STM software change might explain late buses
The Gazette says the STM has a current usable bus shortage because of a new software package on the maintenance side. I use the bus and haven’t noticed any issues except the inevitable sluggishness that comes with the start of snow season: my main issues with buses this year have been detours.
This year, I haven’t even tried to keep track of the times I’ve found the bus stop I needed was cancelled (in one case, to a location at least 5 km from where I was standing, at 11 p.m.), or the times I was taken on a lengthy and unexpected detour (I’m looking at you, 55 south of de Castelnau).
Drivers used to be adaptable and, on a detour, would let passengers off where they requested. Some literal-minded bureaucrat at the STM must have given orders that once a bus leaves its usual route, no stops are to be made at all until it rejoins the route. At least twice over the summer I felt like a captive in a bus that was dragging me to a location I didn’t want to go to, with the driver stubbornly refusing to stop even when there were perfectly safe bus stops along the detour. This doesn’t help anybody, and if it’s a policy – and from the mutterings of the drivers I gathered it is a policy – it’s not a useful one.
And that has nothing to do with software. It has to do with human beings being boneheads.
In extension to this, I would add: if the STM wanted to mitigate some of this problem, they could keep their website (and info available to apps) truly updated with the latest detours, whether for festivals or construction or anything else. It’s the 21st century, this should be feasible – but it isn’t, and you can’t find out in a timely way if your bus is going to pick you up and drop you off at the locations you expect. That’s got to be fixed.
Michael Black 12:40 on 2019-11-16 Permalink
My sister got stuck waiting for a bus on both Wednesday and Thursday evenings, close to an hour both days. Up at Marche Centrale. Some of it was too crowded buses, but this maintenance issue seems to apply.
Blork 13:00 on 2019-11-16 Permalink
Yeah, the re-routes. That’s part of the reason I was so pissed after that multi-line shutdown the other day. When I decided to abandon the Metro and try to catch a bus to the foot of the Jacques Cartier Bridge I was in Indigo Books. The Transit app told me there was an east-bound 15 less than a minute away, so I hustled through the store and came out on Ste-Catherine. Of course there’s no goddamn bus stop there, and I could see the bus coming just over a block away.
So I started walking really fast to the next stop farther east. Bear in mind I have bad legs and bad knees so this was a painful operation. I quick-shuffled all way to Robert-B only to find the stop marked as not being in service and re-directing me to Robert-B and René-L, which is another 250 metres away. Of course I didn’t make it, and had that very frustrating experience of watching the bus that you’ve been half-running for 500 metres on painful neuropathic legs just drive on by because you were 30 seconds too late. The rest of the story is one of chaos and madness (the Transit app was no help at all, partly my fault for not learning its intricacies very well) and the rest is history.
Daniel 13:51 on 2019-11-16 Permalink
Yeah, I have a few times noticed the look of panic on visitors’ faces when the bus announces “détour en cours” and we start going off to god knows where. (And let’s leave aside for the moment the ones who don’t understand French, although in this case of course it wouldn’t help too much.)
It’s a mess. There’s very often no way to know where the hell the bus will stop next. Couldn’t they at the very LEAST tape up signs on the bus tracing the new route? (If not on the bus stops as well). Apparently the answer is no. It’s very disappointing and very user-hostile. The less mobile you are, the more hostile it is. Although in this weather it’s hostile enough to most people…
John B 17:55 on 2019-11-16 Permalink
I’ve been on several busses recently, (including one today), where the fare box was out of operation. It’s happened enough that I was wondering if it is some wort of labour action by the maintenance workers.
Filp 18:12 on 2019-11-16 Permalink
I’ve noticed this too! On the 24 and 55 for a few days now.
Ant6n 18:23 on 2019-11-16 Permalink
It would also be nice if they announced at the last so stop that’s still on route and that after this one they’ll go off somewhere completely unexpected. On the 55 going to Chinatown recently, that would’ve meant a 2 min extra travel time, rather than the extra 10 minutes it ended up being.
Kate 10:27 on 2019-11-17 Permalink
Ant6n: yes! Instead of going directly down to C-town the 55 has been going west for some distance and then getting stuck in traffic for five to ten minutes at least down Bleury. They really should announce, although I’ve noticed a tendency for drivers to say nothing and simply allow that mechanical voice to do the talking.
Meezly 15:53 on 2019-11-18 Permalink
Early this week, two mornings in a row no show for the 35 Griffintown West at Place des Arts at 8:47am during critical morning rush hour time. So this article helps explain why.