Saturday, October 16, 2010

Sabotage of Public Transit?

I once lived in a suburb outside of Montreal and worked downtown. My shift ended at 11:30 PM The metro arrived at the same time as the main bus to the suburbs left, and by the time you got up the stairs the bus was pulling away. This meant a 30-40 minute wait, and in winter this meant 30 below. All the bus system had to do was have the bus leave a mere 2 minutes later and we could make the connection.


The bus from the ferry to down town Nanaimo arrives at the same time as the boat from the Mainland. Of course, it takes about 10 minutes to disembark, so no bus and a 40 minute wait till the next one. Adjusting the bus schedule 10 minutes would mean ferry passengers could take public transit to their homes.


The bus connecting Vancouver Airport to the Tsawaasen ferry to Vancouver Island arrives three minutes after the cut-off time for purchasing ferry tickets. Since the ride from the airport already takes an hour and the next ferry leaves in an hours time, you will take 2 hours to be able to take the ferry. Simply moving the bus arrival time back five minutes and you could make the ferry!


A passenger train runs up Vancouver Island connecting the city of Victoria to other smaller cities and villages. The natural traffic flow is from the smaller cities to the large population centre of Victoria. There are also the suburbs outside of Victoria which could be well served by a morning rail connection. Guess which direction the train runs and at what time? It leaves Victoria at 11AM, arrives at its northernmost city, Courtenay, at 2 PM, then leaves back to Victoria at 3 PM, arriving at 6PM. Totally useless for anyone living in the smaller cities or suburbs.


Why? I suspect the Montreal example is one of bureaucratic indifference. For the other bus systems, it looks as though they are trying to benefit the taxi companies. As for the rail road, it seems deliberate sabotage to help the petroleum/auto complex, since thousands of auto rides would not be taken with a rational schedule.


A rational, people-oriented transit system is not possible as long as it is run by bureaucrats tied to the corporate system.


5 Comments:

Blogger Frank Partisan said...

In Minneapolis we received under Jesse Ventura, light rail between Downtown Minneapolis and the Mall of America. Just having transit stops, has helped local neighborhoods.

Mass transit is vital to a socialist plan.

4:11 PM  
Blogger Mr. Beer N. Hockey said...

Hear, hear Larry. As we all know, that is how bureaucracies work: they don't, not for the people anyway. We, the people make do but only because making do is what we are best at.

The Chilean miner story is just another example. A great big rah! rah! greeted their sucessful rescue, but why was it they got stuck underground in the first place? A bunch of mining safety bureaucrats sitting on their hands as usual.

Rah! Rah! my ass.

7:35 PM  
Blogger Frank Partisan said...

I agree with Beer and Hockey on both points.

Streetcars were great as well.

7:37 PM  
Blogger mollymew said...

Article reposted at the Reddit aggregator under both anarchism and canada. The Canada listing generated a bit of discussion. It Seems that a lot of people have a hate on for the Montreal transit system.

9:27 PM  
Blogger Frank Partisan said...

I used Montreal Transit when there.

10:40 AM  

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