buffawhat.com

More Metro Blues

My life operates on consistency. Im a slave to my routine, and when that routine is threatened I get upset. Sometimes its a little odd, like when I got out of wack when Angel came home late and I needed him at the house on time. But what I absolutely can not stand is when the buses are off schedule.

All week, the NFTA Metro has been completely unreliable and today I lost almost two hours of my already spent day waiting next to a stop sign for a #6 to come. Its terrible; my normal bus is at 6:12, and since I knew the current state of the route, I walked out at 6:02. I have the benefit of my work being right on the block of a bus stop, but that did no good today. As soon as I started down lincoln, I noticed the #6 had already passed my stop and was going down the road. Pissed, but whatever, I wait for the next bus, at 6:52.
7pm I call NFTA support and get into an argument about the reliability of the #6 line as he tells me the bus that was supposed to be here is broke down. Agitated and helpless, I wait for whatever next bus is supposed to relieve it. 7:35 I’m picked up.

I wish that this was an isolated incident and Im just having a bad day, but in reality the NFTA busses break down a lot on heavy routes like the 6 and the scheduling all but falls to pieces when the seasonal schedules take effect. A mass transportation company like the Niagara Frontier Transportation Association in the midst of the gas fiasco has an obligation to provide an adequate service, and they fail on a regular basis.

The trouble thing is that for a lot of Buffalonians, like me, there is no alternative.