 27/28 bus lines at 5:30PM on the dot. No 27 bus to be found. So I figured I’d wait as the 5:40PM I’d catch the 28 bus – both run down Broadway until Olneyville where they split off, the 27 towards Manton Avenue, the 28 toward Hartford Avenue.

The 28 bus as I said was supposed to be that at 5:40PM and in fact often gets in at around 5:35PM. But tonight, just because traffic was light it got in at 5:43PM. Yeah, you read that right, light traffic and the bus was late anyway. How the fuck does that happen?

Now I know RIPTA is planning to enable GPS tracking on buses but get this – they won’t put it up on the web, oh no. You’ll have to go to a kiosk in downtown Providence to see that. I’m tempted to hack it.

This is why I prefer the MBTA Subway lines. They’re pretty much on time most of the time. Oh and they do make every stop but my commute from South Station to Central Square Cambridge is at a max 13 minutes, but more frequently 10 or 11 minutes. Zip, zoom go. Well, maybe not – it’s a 4.3 mile car ride, about 3 miles train wise. Which would mean the average speed of the Red Line is 16.36MPH, or 26KPH for my metrically oriented friends. But that train seems to go a lot faster. I’ve got to turn on Google Maps someday and have it calc the true speed between two stations. Because those trains are moving at way faster than 16.36MPH/26KPH. They crank more like 35MPH to 50MPH or 56.3KPH to 80.5KPH. It’s the time at the station stops that eats it up and reduces it. But still I like it much more than a bus.